One of the first days of our trip to the then USSR we were taken to a church, converted to an art gallery with its displays of French Impression painters. We were required to check our purses at the door. I was very uncomfortable being ordered to surrender my purse, and all its contents. Hastily I tried to stuff everything into one of my coat pockets.
The next day, not to be caught unprepared again, I arranged everything I wanted to keep safe on my body in my coat pockets. Left my almost-empty purse in the hotel room. Another church converted to an art gallery with -- you guessed -- French Impression painters. (I hadn't known there were so many of them.)
But at this gallery we were asked to check our coats at the door, not our purses. So I emptied my pockets into my hands, trying to keep everything clutched together in my fingers. Spent the afternoon picking my belongings up off the floor.
It was at a later stage of my life that I learned about a furoshiki. Now I seldom go anywhere without a handy furoshiki.
