Saturday Chat with Allane from Packing My Suitcase

January 17, 2015
Vlad
Saturday Chat

Welcome back to the Saturday Chat weekly column where I ask travel bloggers some questions to get to know them better. This week I’m interviewing the talented super-nice girl behind a blog I read as soon as I get the new post notification. I’m talking about Allane from Packing My Suitcase.

Allane is a Brazilian expat in Germany, a World citizen, diver, wife, and a dog lover, passionate about the World, wild life and writing. So read below to find out how has she started diving, what is on her bucket list and how she admits she secretly is a cat person. Just kidding on the last one. 😀

1.You talked on your blog about the different places you’ve lived in, but nothing about Switzerland. Care for a little exclusive info? 😉

hahaha I had to laugh when I read this question! Whoever reads my blog and got to know me better through my texts – like you – have probably wondered why I still haven’t posted about Switzerland. The reason is…

I lived one year in Geneva, while I was studying for my Master Degree on International Relations. My time in Switzerland was fully dedicated to the University and internships, it was the first time that I ever lived alone – Enzzo, my dog, was with me, but you know what I mean – and I am not a fan of arriving home and having no one to talk to, or share my day with.

I find Geneva a depressing city, and Switzerland a very expensive country, especially for students. My time there was a bit difficult, especially because I felt too lonely in a place where a supermarket closes at 6pm and not even a restaurant opens on Sundays. So almost every weekend I would drive to Germany to be with W, who back then was my boyfriend/fiancé, and sometimes I feel that I didn’t actually enjoyed my time there. But don’t worry… I have a post about Switzerland planned for 2015 🙂

2.How do you plan for a new trip?

After deciding where to go… research, research and research! All based on the type of trip I am making: to a big or small city? Diving? Beach? Cold or hot? By car or plane? Is Enzzo coming? Who is coming?

I am a crazy planner, I like to plan every detail… but of course, it doesn’t always go as planed!

3.How did your passion for diving came to be and what would you tell someone who has never dove before but is interested?

I grew up by the sea, and I was always passionate about it. I also always loved to swim and dive in my house’s pool back when I lived in Brazil, since I was a child. Sometimes I would hold my breath for 45 seconds under water and my mom was nuts with this. Above all, I was always in love with marine life, especially with sharks. Because of all these reasons, for years I wanted to become a diver, though where I lived in Brazil, there was no diving school or any nice dive site for that matter.

I had amazing opportunities to finally take a diving course, but somehow it never worked out for different reasons. It was only in June 2014 that it all finally worked, after I convinced W to be my buddy and do the course with me. Now he is in love with the see as much as I am, and since then we always try to fit diving in our travel plans!

4.What was the most unexpected thing that has happened to you while traveling? (It can be a good or a bad thing)

W asked me to marry him while I was driving on the highways of Germany! That time I was still living in Switzerland.

5.What is at the top of your bucket list?

Even though it is on the top of my bucket list, it is not going to be the next one in the order… it will have to wait most probably a few years to happen:

A Liveaboard from Palawan to Tubbataha in the Philippines, an amazing reef reachable only by boat. A paradise for divers, with over 10 shark species!