Holidays

So last week a friend of mine asked me what the holidays were about for me. For him, his ideal holiday would be being alone and doing nothing. I asked him whether he would like to do that in some sort of exotic location, like a deserted island, but just sitting at home was fine enough for him.
Now I can't imagine that being my ideal holiday. I spend most of my time sitting alone at home (well, 2 cats for company), not doing nothing but working, and one of the happiest moments of my day is when I can go meet up with friends or when my boyfriend gets back from work. So that doesn't work.
I know others see their perfect holiday as getting as tanned as possible, or climbing mountains, or getting drunk every night. Not really my thing either. I always thought that my ideal holiday consisted of reading lots of books and doing the things I can't find time for during normal days, such as painting or baking, but it turns out I get much more joy out of those things when I can do them in between the necessary stuff. If I have lots of time to do these things, they somehow lose their value.
So what is my ideal holiday all about? I guess it's about visiting new places, seeing new things, learning new things, meeting new people. Most years of my life since I've been able to decide for myself what I wanted to do, I went someplace new, someplace I could learn something (if there isn't a museum or some great natural phenomenon, it's gotta be pretty special for me to go there...). Travelling around England and Scotland, camping in France (I've done that loads of times, but always go to different places), visiting Rome, camping in Switzerland... wait, that's just the last 2 summers I'm describing now. In 2008 a friend and I took it to the extreme by backpacking around Europe, and I've also visited Jordan, Egypt, South-Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique and, Zambia (together with my mum, who also wants to see the world) this way. Those were trips, travels, journeys, mind you, not 'holidays' in the sense that most people understand them. But for me, they were the best.
So this year, we're going to visit the US, spending 3 weeks discovering the north-eastern parts. I've spend a couple of weeks planning already, and we haven't even rented a car or booked accommodation for the last week, let alone pre-book some of the sights we want to visit, so it'll be some time in the making still. But I don't mind, that's half the fun of it; discovering what is out there and planning all the great things you are going to see. And then actually doing them is even better.
When I explained this to my friend he looked at me as if I was crazy and asked whether I hadn't already had enough of this trip because it's taking so long to plan. But again, it's all about discovering new things, possibilities, learning things. I don't think you'll ever find me stretched out on a beach for 2 weeks in a row. But hey, to each their own.