A full list of the durable objects I bought while on the ground here in Marseille, so far
There is never enough in the space. This is, I think, how they want it. You must buy, schlep, and leave behind.
Two wastebaskets
I throw stuff away next to my bed and in the bathroom, all the time. I wanted a way to throw away, say, dental floss without having to walk into the kitchen.
These were labelled as “plant pots.” They are plastic, square, about nine inches tall. I found them at a ramshackle bodega on the block behind my apartment. They cost €3 apiece.
Two soap dishes
I’m in Marseille. Do you really think I’m going to buy liquid soap in this city? Soap is one of the most important artisanal products made in this area of the world. There is a soap museum about a mile from where I’m writing this.
The kitchen & bathroom both had no good way to store bar soap. The bathroom sink has a raised ledge, but it is flat, and the soap was slowly melting over the course of the day.
I got these in the small neighborhood where Algerian & Moroccan retailers sell a bunch of homemade goods. They are curiously shaped, made of pewter, with three holes cut in the bottom. They also cost €3 apiece.
A Blue Snowball Ice microphone
Blue apparently added the word “ice” to their otherwise good microphone name in order to remove one of the pickups and charge less money for it. I discovered this in front of a wall of microphones, after realizing my AirPods Pro would not be good enough for recording videos or getting on two months of client calls. I paid $50 for this particular mistake.
I do not think this is a good microphone, but it’s good enough for the next two months. It is definitely too bulky for my pack load. I’ll be surprised if it hops the pond back home with me.
A two-port Belkin 40W USB-C charger
I carry two chargers and two US to EU plugs with me. One of the US to EU plugs crapped out after a week, refusing to hold its charger anymore. I woke up to a 30% battery and threw the thing away. Then I went to a local electronics store, where I bought this and the aforementioned microphone.
A 65W charger would have been nice, but they were over €100 for some reason? So I got this, and it’s now charging my iPhone, iPad, and sundry accessories. There is no way in heck it can handle my laptop. It is surprisingly durable-looking, built as one unit, light enough to not hang off the wall. I’ll keep it for future EU journeys.
Adidas shoes
I tried, fam. I well and truly tried. I got this one pair of sustainable, fancy, cork-soled sneakers that looked fine and felt fine until I had to wear them in Paris all day every day for a week, and then I looked down one day and saw two giant blisters, and the next day I felt pain every step, for about ten thousand steps. I gave up, went to Foot Locker, and got a pair of fake-leather Campus shoes in a size I know actually works for me, on sale for $40. The cork sneakers now sit in my entryway, taunting me multiple times daily.
A hand towel
We’ve been sun-drying our hand towels after we use them. Two days ago, one of them caught a gust of wind, and the two of us watched it fly away in the breeze, up a story, down five, softly, up and down, bobbing, for a minute; and then it landed directly on the windshield of a moving car, which carried it on to some unknown European pasture.