Traveler's delight

Jacob woke up with a startle. Automatically, his left hand reached for his backpack, and his right for his wallet. Finding them still there, he contemplated opening his frontback to double check the big wad of cash. But he did that about an hour ago, and he decided against it, to avoid suspicion. Jacob looked anxiously out of the train. Only white. He waited impatiently till the next announcement came, but it was all garbled because of a broken speaker, or maybe because he never managed to commit himself to German. Damn, he would have to ask again downstairs, to the only other guy. And he had already done that three times. Not that he cared, wasn’t he great at the stupid tourist trick?

One hour to go to the next transfer. 2 transfers and 6 hours to Berlin. Better not fall asleep again. No desire to get stuck around Magdenburg again. No problem though, he was arrogant enough to trust on all his experiance and his equipment, carefully bought and scavenged over the years. 75 liter backpack. 2 person 3 season tent. Sleeping bag to freezing temperature. Hitchhiking atlas for all of Europe, the Falck one that all the ones in the know use. Garbage bags. Thermal underwear, just in ca.se. Raincoat. Merino layer. Rainpants, no need to take off shoes. Gloves with detachable finger piece. Acer netbook. iPhone. ; Condoms. Money clip. Digital camera, with heavy insurance. Mosquitoenet. Head-light with double set of spare batteries. That one saved his ass a couple of times before.

Suddenly, Jacob went pale. He wasn’t sure anymore if he packed it after he used it to find the toilet at the last place. He checked the obvious place. Nothing. He started unpacking his ; frantically, although he knew exactly how everything fitted. When his backpack was entirely empty, he felt the empty husk. And there it was, in the pocket between the raincover and his tent. Why the hell was it not where it was suppose to be? What was he, a damn amateur?

Traveler’s paranoia. One of the 7 signs you need to go home.