I am a well-traveled guy so packing for a trip never scared me… but I must admit it’s a bit different when you know you will be away for a long time. It never took me so long to pack before. The entire process took almost 2 weeks! I basically transformed my guest room into a travel item storage. Every time I thought about something that I wanted to take with me, I put it into the room. Of course, I know it is not such a big deal to forget something as long as I don’t forget my passport or my credit cards. One can buy everything everywhere… But it is nice not having to deal with errands on the second day of a travel because you forgot something essential! Since I am very organized (maybe too organized), I have an excel packing list which I use for each longer trip, and I know that there is everything on it.

I love the idea of packing light. I really hate carrying a lot of weight on my back and I know the backpack will become heavier with time. Latest when it will be in the moist Asian weather and the clothes will absorb 2 kg of humidity! But also because I might carry some basic food items with me from hostel to hostel. I wanted to use 2 backpacks: one for the clothes and other basic things and one that I will carry with me during day trips with valuables such as my travel laptop or camera. My target during packing was to have a big backpack weighing about 12 kg, which isn’t really much. Of course, I prepared way too many clothes, and I had to put many things back into the closet… starting with underwear and socks… and ending up with some t-shirts and short trousers. The tough part of packing is that I don’t know yet how warm or cold it will be depending on where I go… I finally decided to focus on warm weather. If it gets really cold somewhere, I will wear layers or buy something! I couldn’t forget the great items my sister sewed and gave me for Christmas: a bag and a sleeping mask, out of a bear fabric and with a free like a bear stitch!

Two kind of items gave me a hard time though… the first being the travel pharmacy. I tend to be hypochondriac and carrying a lot of drugs with me gives me a bit of a better feeling. I found online a lot of lists about the basic drugs one should pack… and I started collecting all the stuff. I also went to my doctor to discuss that and he prescribed me a few things like antibiotics or travel nausea pills. But after collecting everything, I ended up with a drugs bag filling 1/4 of my backpack!!! So I tried to be brave and removed many things. To reassure myself, I don’t plan to spend a lot of time in the middle of nowhere and there are pharmacies all over the world where I could get what I need!

I also hesitated a while about which camera to take. I love taking pictures and in the past year, I took more and more of my travel pictures with my better newer smartphone. The pictures look good but I get frustrated every time I want to zoom in something. The quality just gets really bad as soon as you do so! That’s why I used to take a reflex camera with me on my travels. The problem with a reflex camera is that it is quite voluminous and heavy… and that it needs time to take good pictures, time which I mostly don’t invest! I end up with reflex pictures which are often worse than the smartphone ones. Smartphones have nowadays great HDR algorithms to take good pictures in difficult luminosity settings – dark foreground, light background – whereas reflex cameras are trickier for that. So yeah… I hesitated… and hesitated… and hesitated… Should I take only the smartphone? Should I take the reflex camera? Finally, my answer to this dilemma was… buying a new camera: a compact camera with big optical zoom. I already had this kind of camera in the past and liked it. The pictures are of course not of reflex quality but they are quite good, and definitely better than smartphone pictures when you need a zoom. My new camera also has a selfie mode where you can tilt the display 180 degrees towards you… haha! So get ready to see A LOT of selfies!

I also had the idea to have some goodies made with the free like a bear logo. I wanted a little goodbye present for friends and colleagues, but also for future hosts and friends I will make on my way. I wanted something a bit useful, and found these bottle opener/magnet things! So I also packed a few of them in my backpack!

Even though I am not superstitious, I like carrying a few personal items which I have an emotional connection to… let’s call them luck bringers. On this trip, I am wearing my maori jewel that I designed and carved myself out of a cow bone in a maori village in New Zealand. I am so proud of the result!

I also got a very cute present of my friend Margarete who got me a little porcelain crown! And last but not least, I have been carrying a 4-leave clover in my wallet for 15 years. There is a beautiful story behind it. I got it as a present from an American girl at the Philadelphia airport during a flight transfer. My first flight out of Germany to the US was cancelled… I got re-routed, arrived 10 hours late and with a lost luggage. As I told my story to this girl, she gave me the clover. She told me that she got it years ago from a random person who told her to give it to somebody she will meet and needs more luck than her! It never left me since, although I am ready to pass it on!

And now… the question of the questions… did I fulfill my weight challenge of 12 kg max for the big backpack?

The answer is NO! But 12.8 kg are not so bad either!

 

It was Monday 28th January 2019… finally… my last day at work! The time between the day I signed the termination agreement and this day felt quite long. I guess it is normal when you know that something will come to an end and are just waiting for it to happen! Like a divorce! I am happy I had great colleagues who enjoyed having long coffee breaks with me to make time pass by quicker, and my friend and colleague Dr. Knut to entertain me from the other side of my monitor.

My last day at work also marked the start of the countdown until the trip starts… a little bit more than 2 weeks until the big departure on 13th February 2019. 2 weeks to rest but also to get ready and prepare everything.

As usual, my body knows when it will get a break, and I got sick some days before this last day… a nice bronchitis with 39 degrees fever. Quite bad when you organized a farewell party and invited over 60 colleagues! I really shortly thought about letting them have the party without me, which would have been quite unique, but I finally decided against this idea! My friend Mister Paracetamol helped me to survive the day… and I tried not to shake too many hands or give French kisses!

I organized a breakfast with croissants, jams and Nutella… but also got bread with cheese and sausage to make German guys happier! Haha! It was a very nice party and it felt great to have all these people around me, people from all the departments I worked for united for my departure! It’s nice to feel appreciated by colleagues and to have the feeling you will be missed a bit! With a little voice, I gave a little speech, which I think wasn’t too catastrophic given the fact I was not in a good shape! I hadn’t much to say though since I already wrote a quite long goodbye mail to a big distribution list, with a picture of me as a souvenir. It might sound a bit weird, but I loved the idea of making an ironic picture in which I placed some random items to share some hidden messages…

I got some really nice farewell presents, the highlight being money in many different currencies in a big wallet, but also a beautiful carved soap with the company logo (Daniel is such a talented artist-colleague!) and some smaller things like a travel towel or some company goodies.

It was a weird day though, because I had a hard time realizing I would leave this company forever, after going there almost everyday for the past 11 years! It felt a bit like a dream… I guess I finally realized it was over for real after I gave back my company ID and key to my boss and left the office with 2 bags full of breakfast leftovers and old paper stuff I wanted to take with me!