Holidays are like pizza. Not only does everybody love them, but everybody also has an idea about what constitutes the perfect one. While some people like a thick, doughy base with lots of roughly chopped rustic vegetables and home-baked ham, others prefer a thin and crisp bread, topped with slivers of anchovy, olives and a single basil leaf. Others still love the folded pocket of delight known as a calzone, and some feel short-changed at the thought of any less than 7 toppings.
In holiday planning, these clear-cut pizza choices translate almost directly. Fans of rustic pizza A will be content nowhere else but in a converted barn in the Cotswolds. Traditionalists such as prefer pizza B enjoy such cultural vacations as weekends in Paris or a year in Provence. Calzone lovers are campers, finding all the warmth and happiness they need within their sleeping bag. Those who demand multiple toppings tend to have loud personalities and find themselves at home in Ibiza. Of course, there are also those who like such daring ingredients as egg or sweetcorn – they tend to do something less mainstream on holiday too, such as snorkling with piranhas or yoga retreats on nudist colonies.
My idea of a perfect holiday is simple. I’m on holiday, therefore I don’t want to do anything. I may or may not wake up in the morning. I want to spend most of the day lying somewhere warm, preferably a beach. I want to eat at obscure times, namely because breakfast didn’t happen until 2 p.m. I want to talk absolute nonsense to whoever I am there with. I want to play cards with a passion usually reserved for cup finals. I want to go one place to take one awesome photo that will make everyone say “Oooh…that looks lovely!”.
And that’s it. That’s my perfect vacation.
Oh, and I went on it last week. While these are the criteria for an amazing holiday, it is rare for all the boxes to be checked. But last week I went to Kuakata, Barisal, with Kakon and our friend Kasu and, one by one (without even trying), it met all the requirements for a perfect time. It also helped that our 3 day trip was extended due to national strikes to 6 days. Maybe I will have to include unexpected extensions to my list of targets. Although running out of clean clothes two days before we came home wasn’t ideal.
Anyway, here is the proof – the pictures. No pizza though.
nazmeengreen 