What's In My Purse While Traveling Through Europe

As y'all are reading this my time in Paris is coming to an end and we are headed to London on Saturday to wrap up our trip. Packing for the trip was a bit tricky but I haven't felt like I forgot anything major (read my other packing posts here and here). One of the most crucial pieces to pack successfully is your purse since that is what you end up carrying around on a daily basis. After deciding to go on this trip I knew that I needed to find a purse large enough to hold all of my belongings (including my dslr camera), functional enough to not be a burden to carry around, and secure enough that I could make sure the contents were safe!

I ended up picking Gigi New York's Bucket Bag and couldn't be more pleased with my decision. It is so versatile with its cross body strap and is still super cute to carry around. Bucket bags have been really popular as of late and are just as practical as they are cute.  I chose the stone color (although it is available in a wide variety of colors) since it seemed like it would match all of my outfits best and I ultimately ended up leaving the shorter strap at home since I couldn't see myself using it much on this trip.

As for the contents of the actual bag, it was stuffed pretty full on a daily basis to make sure that I had anything I could possibly need for long days out and about in Paris and it never seemed too heavy since I could carry it across my body to distribute the weight. The bag has a zippered pocket, which was perfect for securing my passport as well as a smaller pocket that held gum, a notebook, a pen perfectly, and my very important metro pass well with easy access. The bag cinches close with two tassels ensuring that I didn't need to worry too much about pick pocketers although you can never be too cautious (in all honesty though I haven't run into any). 

As I mentioned earlier I had my bag stuffed full but it was easy to get to everything that I ended up putting into it. The trip I am on is through my school, Furman, and through the program we were given ipad minis on loan and were required to carry them around to work on the school component that accompanied this trip. While they are in fact mini it would have been nice to not have to worry about them although it did fit in my bag without any issues. Here is a look at what all my bag contained (minus the camera which I took the photos with).

Bag | Passport + Case | Ziplock bags (according to my mother you never know when you'll need one) | iPad Mini | Wallet (similar) | Portable Charger | Granola Bar + Peanut Butter | Gum | Wisps | Journal | Sunglasses + Case | Comb | HandSanitizer | Water Bottle  | Tide to Go