So I just got back yesterday from my first trip, 23 days by myself, from Stockholm to London.

I'm writing this up early in the morning, because I lost 8 hours yesterday, and, frankly, there's not a whole lot more to do at 4am.

The biggest thing that I found was, surprise, I packed too much stuff. I took an Osprey Farpoint 55, which was no problem. I love the backpack, I do think it is the perfect size for me, but I brought unnecessary things. I read all sorts of opinions before I left on the fact that the 55 was not carry on accessible. I found that to not be the case, with one exception. I flew Icelandair, Ryanair, Easyjet, Aer Lingus, and Norwegian (NAS), and I checked the "main pack" only once (and that was to fly home, because I knew I was going to be overweight with all the souvenirs I brought home). Everywhere else, I only had one person give the main pack a second glance, and she had already waved me through at the gate, so I hurried off. The bag fit everywhere, and was in general fantastic to carry. I know I looked somewhat foolish some places, carrying it with the day pack hooked in front, but it was the most comfortable and easiest way to go about it. It definitely has my recommendation.

What did I learn?

I really dislike Italians. They're kind of shitty tourists, not nearly as nice as the French (even though both don't speak a whole lot of English), and most that I came across were just disrespectful in general. I could be generalizing here, and if you're italian, sorry, that sucks.

Leave excess days built in for detours! I took three detours. My original plan was Stockholm>>Oslo>>Flam>>Amsterdam>>Dublin>>London. I ended up also adding in Lyon, France, Kilkenny, Ireland, and Edinburgh, Scotland. I never spent more than 3-4 days per city, which was enough for most of the places I went. The exceptions were Amsterdam, Lyon, and Edinburgh. Those are the top three places that I plan on returning to. I'm even considering school in Lyon.

Give the local language a shot. Everyone has the internet. Learn to say hello, good evening, goodbye, thank you, and "do you speak english". France was where I needed this the most, and people like you a lot more when you can observe the niceties in their language. Most people speak english anyways (at least where I was), so it's not the end of the world if you're terrible at the language. What matters is the attempt.

You will meet amazing people everywhere you go. I met a hollywood producer in Norway. Some awesome german students in Ireland who became amazing drinking buddies. Some fellow /r/solotravel members in Amsterdam. There are more people traveling now than ever, and if you get out and socialize, people are pretty friendly and outgoing most places you go. Just smile and introduce yourself.

What did I not need?

A hat. I lucked out on the weather. I had 2-2.5 days of actual rain the entire 23 day trip. I took the sunshine with me everywhere else I went.

So many belts. I packed 3, when I used 1 the majority of the time.

Playing cards. If you need them, you can find them, but I spent far more time exploring than playing games.

First aid kit. My pill case was far more valuable. Dorm too loud? Diphenhydramine. Caught a cold? Mucinex. Those helped me out far more than an actual first aid kit. If I was traveling to less than a first world country, it could be useful.

A rain jacket. It was a packable costco kind, and I never needed it. Could have been useful, but it's definitely not getting a spot in my bag again.

A dedicated camera bag. I brought along a Sony A6300 (I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT), and two lenses. I kept the camera bag itself in my main pack, but the majority of the time I kept the camera and lenses in my daypack in soft sided bags to protect them. This took a lot of extra space out of the main pack which I would not do again. The biggest reason I went with the 55 was for the day pack. It let me take the camera and gear along wherever I went, and provide a place to keep it safe in case of rain. Never keep your high end cameras like that out in the rain.

What was the most important?

A powerbank! I used a Ravpower 22000 mah powerbank in my daypack. It was large, and heavy, but I had a lot of tech with me, and this allowed everything to stay charged all the time. I coupled it with a few retrak cables, and was able to just toss my phone, or bluetooth headphones in the backpack whenever they needed a charge. It saved me such a hassle of always needing an outlet.

Two pairs of shoes. I haven't been able to find the perfect pair. I don't think it exists, because once you've been hiking around a city for 6 hours, and you get back and change for a different afternoon adventure, nothing beats having fresh shoes to change into. I brought along a pair of Merrells (waterproofed with sno seal), and a pair of knit Puma's.

A silk sleepsheet. This was something I was unsure if I would use, and I ended up using it quite a bit. It wasn't that the beds that I had were terrible, or unclean, because most were quite acceptable. What it really helped for was when the sheets or comforter were too much or too little. Most places you only get one pillow, and on more than one occasion I used the sleepsheet by itself, and turned the comforter into a second pillow. It was so light it hardly made a difference to packing. I bought the Treksilk brand from Amazon.

Smartwool leggings. These were great just about anywhere. They in anything up to hot weather, and make wearing jeans much more comfortable. Mine definitely need a good washing though.

What did I bring back?

Scarves. Lots of scarves. I bought quite a few in Scotland to bring home as gifts for my immediate family, and a couple in France for the rest of the family. They were not terribly expensive, fairly high quality, and light and easy to pack. Plus everyone over there was wearing them, so getting a nice one for wearing while I was there helped me blend in. I blended in far better at the end of the trip than at the beginning.

A Dale of Norway jacket. I had been planning on picking up something from this brand for a while. I was able to get an absolute steal on one while I was in Norway, and now that I'm home... I'm probably going to throw out (or donate) nearly every other jacket it have.

A wand from Platform 9 3/4. Because I'm a fucking nerd and I know it.

A bag of weird ass european candies and snacks, that I can't find over here. Seattle is a long way from Europe and there were all sorts of things I would never find over here.

Altogether, this stuff added a fair deal of space to my main pack (which was only a 38L bag, and was quite full when I left). Could I possibly have still carried it on when I flew home? Yeah, there's a good chance. But I didn't want to take the risk and decided to get hit with the cost upfront. It also made the journey through Gatwick easier, although it made customs more of a hassle at SeaTac.

What do I do now?

I'm already looking for ways to return. I'm considering school in Lyon. I would love to get a remote job (I'm studying computer science atm) and work from Amsterdam. Because I've still got school commitments here in Seattle, at least for the time being, I plan on getting planning my next trip as soon as I can save the money for the tickets (probably 5-6 months out again, in order to get cheap flights). I've already got a bit of the blues being back home again, so I'll do whatever I can to get traveling again soon.

If you want to check out a few pictures, my instagram is kylergsmith, and I've got most of my pictures from 80% of the trip up. I've still got about 2k pictures I need to go through, and that's before I get them all loaded and edited on my main computer at home.

Feel free to ask any questions! I had a blast and can recommend a few good places from the locations I listed.