Mixing Business and Pleasure

As I will be travelling with my camera (a Canon T3i rigged for video), I decided to contact the hotels and hostels we have booked so far (Valencia and Madrid) and see if they were interested in swapping my services as a videographer for their roof over our head.  I thought it might be a good way to save a little money but more importantly I thought it would be a unique opportunity to meet and interact with people.

This morning I got an email back from Felipe at the Way Hostel in Madrid (http://www.wayhostel.com/) -

Hey Jason, thanks for contacting.  

We were on our way to develop a video(s) for the hostel, so your colaboration will be much appreciated.  

Do you think you can make something in 2 days? Did you make the booking already?  

Kindest regards,
Felipe

Sounds like they are interested!  Hopefully we can work something out.  I will post more updates about my attempts to ply my trade overseas as they happen.

Packing Test

With three weeks until take-off, we had a heavy weight on our shoulders - literally. Our Kelty Redwing packs were overloaded. Jason's camera bag alone weighs 5 lbs. and his obligatory suit jacket isn't much lighter. Obviously my dainty lady stuff weighs nothing and I don't need to downsize. #delusional

We've heard that you should lay out everything you want to take and then get rid of half of it. (Cue Tenacious D: "Take two of the nuggets and throw them away!") Out went the excess socks, underwear, and t-shirts. I lost a skirt and leggings and two shirts. Of course, in repacking we also gained gear we left out in our first packing test. Universal plugins, my camera and charger, cards and a cribbage board, etc. I am not sure we actually lost weight but we did make room for some actual necessities (we don't go anywhere without cribbage).

Here are the results:

 Two Kelty Redwings ~50L

Jason's stuff 

Maren's stuff (I promise it weighs less than Jason's!)

Stay tuned for our next iteration!

-m-