Holiday Romance- Does it ever work out?

Sorry about the lag in this blog. I just came back from a whirlwind trip of Europe and it was epic. It was the kind of trip that you take when you only have two months to live and you want to live the rest of your days as fully as possible.

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 - After Dubai (see the blog below) I went to London for a week and rubbed elbows with Gerard Butler, Bob Geldof and some of the actors from the James bond flicks (ok well, we were all just in the same private club or resto). I museum-hopped, went to Camden market and partied at Maddox, Annabels and the Shoreditch house in the east end. Most of the trip was a bit too posh for me.

-Following that, I was invited down to France where I stayed in a proper medieval castle. My room was in a Rapunzel tower and there were tapestries, stained glass windows and a full suit of armor! I rocked up the long gravel driveway in a Porsche 997 with the friend that was hosting me and I must admit, though I could give a hoot about cars, it was pretty slick.

-Next stop was Barcelona, a city which really captured my heart. There were scenester beaches, skateboard and sports cultures, amazing food and fashionable people. There was art everywhere as well as groovy music oozing out of every corner. And mojitos!!  Yumm! . In Madrid I partied at Pacha- one of the biggest clubs I’ve ever been to in my life, saw the running of the bulls in Pamplona on a private terrace overlooking the bull course and checked out the amazing Guggenheim museum in Bilbao. This is Pacha in Madrid.Gotta love the gayboys dressed in leather and lace! Everyone wears the red and white outfits to the running of the bulls.   The freshest museum on the planet!

-Just when you think it’s over- there was also a week of sailing on the Dalmatian coast of Croatia, a jaunt to Stockholm and it all ended on the calas of Palma de Mallorca-an island close to Ibiza. This was at about 9am. We were drinking mimosas for breakfast. There was a big massacre at this square in Stockholm This is a place called Purobeach in Mallorca.[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]

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It was truly an adventure with too many stories to even blog about. The whole trip could have been purely esthetic, but the major thing that happened to me was I learned a lot about who I was, who I wanted to be and just about how to ‘be’ in general. I learned about keeping life simple, not being fake and letting go of ego. It doesn’t matter how much money or what kind of toys or lifestyle someone has. It doesn’t even matter what people or places look like. The most important thing in the world is having a good heart and good connections with others- especially with friends and family. I learned that from hanging out with Mr. Right- Mr. Right now, that is.

 You know how it is, you’ve been out exploring the city all day- alone. You’re hot and sweaty and very, very tan. Then you happen upon a trendy clothing shop in some alley and there he is- the tall dark and handsome stranger who’s going to show you the city-local style. I'm talking about Mr. Right- Now. In Barcelona I came upon a pretty serious one which kept bringing me back to the city over and over during this European drift.

Funnily, I was hanging with a fellow traveler for the first few days in Barca and he said everyone gets two points extra on holiday. So if someone is a 6 on a scale of 1-10, they become an 8 when you meet them on holiday. I think it may have something to do with the tans.

 Anyhoo, I was completely smitten with my Latino stud-muffin and we scootered around Barca for weeks until I realized we came from two extremely different places. I pretended that it didn’t bother me and I just let him show me his world. I accepted him for who he was, even met some of his family and I learned a lot about Spanish culture.Things got intense, but when I got back to Hong Kong, the romantic illusions dissipated and I was left with the reality that I needed someone who understood my life and could blend in to my world as well. For a nanosecond, I considered moving to Barcelona but now is not the right time. I  need to figure out what my next step in life is going to be, not concentrate my energy on trying to make Mr. Right Now Mr. Right for me. Just because I long to have someone special to love and that cares about me unconditionally- it doesn't mean that I should hang onto something which is wrong just to have someone to care about.

So the question is: has anyone here ever had a holiday romance that has ever blossomed into something serious? Does it ever work, or are holidays always just romantic illusions where 6s turn into 10s?