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| title | date | slug | categories | tags | summary | showtoc | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What's in my bag? | 2022-12-15T12:00:00+01:00 | edc |
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What do I carry around with me, and how do I travel? | false |
I, like many of you, own a few quite different backpacks. The biggest one being a 30 liter motorcycle backpack which I use when I intend to be on the road for more than a few days. Which means, that I need more clothes than I can fit in my every-day backpack on top of the other stuff.
The list
Items that I carry around on a daily basis:
- My Laptop
- A 65 W USB-C PD charger
- One 1.8 m USB-C cable
- A 65 W USB-C PD power bank
- A USB-C hub
- Two HDMI cables
- a pair of very cheap ear-buds
- Sunscreen in a 30 ml bottle1
- [Custom-made earplugs]({{< ref "2022-11-22-earplugs" >}})
- An umbrella
- Zeiss wet wipes for my glasses
The reasoning
The laptop, charger and cable are a no-brainer. I work digitally, and my studies need me in front of a screen. The same applies to the umbrella and the wipes.
The power bank is useful as I am often not within reach of an outlet due to them being placed rather awkwardly around campus. It is also nice, to be able to charge a phone or the laptop in a park.
The hub and multiple HDMI cables are for the rare occasion where I either need a USB-A device, or have the opportunity to use multiple external displays. For example in the office or at a few desks in the student computer poolrooms.
The cheap ear-buds were bought out of necessity, when I forgot my good headphones during traveling and needed to join a work meeting. Since then, they live in the bag waiting for that blunder to repeat.
The benefits of owning custom-made earplugs are explained in another article, but everyone should at least have some earplugs in their backpack. They come in handy quite often, even though they might be a "you didn't know you needed one till you owned one"-item in many occasions.
Traveling
When I am traveling I carry a few bits more, including:
- toiletry bag (including another1 bottle of sunscreen)
- a few sets of clothing
- headphones
- e-reader or a book
- travel documents
- thermos filled with either coffee or tea
As most of my stuff is already packed or in a state where it is easy to grab I can be out of the house for a short trip in a matter of 5 to 10 minutes. For a longer trip I'd have to switch bags and think about what I needed, which would increase that time to at least 15 minutes. Even then, I don't need a suitcase. Which is rather important as I don't own any :P
Living in Europe, nearby to a train station this comes rather handy :)
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Yep, always. It has come in handy quite a lot in the last year. My skin tends to redden quite easily... ↩︎