more questions for seasoned travellers

[ritaxis]

What kinds of clothes do you take to Europe in late August? Or more to the point, what do you take for an extended trip? I'm doing experiments with my clothes to see if they drip dry because Zac says that laundromats tend to be inconvenient. But clothes don't say "drip dry" on them anymore, they have all this bs, fussy directions for taking care of them I guess so theycan't be caught on a false promise.

It says here it rains 60-70 mm in August for both Amsterdam and Berlin. What does that mean? One or two big downpours, or a little drizzle everyday, or what?

Emma's going to have whopping big bottles of pain relievers and muscle relaxants. What kind of documentation does she need for the snoopers at the airports? Does she need a letter from the surgeon? Or just the prescription things? I'm going to have whopping numbers of non-scheduled prescription drugs, and I don't want to take all the bottles with me -- I just want to take the little boxes with the days marked out. If I have the prescription receipt things I get at the drugstore, will that be enough documentation?

And why is modern luggage so ridiculously heavy? I understand about the wheels, but what about stairs? I need to be able to lift the thing easily.

We have a couple of duffels, and that's what I mainly want to use. They're easy to carry and easy to stow. We might even be able to get all our stuff into carry-ons.

Comments

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

You absolutely MUST carry medication in prescription bottles if you're going through international airports. Otherwise it can be confiscated, and you might be arrested. If you have big prescription bottles you don't want to carry on a short trip, some pharmacists will make small bottles with the same label information. Then you can put the small bottles in a cosmetics case. Once you get where you're going, you can transfer pills to your daily or weekly reminder case.

What do you mean by "non-scheduled prescription drugs?" There are 5 schedules of drugs...schedule 1 means the FDA does not recognize any legitimate medical use. schedule 2 means prescriptions are tightly restricted (for some narcotics and stimulants), schedule 3 prescriptions are much less tightly restricted, and the prescriptions are renewable in the ordinary way...schedule 5 medications include things like antihistamines and antibiotics. Even if you're carrying medication that is not restricted where you live, how certain are you that it's not restricted in any of the places you will be traveling? Can you prove you're authorized to carry it?

As for luggage, I find duffel bags cumbersome because they need to be carried over steps. The rolling kind are heavier than the non-rolling kind. A big backpack is easier, if you can handle it. There are backpacks with a rolling-suitcase frame, which seems to combine both advantages, but the rolling frame takes up space you can't use to pack stuff. So it's a trade off. The other trade-off is that people don't put the bag down so much when it's fastened to their back as when it's held in the hand.

For clothes, I recommend socks in lightweight wool if you're not allergic. Good against blisters and dries fast. Some plain silk shirts travel and wash beautifully -- the lightweight kind with no lining, no stiff stuff in the placket, usually a solid color. Some of them are labelled "dry clean only," because the manufacturer was paranoid, but the only thing that can go wrong in cold water hand-washing is the dye can run. Test by wetting inside the shirt-tail and rubbing with a white towel. If it's colorfast, or if the dye only runs a little and you decide you don't mind, wash in mild soap and cold water. If you squeeze it out with a towel before hanging it up, it will dry very fast. If you hang it up dripping wet, it will get rid of wrinkles.