Well, it fit so tightly that I needed to put a little lock on the zipper toggles to keep them from coming unzipped spontaneously and spilling everything.

Which, before I put the lock on, actually happened once, in the taxi queue in Barcelona.

The proof here that the backpack had too much is that the shoulder strap on the backpack started to come unstitched during the trip, and probably would have completely failed (shoulder strap would have come off alltogether) if the trip lasted a day or two more.

As it is, I have already replaced the backpack (with an identical one in a different color that I already had) and throwing that backpack away – it only cost a few dollars and isn’t worth the time and effort to repair.

The realization came when I was shopping for a new backpack, and having loads of trouble finding something because nothing was big enough in the usual range of school/urban backpacks. Eventually I stuffed everything in one of the bags in the store and the sales clerk brought over a luggage scale, which stabilized at a whopping 8 kg!! I was speechless, and decided then and there to do a thorough paring down. I don’t know where I’ve gotten down to now, but it should be over a third off, or more if I leave out my heavy DSLR. I really don’t miss the extra, can’t even remember what it was! lol

On the other hand, the checked baggage is also too heavy, but my strategy for a long time has been to carry gadgets (which are too fragile to check, and too annoying if lost) and check clothes (which are easy to replace if lost, and not distressing, since I’m not a fashionista).

I just got a little carried away with too much stuff this time. I should have left behind about half of what is here. I could have left behind two pair of glasses and just brought the two bifocal ones. one paper back book, not two would have been enough. I thought I pared down the cables and stuff, but not as much as I needed to. only one cell phone, not two would have been fine. only one ipod, not two, and then also leaving behind the firewire charger for the older ipod. only one four-port USB power-brick not two. neither of the 5500 mA external USB batteries were necessary, nor the cables for charging them, and the retractable cables for connecting them to stuff. none of the "backup headphones" are needed. There’s about twice as many us-to-european plug adapter gizmos as strictly necessary. the bluetooth headset and it’s special (not micro or mini usb) charger were not strictly necessary. Twice as many spare AA rechargeables as needed for the mouse.

Before the trip, I didn’t know if the eyefi would actually work well while traveling, so I had backup SD cards, and a hub, and SD-USB readers for use with the camera. All of that could have been punted on, and just one SD-USB reader for the eyefi to configure it would have been fine. the nook color (which was brought to watch movies on) turns out to not have been worth the weight, nor the special charger it needs, because playing video on it is too brittle and prone to fail. Since the nook color turned out to be deadweight for movie viewing, I could have left the rest of the micro-sd with video content and all their adapters and little cases, and the other reader in that sub-bag behind too.

About the only things that are correct in count are the extra batteries for the camera, and two chargers to recharge them. On the "worst case" day so far, I got to the end of the day with only one spare fully charged, one in the camera half-discharged, and all the rest drained. I tossed two in the charger(s) at lunchtime, two in before dinner, and two at night – to end up with everything recharged again in the morning.