Traveling safely

I am always in search of the perfect travel bag. I finally found what I thought might be as close to perfect as I could get: the Tumi Calais backpack. It's pricey, but ticked a lot of the boxes:

The Tumi bag

• It's a backpack - this is important because I walk as much as possible in airports and carrying everything on one shoulder with a messenger or cross-body style bag becomes uncomfortable quickly. 
• It has a trolley strap on the back - this is great so that I have the option of sliding the back over the pull bar of my suitcase and wheeling the whole deal through the airport, thus saving my back.
• It has a padded interior laptop pocket that is separate from the rest of the bag and designed to fit a laptop up to 13 inches. Bonus points here because the compartment not only fits my laptop, it fits my laptop in the extra neoprene case that I have for it, adding extra peace of mind for me. 
• It has enough space to fit my travel essentials - snack(s), magazines/kindle, scarf, headphones - without being too big.
• It has enough additional pockets to help keep me organized without making me crazy with all of the pockets. 

The pack is missing one crucial detail, which is a place to put a water bottle. I tried putting a water bottle inside the main compartment once, and will never do that again. You can probably guess what happened. (Here's a hint: it leaked) Instead, I suck it up and improvise by clipping a reusable water bottle to the outside of the bag with a carabiner. I can then attach the bottle to the magazine holder in the seat in front of me for easy access during the flight. It's a little clunky, but it works. 

I happily used this backpack on several domestic trips but, honestly, was a bit concerned about pickpockets on an upcoming trip to Europe. I was in France last year and while I felt safe overall, I saw notable pickpocket activity in several big tourist areas, and I'm really not interested in being robbed while I travel, because who is? 

Riut 15 - Note the lack of
zippers on the front

My sister found a great new backpack that addresses this very issue. It's from a startup company called Riut (pronounced "Riot") and was designed specifically to foil pickpockets. It is has an interior laptop pocket, a few extra pockets for odds and ends, and - huge bonus - a space for a water bottle. It also is designed so that all of the zippers are on the back of the bag, underneath the straps and against your back. This means I have to take the bag off and reach through the straps to unzip it. Anyone coming up behind me while I wear it would be foiled. 

This proved to be quite handy when I was walking to/from the train station in bustling Florence and in Venice where the tourism level is off the charts. That place is crowded and there is no respite from the crush of people. 

The bag isn't quite perfect - you lose the water bottle space when you fill up the interior of the bag, but the founder of the company, Sarah Giblin, is active on Twitter and recently reached out to Riut bag customers to get ideas on how to solve that challenge with her next round of designs. 

Giblin knows that commuter/travel bags need to be as unobtrusive as possible so they don't stand out, so she only sells them in black or blue. I learned on a trip to Iceland that she is right. My friend and I each had a small purse that we used for our passports, money, etc. Mine was a khaki color. Hers was

Me in Iceland. That bag is like a beacon.

black. In all of our pictures, my bag stood out as if it had a spotlight shining on it. Hers was invisible. Ever since, I am only interested in travel day bags that are black or maybe blue. 

I bought the Riut bag in the 15 liter size. It was just right, though maybe a bit small, for the usual carry-on travel items plus a packing cube with a change of clothes and a small bag of toiletries. This was so that I could freshen up on my four-hour layover in Paris on my recent trip. The bag did the job, though, and in my sleep-deprived, jet-lagged state, I did not need to worry that anyone in the airport would be able to get into my bag and at my passport or credit card as I walked through the crowded spaces. 

As Sarah recently blogged about, she was robbed on a recent trip when she let her guard down and a thief grabbed her entire bag and ran. This experience reminded her that the best bag in the world isn't going to fully protect you from thievery; being vigilant is also key. 

The zippers are on the inside,
under the straps. Hard to see?
That's the point. 

This is something else I experienced firsthand while in Venice. My friend and I had boarded the train
back to Florence after two days in the tourist-crazy city, sick and tired of being jostled around. We took our seats on the train, and a loud, possibly drunk, definitely annoying man approached us, asking questions about where we were going, were we American, etc. Then, without warning and not subtly at all, he reached over my friend to her bag that was on the seat in between us and started to try to open in. Stunned, I grabbed his arm and shoved him as hard as I could. He started yelling all sorts of rude things to us and we shouted back to go away. He finally went to another car while we looked for a conductor or police officer. We couldn't find the authorities, so we kept an eye on him. He jumped off the train just before the doors closed. I'm guessing he spends his days wandering on and off trains trying to steal whatever he can. 

Of course, the type of bag wouldn't have mattered if he had simply grabbed the entire bag and ran, but the experience helped to remind me that, like Sarah has pointed out, vigilance matters, and while I should not allow a more secure bag to make me complacent, I am happy to have the extra security features all the same. 

Venezia

Boy, do I have a love/hate relationship with Venice.

On the one hand, Venice is the single most beautiful place I have ever seen with my own two eyes.

On the other hand, Venice made me want to poke my eye out with a stick because of the excessive tourism. And, I mean excessive. This was like nothing I had experienced before in my life, and I grew up going to Ocean City, MD, land of all things crowded and tacky.

Upon arrival, C and I walked out of the train station and saw this:

The streets are made of WATER.

I know, I know, I'd heard of Venice before, but to see streets made of water right in front of me was still a shock. Luckily, our hotel was in a somewhat out of the way part of the city, so it was a few hours before we realized just how touristy Venice can be.

As we wandered, we were presented with many options like this: do we take the lesser traveled path on the left? Or the more crowded path on the right? Hint: we always took the lesser traveled path. 

One thing we learned about Venice pretty quickly is that you either stay on the over-crowded main drag, or embrace the art of getting lost. There's no way to truly be lost, because, after all, we were on an island. One way or another, we would find our way back. 

One of the best parts of local life in Venice is that residents have found ways to bring in some green wherever they can. There are no yards, obviously, so there are window boxes everywhere you look. 

Here, we were getting closer to the main tourist attraction (Piazza San Marco). On a whim, we wandered into a free art exhibit and enjoyed the bizarre yet fascinating modern art. I happened to look out the window, and saw the view in the photo above, with the giant hands. This was magical. I excitedly called for C to come stick her head out the window, too, and we hogged that window space for several minutes while we took photos. That photo is unfiltered. That is what I saw with my own two eyes. See what I mean about magical? It's as if the place is positively enchanted. 

That is, until you get to Piazza San Marco, and then it's as if you have stepped right into tourist hell. We walked out of the tunnel underneath the clock that you can just see in the upper right hand corner of the photo above. Those throngs of people are what you have to embrace if you want to get inside the church. Good luck finding a bathroom, by the way, because in true tourist-town fashion, the restaurants all along the piazza cater to tourists and do not have public bathrooms. If you want to use them, you must be a patron. We found a coffee shop and spent an hour getting our beverages just so I could use the bathroom. 

While wandering the maze-like sidewalks on our way to and from Piazza San Marco, I started snapping pictures of my view. We couldn't walk without dodging and weaving around people. What I did not capture with photos is the way that restaurant workers would stand outside their businesses, shouting at us to come in, come in, there's a special today, hey, sweetheart, you're beautiful, come inside. It was relentless. 

I was so frustrated with the constant throng of humanity - the noise, the jostling, the being-in-edge for pickpockets - that at one point, I dropped, and broke, my camera. Awesome. 

I'll likely share a few other posts about Venice in coming weeks. I saw one of the most amazing art exhibits I've ever seen while there. I explored Murano glass and bought a great souvenir. I took many photos, ate some wonderful things (and some not so wonderful things), and enjoyed the wandering, the getting lost, the finding of my perspective, and my way. 

Me making the best of my afternoon in Piazza San Marco.