"I seem to have mislaid a bar of soap"
Is that a come-on?
Since he was packing books into the ass of his carryon, maybe.
Why were you carrying so many glass items? My first instinct would be that they're gifts, but that goes totally against my image of Ben w-lfs-n.
3 -- glassware and ceramics from Germany = excellent stuff.
If it was me, the bottles would contain some hard-to-find or incredibly cheap alcoholic drink acquired on my travels and the jars would contain some kind of preserved foodstuffs.
The jars contained foodstuffs, the bottles contained alcoholic drinks, the ceramics were from Finland (though the glassware was from Germany).
I don't see what's so insane about packing bar soap, myself, especially when it's inconveniently shaped.
I had to unload progressively more books into carryons ass
ATM.
A friend of mine flew the day they put in the restrictions on carrying liquids. He had been visiting his family and had over a dozen glass jars of homemade preserves in his carry on. He was able to put all but one jar in his checked luggage; he ate the entire jar that remained while waiting to board.
Or rather he ate the contents of the jar. As he had no need of proving that he spoke a foreign language, he did not need to demonstrate that he could eat glass.
I thought you meant you were packing your own personal bar of soap for travelling, which is nuts, b/c there's always the whole waiting-for-it-to-dry thing and we have liquid soap nowadays. Which of course you mustn't pack in your carryon lest you use it to terrorize other passengers by washing them.
9 - That is a spectacular mental image.
Curious about what food items in jars you brought from Germany. Not Spreewald pickles, I guess?