Travel & Hotspots

5X YOU RECOGNIZE THIS WITH FRIENDS ABROAD

High Dubai visit in our casa this week. The best friend with his prettiest wife and first newborn were in the country for a week. And that's why I was standing on Sunday at five to ten in the evening with my head in a clean pillowcase and my left foot on a mop in the guest room. You want to create the suggestion that there is always such a lovely bunch of flowers on the nightstand in the guest room. And that those plants on the balcony have been super green in the blazing sun for months (just bought at Intra). But those friends in a faraway land have their specials and peculiarities. Do you have them? Then you recognize this.

1. Living la vida local

When your friends become foreigners, you're set. And not just when it comes to a vacation spot (they do need to emigrate a bit nicely, of course). You leave those five travel guides with insider tips from the locals neatly in the bookstore because you have your own walking travel guide. So I was on the plane back from Dubai eavesdropping on the vacationers behind me. As if they had been in another country. They were in line to drink a glass of wine for fifty euros in the Burj, while I was at an incredibly good fish restaurant among the locals alias expats. Ha, we had been so much more in Dubai than they had.

2. The big vacation friends issue

You want to toast with your partner on a beach bed at a ridiculously beautiful sunset, but how nice would it be to chat with friends deep into the night? With close friends abroad, you're always in doubt. Well, or not. But that savings account is always prudently empty after two trips.

3. Fear of missing (out)

Look, when one of your best friends boards an emigration plane, that's already a thing in itself. But when they also decide to get married (by the way, I'm not complaining about that wedding on a Greek island) and have a child on this planet, then you miss much more than just the person themselves. I have fear of missing out, but you just miss here. You can't get around it, it's a fait accompli that even I have to deal with. And what do you do then? Skype until your internet connection gets tired of you, shop for months for an über-creative gift, and trips to the post office. And that is charming, you get to do that too.

4. Tourist in your own country

Here, your friend or girlfriend has to dig up a love that is either married in or blown in. But I was standing in a tourist shop on Kalverstraat on Thursday. Oh my god. I usually sprint around that chaos, but I wasn't paying attention for a moment and boom, she was inside. The Nine Streets were lovely, but that tulip mug had to come to the Sahara too. Logical. You get it, I waited with love.

5. From arrival to departure

May came with a wise saying: guest and fish stay fresh for three days. Normally, after two days, I'm at my limit and hide in the bedroom, but not with my Dubai visitors. They stayed fresh from arrival to departure. So if you see that bff (foreign friends forever) also being fun, invest in good materials with a long shelf life. Then you search, just like I do, a day after saying goodbye on the internet for tickets for a return visit.