The many adventures of my backpack

Spoiler alert: huge announcement at the end of this blog post!

My backpack and I traveled the world together. My backpack is not one of these new models that are super snazzy and come with millions of gadgets, my backpack is just a backpack. In some areas the seams have come undone, the colors are not as vibrant as I imagined them to be at one point or another and the design is flawed, but it’s my backpack and I actually love it. A found it on top of a dumpster one day a few years back in the middle of Oslo and he brought it home, thinking that it was still perfectly usable. And it was, although at that time a very sorry excuse of a backpack. I used days trying to clean it and fix up everything, that was broken. It smelled like it had been in an attic for decades and it looked it, but you know, it’s the scars that make the most fantastic stories, right? So every chance I get, I cramp all my stuff into my backpack and hit the road.

In the last 4 years we have been together everywhere and although more than once it has been a balance act, carrying the backpack on my shoulders while trying to figure out how to get on and off buses, trains and cars most efficiently, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Traveling with a backpack isn’t as easy as traveling with a suitcase. Most suitcases you can expand in some way or another. You have loads of spaces to stuff your items in and you usually don’t have to lift it onto your back. But traveling with a backpack allows you to really take stock of the things you need on your journey. You’ll think twice about bringing enough shampoo for a couple days and then buy some locally or bringing a whole bottle of shampoo if you have to carry it through 40 degrees of weather on your back.

But see, my backpack serves me as a reminder that the things that are most wonderful aren’t always the prettiest or newest. It also reminds me that every journey is a hard and difficult, not always practical and definitely painful (I can tell you endless stories about the blue marks on my shoulders after traveling with my backpack for a couple of days). My backpack is old and exhausted, not easy on the eyes and everything but manageable to navigate. But I love it dearly and will use it until the day where it falls apart.

My backpack has seen the world, literally. It’s been through torrential rain, freezing snow, heatwaves and what have you and it will, come this winter, one more time see the world – again, literally. Now, that I am finally done with my defense and am officially a master (haven’t slept this well in years!), I am happy to announce that A and I have made a huge decision – not life-changing huge, so hold your horses, we are not moving and there is no baby on the way – but nonetheless we made a great decision.

At the end of this year A and I will fulfill a life long dream: we will take a break from this crazy everyday life and will go on a world-trip. From sandy beaches to high mountains, we are prepared for anything. It’s still a long ways, after all it’s the end of June now, but we have been planning this trip for the past six months already and somehow we made it to June only telling our closest family members what we’re up to… So I’d like to think December will be here in no time. While A and I will work on the tiny details, that make a trip so awesome, my backpack is getting ready for the trip of a lifetime. A trip filled with fun activities, from snorkeling to hiking to maybe paragliding (make a mental note to convince A to do this with me…), from boats, planes and cars to flipflops, hiking boots and heels, A and I both couldn’t be more excited for what is yet to come later this year. So stay tuned for the many adventures of my backpack and I (and A).