The contents of a vacation suitcase often say more than an astrological sign about its owner. The main types of luggage.
“Therefore test who binds himself forever, whether the heart finds its way to the heart. Delusion is short, regret is long” advises Friedrich von Schiller. A look inside the case provides information.
Show me the contents of your suitcase
This does not mean the call at customs, which we wish we could hear again in these travel-reduced times.
The following is not about the way of packing. We have already shared our three most important tips for packing suitcases with you.
What someone carries in their vacation luggage shows a lot about a person’s character and therefore often remains the same for a lifetime, even if the outer shell changes.
Do you recognize yourself in any of the following types of luggage?
The flâneur
His vacation starts in his head long before he leaves. In his mind, he sees himself walking along the boulevard, standing on the terrace overlooking the lake, or boarding the open jeep for safari.
It is precisely for these extraordinary moments that he plans his clothes. For him, a special piece of clothing makes the enjoyment of the moment complete.
A happy traveler, because the garment will always remind him of this trip, when he has long returned home, and make him return to this place and this moment in his mind.
He plans the rest of the suitcase efficiently and reduces the contents to the most necessary with a lot of travel experience. He likes to travel only with hand luggage whenever possible.
Because the loss of a piece of luggage in transit would be hard to get over: the item of clothing carefully selected just for this trip would be in it.
The pragmatic Disposer
Traveling is hectic, dirty, and involves a lot of unpredictability. What good is being careful with your clothes if the coffee of the person sitting next to you lands on your own lap during turbulence on the plane?
So the pragmatic disposer stands in front of his closet and packs the clothes he actually wants to dispose of into his suitcase:
The pants, whose holes are not the idea of a designer, but show long years of use. The shirt from which the stains of the sun oil could not be removed. The shoes he almost threw in the old clothes garbage can and the T-shirts that used to be white.
Buying a new piece of clothing especially for a trip would never occur to him. A little clumsiness, some dripping fish sauce and the day would be spoiled.
From place to place, the luggage becomes lighter and lighter, because the practical disposer draws a trail of clothes left behind.
Convinced that he has done a good deed, he rests in himself and is relieved that all the adversity that can happen when boarding foreign cabs, trains, bullock carts, tuk-tuks or ferry boats reinforces his belief that “it’s a good thing I didn’t take anything new with me.
My suitcase is my castle
He carries heavy, but he or she can’t help it. The contents of the suitcase resemble a miniature version of their own household. You have to be prepared for everything, is the motto.
He has a double supply of important things with him. The contact agent fluid could get lost, so better have a second pack of it on hand before you lose precious vacation hours on site looking for the tried and true product and not finding it after all.
This type of luggage is not only well equipped for all weather conditions; it also has the warmer version in the suitcase in addition to the light rain jacket – you never know.
In addition to multiple plugs, all the important cables in duplicate, a small travel supply of your favorite salt, you can also find a travel iron in your suitcase. Because form and format on site are important to him.
When traveling in a group, this type of luggage can be sure of everyone’s sympathy. Because if there is ever a mishap, you can rely on this type of luggage. He has something in his suitcase for all eventualities and generously offers his help.
The analyst
Not a gram too much and everything in perfect order. The analyst has the vacation days, overnight stays, transportation, and hotel changes equal to an Excel spreadsheet in his head. And that’s exactly how it’s packed: lowest possible input for maximum effect.
Everything is perfectly combinable and if not, it is not so bad.
It would never occur to the analyst to pack two pairs of sunglasses or five swimming trunks in the suitcase. Purchasing a special outfit for a planned visit to a glamorous rooftop restaurant would likewise never occur to the analyst.
On the contrary, the analyst is happiest to open his suitcase again at home after the end of the trip and find that he has undercut his own planning and can still remove several unworn items of clothing from the suitcase.
The break with habit
Baggage types remain true to themselves throughout their lives, just as most people do not fundamentally change their character throughout their lives. Unless an extreme situation occurs:
The invitation to travel by motorcycle for two weeks to and through Scotland. The joint sailing trip with friends off the coast of Croatia. The overnight stay in the ice hotel on the Zugspitze.
Here, there is no escaping the strict baggage rules of limiting yourself to the absolute minimum. Taking a larger suitcase or packing another extra bag is a no-go.
Once you have survived this, for some types of luggage extreme situation, something can change in the previous attitude, as in real life.
Extreme situation
All my admiration belongs to the travelers who manage with a box on the motorcycle or the panniers of a bicycle for several days or even weeks.
Meanwhile, I look at the completely oversized luggage with which I traveled to the Baltic Sea for a week’s vacation.
The summer dresses and sunglasses alone would have gotten me through a long vacation on the Cote d’Azur without too much repetition. Shoe-wise, I’m not only equipped for the beach, forest, boat, and nature preserve hikes, but I can match the perfect heel height with the outfit at any Michelin restaurant.
And of course, in keeping with the location, a small estate in the countryside, a new garment is included to remind me of beautiful summer evenings with a mineral Riesling in a glass sitting under a lyrical walnut tree.
A hopeless cross combination?
You guess Dominant Suitcase is my Castle type with high impact of Flaneur?
No, an extreme situation.
I realize that I have packed all my longings for travel to distant lands, customs barriers and carefree summers in Mediterranean areas, Australia or Asia into this one suitcase.
As if it were possible to catch up on all these things in a week. NOT that I did all these things in a single summer, but just the freedom to be able to do it is important.
What is far more serious
In addition to the longing, there is also the worry about many friends and acquaintances in the catering and travel industry and weighs heavily.
I hope for everyone’s sake that we can soon see the end on the horizon: A high vaccination rate worldwide, the farewell to continuous checking of the green, orange and red zones, the return of travel without the fear of a suddenly imposed quarantine because conditions have changed during the trip.
Confidence accompanies me on my journey and I am already looking forward to the biggest possible trip with the smallest possible suitcase, although I am aware that arriving is more important than traveling. According to the Persian poet and Sufi mystic Rumi:
“You wander from room to room hunting for the diamond necklace, that is already around your neck”.
