TU-MI or not TU-MI...That Is the Carry-On Question

I left today for a three and a half week trip to Italy, all on my own, that covers five different Italian cities and a whole lot of train rides. Needless to say, I am crazy excited right now. I fly into Rome and will use the rail to take me around, which then made me wonder amidst my planning, what I was going to do for luggage. Since I'm going solo, I will be the one lugging the case on and off the trains, which then made using my big hard case not a viable option (I think I could easily fit an actual person in there if I tried, that's how big it is).



When I was researching travelling through Italy, I have to say that Rick Steves, travel guru extraordinaire, was a life-saver. That guy is just awesome--he's so nice and friendly looking AND he knows his stuff thanks to all the travelling he has done (he also replies to Tweets). All his little tips and tricks to help you have the best vacation ever are so useful and practical and his website contains all his shows and talks. I downloaded his books on Rome, Florence and Tuscany, and Venice through iBooks, which then goes on to both my iPad and my iPhone. The iPad is for the planning, and the iPhone is out in the field with me. The cool thing is you can look at his books that have walking tours, maps and pretty much any other information you need to know, all off-line on your iPhone--it's absolutely fabulous!

One of the things I learned from him as a solo traveller is to watch your stuff when you are travelling through Italy, especially on the trains. If you can keep your bag small and light, you will just simply travel better overall, but you will also be able to put your bag in the overhead bins above your seat on the train. You then can keep an eye on it and it doesn't have to go into the communal luggage rack at the end of each car.

Perfect--I like that. Here's the thing: How light can one woman pack for a 25 day vacation? Can it all be stuffed into a carry-on size piece of luggage--that just seemed insane to me. First things first, I wanted to know what the acceptable size limit for carry-on was for British Airways (all the airlines are slightly different--BA is 22" x 18" x 10"). Then I started to research on the net because whatever I bought, I would also need it to eventually expand--there was no question about that. What I discovered in the end is that I really actually prefer to check my luggage so I don't have to babysit it before I get on the plane, so worrying about BA's size limit was a waste of time for me. I did still want a carry-on though for the sake of the train's overhead bin.




With internet research done, I had decided to go to the new outlet mall at YVR (Vancouver International Airport) to pick up my Samsonite Fiero Hardcase 20" Carry-On Spinner in a lovely rose colour (which incidentally meets BA's size requirements). I mentioned this to one of my friends who has a strong dislike for the outlet mall (I won't say why), and she suggested the Tumi store in Pacific Centre. It made sense because even though I pass by the airport every day, the outlet mall is new, and is infamous for its traffic issues, whereas I have always found it easy to make my way into Pacific Centre's parkade.




And so one day after work, I decided to do just that. I had never heard of Tumi before so I had to hunt down where the store was in the mall. When I found it, it was gleaming and bright--a shiny new store that just screamed beautiful luggage. It was so shiny that I almost walked right through the mirrors they had at the back--or I just wasn't watching where I was going--one of the two. Since I came from work, I was dressed in business attire, and as I walked into the store, I got a once over from the female sales associate. Excuse me? How odd. That's happened before to me in Louis Vuitton where I've just dropped in wearing Lululemon, but even they were more welcoming, and they sell clothing! This is a LUGGAGE store lady, so step off. She then did the "Can I help you?" in the driest voice possible while still eyeing up my wardrobe--she may or may not have rolled her eyes too. I explained what I was looking for and she pointed me directly to possibly the most beautiful piece of luggage I have ever seen, if luggage can be beautiful, that is. It was perfect--great size, nice streamlined look, expandable--awesome, I may have found my luggage! Until I asked the price.




Now keep in mind that this piece of luggage is CARRY-ON size. Yes, it's made out of some ridiculously durable material that has been trampled on by a heard of elephants or something and still survived, blah, blah, blah... Ok folks, it was $800. Yes, you read it right, $800. God only knows how much the full size ones were! She sees the look of horror on my face and with a very serious tone and without skipping a beat says, "It's an investment". I almost burst out laughing, but controlled the urge. I did let her know I was a Financial Planner and that I'm more into appreciating assets AND I could take a whole other trip somewhere for that price. I promptly called my supposed helpful friend as I turned and walked out of the shiny luggage store (almost falling because it was just that shiny) to thank her for the great suggestion.




I did eventually make it to the Samsonite shop at the outlet mall, picked up my lovely pink bag amid all the frantic luggage shoppers, for less than a quarter of the price of the shiny bag. When heading back to the car, low and behold, I see a guy with a Tumi bag and my curiosity gets the better of me. How much is the Tumi bag at the outlet? After all, they are just so beautiful, then I thought, why not, let's have a look see.




I walk into the Tumi outlet shop, with my pink bag in tow and immediately get a look of disgust shot at me for bringing in a substandard piece of luggage into their store. I take a look at the price for the same bag (an earlier model of course) and we're now down to only $565--I don't think so. The sales lady comes over before I can walk away and says, "You know, it's an investment". Right, ok, well we're done here--have heard that one before (they really need to change their sales pitch).




And off I go into the sunset (literally) with my very suitable and very durable carry-on that is gorgeous and pink and semi-shiny. It fits ALL of my fabulous wardrobe for my amazing Italian adventure that I am now about to embark on.




Ciao ciao!

REVISITED: London - Day 1: Lost in History

This is a blog post I wrote from my first day in London whilst on my first trip to England in 2011. I revisit it now because I am about to embark on another epic trip, this time to Italy and then finishing off in England. Ensuring there is a stay in London is a must when I fly off the continent--words can't describe how at home I feel there. The history, the energy, the people--I love it all.



I can’t even begin to explain how much planning I put into this trip, in fact, I really feel that I could land a career in the travel industry after this one. Who am I kidding--the planning was half the fun, for every Saturday morning during the months prior, I spent researching where I wanted to go and why. Learning the intricacies of everything in my scope of interest was awesome, and when that plane landed at Heathrow, all my preparation was ready to be put into motion.


I’m so grateful for having the ability to fall asleep anytime, anywhere--so having a long sleep on the plane for the bulk of the trip allowed me to end up on London’s time zone fairly quickly. I think if you don’t make a concerted effort to do that, then you’ll end up messing up your first few days, and there was no room in my schedule for that!


Before I left Canada, I purchased my Brit Rail pass--it came with two tickets for the Heathrow Express. Brilliant--15 mins from the airport into Paddington Station--that’s a fast train. True to its name, Paddington Station had a Paddington Bear kiosk, and when I arrived there I thought of my friend Tara who lived right near the station when she lived in London (how lucky was she!). It was so easy to find everything, including the taxi that took me from train station to my hotel. The taxi ride was a little frightening to say the least--not only are they driving on the wrong side of the road, but everyone there drives like a maniac (I know that might be the pot calling the kettle black)--I’m pretty sure I had my hands over my eyes for a good part of the ride (mmm...similar to my passengers).


The hotel was on Northumberland, which is one of streets that off-shoots from Trafalgar Square--a more than perfect location! My hotel was awesome--thanks to the internet now, nothing should be a surprise when you arrive. I literally walked into my hotel room, did a quick check of place (it was fabulous, with good, usable bath stuff too) changed, threw my camera around my neck, and with my handbag over my shoulder, away I went for a trip down Charing Cross Road, heading for the British Museum. Sounds easy enough, right?

Lord Nelson's Column

As I walked towards Trafalgar Square with map in hand, I quickly realized that everything was WAY bigger in reality from what I imagined, and it didn’t matter which way I turned, there was something to take a photo of--it was wonderful but confusing at the same time. Lord Nelson’s column, the Lions, The National Gallery, the fountains, and the ship in a bottle...all amazing! I could not believe the amount of people around--New York has nothing on London. Tourists could be spotted at every turn, and from all over the globe as well (the Italians really stood out with all their shouting and arm waving). I also learned through experience that pedestrians DO NOT have the right of way there and more importantly, I learned to not copy what other pedestrians were doing--I was honked back onto the curb many a time.


Once I left Trafalgar Square and made my way down Charing Cross Road, I soon discovered that there are no street signs anywhere--there may be on occasional sign on the side of a building, but that was it. So naturally, within minutes, I was lost. It’s not all London’s fault for not having proper signage--I will take some of the blame since all it took was me catching a glimpse of a bunch of cute little book stores on Museum Street, and I strayed from my beaten path quite willingly.

Cute Little Pub

Even though the British Museum was my destination, I was getting a bit peckish for a bite to eat. There is certainly no shortage of pubs in London--they are so full of character, adorned with gorgeous hanging baskets and merry people spilling out into the streets. But they are also so full of food that seemed a little artery-clogging and anti-happy stomach for me. I needed to be fit for my museum excursion and for the rest of the trip, so I promptly passed on the pub food and reach for my protein bar instead.


And alas, I arrived at the British Museum. The facade of the gigantic building is fashioned after an ancient Greek temple, with Ionic columns and all--so once I took a few photos of the building itself, I headed inside. I will say that my hat is off to London for making the entrance to many of their museums free of charge, and this one was no exception--what a great way to allow everyone to enjoy. I had already made sure I had downloaded Rick Steves’ audio guide for the museum onto my iPhone and away I went. Apparently my agenda did not match Rick Steves’ agenda. I wanted to see Egypt and Greece, two places that really resonate with me by way of history and culture. So, after fighting with the audio guide out loud with a lot of “no, no, I don’t want to see that, I want Egypt” and after receiving quite a few odd looks from other visitors, I decided to abandon Rick’s voice and just wing it.


Words can’t describe the things I saw--knowing how far back the artifacts, statues, carvings, etc. dated back to, and the history surrounding them--I was in total awe. Now, there is a specific rule of “don’t touch”, and rightly so--who wants someone’s greasy fingerprints to ruin something that is thousands of years old? Well, it took everything I had to not touch, even with clean hands, but I made sure I didn’t because I respected what I was looking at too much. When you believe in the laws of energy like I do, you want to take full advantage of that concept when you’re with historically significant items, so instead, I got as close as I could without setting off an alarm or alerting security (those who know me would be surprised that didn’t happen). I did however, manage to give a lecture to a family from France who were about to stick their little French fingers all over a statue of Sekhmet--not on my watch, mon amis.

Column from the Erechtheion 

I had mixed emotions as I walked through the museum--much of what was in there didn’t belong there--the Parthenon friezes, the statue of Rameses II, one of the columns from the Erechtheion--they belonged with the buildings or the area they came from. But I had to get past that--everything that was in there was well taken care of and there for people to learn and enjoy, and that made me happy. The best thing of all was being so close to so much of the history that I love. I also felt that I should have been made an honorary curator of the museum since I was able to gather a small crowd as I described how the Parthenon was built (I originally wanted to become an architect). Somehow, it came to light with the group that my profession was that of a Financial Advisor and naturally another 5 minutes was spent discussing the global economy--the irony being we were standing in the Greece section.



After I took a few photos for other tourists outside the museum, I slowly made my way back towards Trafalgar Square, passing by Piccadilly Circus. “Circus” is a British name for round-about but I can certainly see why it’s called a circus--very cool spot though--lots of people just hanging out and having fun. I was chatted up by a few different locals and it was great--I’m such a sucker for that British accent! I did made the mistake of stopping briefly in the M&M Shop, and was immediately attacked by a giant yellow M&M. It took three people to pull him off me--I have no idea what the hell happened there--I know I am starved for male affection at times, but geez, that’s a bit much.

Crazy lunatic M&M before the attack

I soon found myself back at Trafalgar Square only to find that there were about 6 roads that come off of that supposed square (it looks more like a giant circle to me), and I knew my hotel was down one of them (remember, no street signs). After a few tries, I eventually found the one that I needed, and up to my room I went. I was going on a protein bar all day, so now I was ravenous but too exhausted to go out. So, what did I find, but a great place called Deliverance. Instead of a creepy redneck Burt Reynold’s movie, this was a food delivery service that delivers right to the hotel. I noticed that the British like to use peas in a lot of their food, so I ordered a few different items, most of which had peas in them, and scooted downstairs to the lobby once the giant bags of food arrived. Needless to say, I had dinner for the next night as well. I always request a little fridge in my room when I travel so I can do stuff like that. True to the rumor that the food there is expensive (but plentiful), I paid the delivery guy and had a little pea-orientated feast up in my room while watching Chicken Run on the telly. I recorded my voice notes shortly after (best way to track a vacation as usually there is no time or energy to write), and away into dreamland I went, only to wake up the next day to another incredible day.

Good-Bye Steveston High

I drove by today to see my old high school pulled apart,

How do I say goodbye?  Where do I start?

Steveston High in Richmond, that was the name,

We were the Packers, and we were anything but lame.

A large group we were, as diverse as they come,

Musical instruments for others, jock-straps for some.

Am I really that sad that the old girl is being torn down?

Hell no, it's decades overdue!  There's no reason to frown!

You see though, this place is where I was lucky to have learned so much,

From art history, to Spanish, to writing essays and such.

And to be the only girl in my drafting class, well that was something to see,

But who kicked all the boys' asses?  Mmm...yeah, that was me.

An architect I certainly did not become, and that's ok,

But my appreciation for architecture and engineering is still here today.

My love of Mexican food also began at this school,

Well, perhaps it was at Chi Chi's during third period--hey, we thought we were cool.

So once high school is over, what have you got?

A group of people who know exactly who they are and what they will be--I think not!

The neat thing is this:  over time, the school can go, but here's what will stay,

The good times will shine through, and the bad will fade away.

And as she gets bulldozed into the ground, I will say this to my school:

Thanks for all the memories and friends, Steveston High--Packers still rule.