Reunited and it feels so good...

Once again my luggage did not arrive with me at my destination. This time it was on the way to Tel Aviv and it was finally delivered 2 days later--pretty good compared to some of my other luggage encounters (I have an intimate and rocky relationship with luggage; I've written about some of those experiences here). 

This song is appropriate here...

For the record, I did not have any bags lost in 2021 (WOOT WOOT!) which, like all other happenings in 2021, can be attributed to Covid. I did, however, have lost luggage on the way to Nepal and the way back from Zanzibar in 2020.

This trip is one of the few on which I had a carryon. Despite the fact that I am a terrible packer; despite the fact that my luggage has been lost about a dozen times; despite the fact that numerous people have told me how helpful it is to always have a change of clothes in a carryon when they travel; despite all of this I will more or less never take a carryon if I can check it for no extra charge. My solutions have been to go business class where you get a larger luggage allowance. 

For the first time ever, I really see some benefits of a carryon:

• The most obvious first: more stuff got to go home with me!
• My backpack was not packed to the gills. Usually I can barely zip it between the books, my computer, food, kindle, ipad and warm layer.
• I didn't have to have 2 computers in my backpack, which made it lighter.
• I could carry my running shoes with me.
• Things that I would usually be afraid to put in my backpack because they might get squished or bent I put in my carryon and knew they would be safe. I'm talking Christmas cards, a piece of artwork and something breakable.
• The carryon easily fit in the overhead bin!

Despite all of this, however, I did NOT put my toiletries in my carryon nor my raincoat. Fortunately I was going home and was in quarantine, but once again I proved to myself, I am a terrible packer!!