24/09/2025
Egy kedves vendégünk elfelejtett töltőjének története 😃
A lovely story about a forgotten charger😃
I’m nearing the end of a multi-week guidebook research trip around Europe. And for various reasons, my itinerary has involved more than the usual number of one-night stays.
Savvy travelers learn to avoid one-nighters when we can... but sometimes it’s the only efficient option, especially on an ambitious road trip to link up several smaller destinations. And on this trip, out of about 25 overnights, 5 have been one-nighters. Ugh!
The hard part is having to repack your bag each and every morning. I never truly “unpack,” even when I’m staying put for a few days. But after a one-night stay, it's particularly odious to have to gather all of those little random items and figure out how to squeeze them in to your ever-fuller bag.
As a trip goes on, it feels like an escalating game of Tetris to pack up all my gear in a way that won't break any sensitive electronics or delicate souvenirs. My "system," such as it is, is different on every trip (depending on what I accumulate along the way), but it always grows more and more complicated and intricate the deeper I get into my itinerary. (OK, I've bought a couple of books too many. But why, oh why, did I think it was a good idea to get that coffee mug? At least on this trip, I didn't buy a hunk of extremely heavy Lake District slate, engraved with my address numbers, like I did on my previous journey.)
At the same time, I've grown extremely stubborn about not carrying around an extra "day bag" (which, for years, I lazily used as overflow for all of those "extras"). It's just my 9 x 14 x 21 inch carry-on-sized backpack, plus my camera bag... no exceptions, no matter how long the trip. While this might seem excessively rigid, I find it's a necessary discipline to prevent me from needlessly overpacking.
Simple tasks like properly cleaning my camera lenses, or even just shaving — which require additional equipment in and out of my bag — tend to get punted another day or two, just to simplify my life.
One morning a few days ago, packing up after the last of my one-nighters, I'd had enough — exhausted by trying to figure out how to make it all fit. That souvenir coffee mug... my ever-increasing and ever-dwindling bag of snacks... the awkwardly sized plastic jar of chewing gum... the raincoat and umbrella I haven't needed for a week (but might again soon)... and so on, and so on. It always fits, somehow. But it's never easy.
Worse, I was trying to buy my onward train ticket just before check-out time. The website was buggy, so I waited... and waited... and suddenly, I had overstayed my welcome. I grabbed those last few items and rushed down to check out.
It was only on the train out of town, several hours later, that I received a message from the reception desk: "You left your laptop plug in your room!"
Ah, yes... that cursed laptop plug. Always the last item to pack... awkward in size and shape, with its big blocky plug attached to a tiny cord... the one I'd almost forgotten a few other times. It was, frankly, overdue.
With great kindness, the receptionist agreed to mail the plug to me at my hotel in Budapest, at my expense. I was skeptical... resigned to buying a new (outrageously overpriced, Made-By-Apple) plug when I got home.
But sure enough, a few days later, a package addressed to me showed up at my hotel. This casualty of all those one-nighters, it turns out, got a stay of ex*****on. (Thank you, Adele Hotel !)
The only problem? Now I have to figure out how to squeeze that plug into my even-more-overpacked bag for the trip home. For you see, dear reader, there are certain delicious paprika pastes that I love to cook with, that you can (easily) get only in Hungary. And all those tubes and jars only make my game of bag-packing Tetris that much harder.
