Every time I visit a new country, I end up in the same place within the first day or two. Not a museum. Not a landmark. The grocery store. I wander the aisles slowly, picking things up, reading labels I half understand, comparing packaging, noticing what’s cheap, what’s expensive, and what seems to exist only here. In a way, it tells you more about daily life than most attractions ever could. This is where most of my souvenirs come from. Olive oil that tastes nothing like the

Long-haul travel days have a way of exposing bad packing decisions. On a 9-hour overnight flight to Europe, there’s no hiding from what’s uncomfortable, unnecessary, or completely unrealistic. You can’t “power through” it, and you can’t fix it once the cabin doors close. After dozens of long-haul flights—most of them red-eyes—I’ve stopped packing for hypothetical scenarios and started packing for how travel days actually feel. This is what consistently earns its space in my c

There is no shortage of advice about how to pack a carry-on. I’ve seen all of it, tried most of it, and ignored plenty along the way. I’ve packed too much, packed too little, and more than once carried a novel or two around Europe without reading a single page. After dozens of trips, this is what’s actually stuck. I’ve always been a carry-on traveler. Even early on, checking a bag felt unnecessary. What changed over time wasn’t my luggage size—it was my confidence. I stopped