5 Things I Should Not Have Left Behind

Following up on Theresa’s post about useful things abroad, here’s what I’m missing over here. Since we’re here for six weeks in the same apartment, this is obviously a different list than the backpacking standard list. Theresa, don’t forget these things when you come =). So here I am, less than a week into my stay in Stockholm, and already I’m finding many things I wish I had brought with me. Now, this is no disaster, since Theresa is coming this weekend and can save me on some of these things and Sweden is a developed nation and I have been able to purchase everything I needed, but it definitely could have saved me some money.

1. My travel towel – I left this with the RTW stuff and didn’t bring it here, assuming (incorrectly) that linens would be included where we are staying. Lesson learned, always keep this close by … as many of you have already discovered.

2. Umbrella – How silly of me to come to Stockholm without an umbrella. It’s drizzled/rained steadily for three of the five days I’ve been here, and twice I’ve had to lug myself back from the store, soaking myself and my cargo. An umbrella would’ve been useful. And oddly, they did not have them at the store either time.

3. Rug holding mats – This one I don’t think anyone could’ve seen coming, not that we had any to leave behind to start with. There’s a rug on our linoleum floor that flows so easily across the floor, it slips every time I step on it and I almost fall on my ass. Something must be done, but the concept of rug securing pads has apparently not reached Stockholm (even though they have many more linoleum floors covered by rugs), as I have seen no such product anywhere. Maybe the good folks at IKEA have something this weekend. Alternatively, I guess I could just take the rug up for my own safety, but that just makes a starkly bland room even less colorful.

4. Fitted bed sheets – Fitted sheets are just so much better than the flat undersheets common here. We also need our own flat topsheet. Even though I have my sleep sheet to take care of me now, I’m counting on Theresa to bring these over. I’m just accustomed to my American bed stylings and don’t sleep nearly as well otherwise. Jet lag doesn’t help with these things either.

5. Multi-outlet power strip – We have too many electronics! But they all have North American plugs. So we need a multi-outlet power strip to plug into our travel adapter so we can plug in our American gadgets (if this is a bad idea/dangerous, please let me know in the comments!)