This is part one of a blog I’ll be working on the next couple weeks. Sad but true, until this month, I’ve never been outside North America before. The only reason I have a valid passport is because I went to Mexico with friends several years ago. But I just spent an amazing 2 weeks in Europe, and wanted to share my (limited) experience and (biased) recommendations with you.
I didn’t check a bag. Travelled with only a carry-on and a small backpack. This was partially because I’ve heard one too many stories of carelfully packed suitcases going missing mid-atlantic and women being forced to wear ill-fitting underwear cut for European people’s bottoms. And partially because I knew we’d be doing a lot of short travel between destinations by train and subway and I didn’t want to lug two big suitcases with me everywhere. I read that there was something called the “roll method” that allowed you to fit an obscene amount of stuff into a carry-on sized suitcase. You can find out more about that here. I got 17 outfits and 5 pairs of shoes in there! And the clothes are less wrinkled when they come out of the bag than if you had individually folded them.
Another cool thing I found out about was these travel wash kits from Woolite.
Basically it’s packets of detergent (they’re small enough to easily slip a few in your carry-on’s liquid Ziploc baggie) and a sink stopper. You can do laundry in the sink at your hotel and hang it to dry overnight in the shower. Since I have a tendency to spill food on myself and wanted to wear a couple of shirts/dresses twice on the trip, these were a lifesaver for me.
Amazing you went to Europe. It’s a blast there, only sorry I wasn’t in London to show you round (did you go there?). Sydney next? Many joys. M
I went on a business trip from 27th July to 3rd August and this roll method helped alot. I had to get long sleeved, plain solid coloured (no stripes)shirts for the conference and the roll method worked!!! I rolled 2 T-shirts together to get a good sized diameter, and then tightly rolled 3 already ironed shirts over that. IT DID NOT WRINKLE!!! Well, only a little bit, but not enough to show after I put it on
so I did not have to iron at all… Thank you very much, I never knew about this until you posted it… Never had to do laundry in the sink but good to know about the woolite. Thanks again! Looking forward to your next post 
Whoa, good to see you writing again! I can’t think of anyone who’d appreciate Europe more than you, for the large things and small. I’m very glad you got to go, and at a nice time of year. How can something as simple as cheese sandwich taste so much better in France than any cheese sandwich you’ve had before in your whole life? An enduring mystery to me.
Definitely going to try the roll method for packing. Pro tip: you can dry underwear and socks on a slowly rotating ceiling fan. There is significant entertainment value in this as well. Pro pro tip: If the fan is going too fast, your wet laundry will splat against the wall.
Was this your honeymoon (though it preceded the wedding), or was there another trip after the wedding?