Along with every holiday, everyone dreams of a romantic stroll along the beach during sunset, or sharing an ice cream on the promenade. It’s safe to say that every girls holiday comes with an elaborate daydream of a holiday romance. However, every high has it’s low, and like everything, your holiday will draw to a close. But how do you snap back to reality after the sun has set on your exotic romance? Here are some tips on getting over the holiday blues.
Don’t get too attached
A holiday isn’t the ideal timing for meeting your soulmate. That’s not to say that every holiday romance ever has been doomed, because that’s definitely not true. However, it can be very difficult maintaining a romantic relationship with someone you meet abroad. At least one of you will only be there temporarily. With any luck you may both be from the same country, perhaps even same city. Although this is rare, it could happen.
The best thing to do on the cusp of a holiday romance is to accept its more than likely just going to be a fling. In other words – try not to get too attached, it will make it easier for everyone involved that way. Without sounding too pessimistic, trying to turn a holiday romance into a full blown relationship is essentially the same as flogging a dead horse. It’s highly unlikely to happen (although stranger things have happened, but not many). Holiday romances can be fun and exciting however, and one should not be put off this experience by dreading what will happen next, which brings me to my next point.
Enjoy it while you can
Don’t dwell on the impending doom. Enjoy each and every moment of it and don’t ruin it by thinking about what’s going to happen once you both head in opposite directions. After all, you are still on vacation regardless of finding love or not, so remember to keep it as carefree and enjoyable as possible. You don’t want your holiday being ruined by somebody you didn’t even know a week ago. Just remember what it was like before you went on holiday and didn’t even know this person existed.
On holiday, everyone you meet seems significant, because you’re there, with hardly any people you know, it’s a lot easier to become close to somebody you’ve just met. Just imagine dating this person in the real world. With things like jobs, family and friends getting in the way, it would take a good few weeks to get as far into a relationship with someone as it would a few days on holiday. You can spend near enough every minute with this person, because neither of you have anything important to do.
Also, remember not to totally blow off your friends and family for this new love interest you’ve known for five minutes! Make sure to spend the most part of the holiday with the people you actually went with, unless of course, they totally support your decision of going solo with a mysterious stranger.
Ask to keep in touch
As you’ve spent quite a lot of time with this new person, there’s nothing wrong with asking to keep in touch. Either with a phone number, or on social media. Texting to each other or connecting on social media will soften the blow somewhat, as you can still see or speak to this person on a regular basis. It’s a lot easier going away from something like this, and knowing it’s not the complete end. Even if you never get around to meeting up or speaking, it’s nice to have the option. Saying goodbye to someone and knowing you’ll never see or hear from them ever again is miles worse than saying goodbye to someone, and still feeling like you can speak to them, whenever you want.
The only bad thing about this is, once you get home, you could wind up still speaking or texting to them daily and creating a false sense of hope. Once you’re back on home soil, things will be different for each of you, and speaking constantly and trying to maintain the same relationship could eventually wind up just prolonging the agony. Sometimes it’s better in the long run to have a clean break from a situation like this, instead of clinging onto something that’s probably never going to happen. But whatever makes it easier is up to you.
Accept the reality
Ending a holiday romance may feel like the end of the world, and there’s a perfectly good reason for that. Being on holiday creates almost a parallel universe, in which your ‘normal’ life almost doesn’t exist. Anyone can be anyone they want in a foreign country. It will be extremely difficult to judge someone’s entire personality in just a few days or even weeks – and that is in every possible scenario, not specific to a holiday romance. However it will be even more difficult on holiday. Everyone is in a better mood, always happy and relaxed. There’s no way you could see the annoying side to somebody, because there’s always an electric atmosphere.
Once you get back to reality, you’ll realise how different everything seems. Now you have to work, you have responsibilities, and you have to pick up groceries instead of sitting in the sun sipping a mojito. Real life is possibly one of the biggest killers of an exotic fling. Most people know how horrible holiday blues are, well, it’s so much bleaker coming back from your travels and wondering what could’ve been, whilst looking out the window sipping a lukewarm coffee.
The first week coming back will be a horrible come down of emotions, and tiredness. Being fully rested, carefree and happy for an entire week or two, then returning to reality takes some adjusting to. Eventually, the holiday blues will wear off, but there’s no telling if and when the holiday romance blues ever will.
Once you’re back into your normal steady reality, it will be simple to dwell constantly on the holiday fling. This is because, everything seems better when you either can’t have it, or it has a time limit on it. Realistically, near enough every holiday romance is doomed once it’s time to catch flights to different parts of the world, but instead of being sad that it’s ended, be happy that you got to meet such an amazing person and have a fantastic time getting to know them, even if it was short lived. And look on the bright side, there’s always the next holiday to look forward to!
