SOMEONE ONLY YOU KNOW

Holiday flings make for the most ample romcom bait. But what is it about a change of scenery that seems to stir up matters of the heart? Catching feelings abroad can be as easy as catching flights, but there's more behind the intoxicating love we fall for with sun-soaked abandon than fate. So, what are we really tripping on?

- PEMA BAKSHI

In the summer of 2018, when Nina, 26, decided not to snooze her alarm one early morning in Greece, she didn’t think the will to get out of bed would change the course of her life. As her friends slept off their hangovers, she made her way down to the beach to tick off ‘watch a sunrise’ from her travel bucket list. But when she reached the usually secluded dock, she found she wasn’t alone.

Wearing “ridiculous reflective sunglasses” was Alex, 24. After a few polite nods of acknowledgement, Nina did something “completely out of character” – she struck up a conversation with him.

“We got to talking about who knows what and then got some breakfast at a hole-inthe-wall joint he recommended,” she recalls. “From there, we just kept finding ways to see each other… I found out he had lived in London for a couple of years earlier and thought about returning, but he was staying with his family in Greece for now, which put a damper on our time.

“By the end of the week, I changed my flight to stay another fortnight with him. And when that was up, another… This was it – my first love, I thought.”

It’s a tale as old as time: Fantasies of handsome strangers and clandestine love affairs while travelling. After all, who wants to spend all the time, energy and resources on a holiday only to do and be what you are at home? Instead, we gleefully occupy this suspended reality from routine and responsibilities, and in all the strangeness of a new setting comes the heady promise of possibility – and the chance to take a dip into different versions of ourselves.

But what is it about travel that makes holidays such fertile grounds for love? On both a psychological and physiological level, there are a lot of factors triggering your heart eyes.

GOOD TIMING/A TIME & A PLACE