Travel: What to pack?! Maybe Explicit Content for Some...

There will probably be too much information here for some, so if you feel squeamish about reading of my underwear, stop now!

Some of you, dear readers, will know how I struggled with deciding what to pack for 7 months in Europe. I contemplated bringing just a carry on full of bras, panties and shoes. How do you pack for multiple climates and cultures?

Having been to Italy before, I knew that acquiring shoes there was out of the question (they have skinny feet and I don't). There's also the dilemma of underpants and bras. I'm not a giant by any stretch of the imagination, but having tried to get Italian undies before I knew it was not possible for my size. God only knows where Nona shops...

In the end, I packed 11 bras, wait, no 13 including 2 sports bras; but only 7 pairs of undies. Sicilian women are lovely curvy people, but they are not large. They are perfect little petites. No undies for me. French women are rather bonier, at least where we were. The gals in the countryside looked a bit more Sarah sized, but still no undies for me. I did at one point contemplate walking up to a woman who looked my size and asking her where she got her undies, but I restrained myself. And then we got to South London.

What can I say about South London? There are some beautiful curvy women there! The bra shop stocked my size (and quite a bit larger) and there was lots of undies for me, even at the street market.  OH! at the street market you could buy large sized undies that had bum pads!

That still leaves me with way more than I can properly fit into my single suitcase. Did I mention the pairs of shoes I got? There were 2 in Italy, believe it or not (I sort of walk off the side of the shoe), then 2 pairs of handmade in St. Bertrand by the lovely Isa, and a few pairs of Espadrilles... And lets add the rag picking finds in France (a denim skirt and embroidered Chinese style jacket).... and there's the South London second hand scores (a couple dresses, some jeans, a lovely embroidered wool scarf)...

In retrospect the suitcase full of bras and undies would probably have been a good idea...