For me the term ‘dream vacation’ has a whole different meaning. Every time I go somewhere I’ve never been before, somewhere far away and different, my main reason to be excited is that my dreams are going to have new locations in them.
I often have dreams around Hong Kong harbour and the surrounding islands because Hong Kong is one of the most interesting places I’ve ever been. I say one of the most interesting places; I’m lucky to have been lots of places during my life, Spain, Italy, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Hungary, China/Hong Kong, Japan and a few more besides. They all appear in my dreams now and again. I believe that going on holiday / vacation is the best thing anyone can do for their all round health. New experiences excite and exercise the mind and, if you’re like me, they give you extra locations to dream about; I’m convinced my dreams would not be so world-spanning if I’d never been abroad before.
The Netherlands is my most visited foreign country, I just keep going back and finding more interesting things to see and remember in my dreams. The picture above has three inspiring architectural buildings in Rotterdam. On the right are some yellow apartments shaped like toppled over cubes that I was lucky enough to see inside; a very strange place to live. The pointy building in the middle is designed with all the windows upside down and the balconies too, so it looks like it’s been put into the ground the wrong way up. Also on the left is a building where they’ve put all the air conditioning on the outside and coloured it orange.
This is a view of Hong Kong Island across the harbour from Kowloon on the mainland. I’ve being all over this picture in reality and in my dreams. In dreams I’ve had boat chases across the harbour, walked across the water, been thrown in the water by pirates and flown off the peak of the island in the background.
This is a lovely little shopping mall in Brussels; it was nice going here because I’d just read a spy novel by Colin Forbes where they spent a lot of time around this area. I also bought a pair of shoes in there. I’ve had quite a few car chase dreams around Brussels since my visit.
And there’s the chases around the Roman Colleseum. I havn’t been to Rome since I was a child but the centre of Romance still appears in my dreams from time to time.
The parliament building in Budapest. I’ve only been to Hungary once but, judging by the amount of dreams I have there, it has been a huge influence on my life. I’m not sure if I’ll ever see anything more beautiful than the mighty Danube sparkling in the autumn sunshine.
This is actually the top of a volcano at a place called Hakone in Japan. It’s definitely one of the most bizarre places I’ve been. Dangling high above a sulphur pit while engineers drill holes to help prevent the whole thing exploding molten lava over the countryside! When you get past this bit there is a lake with two large pirate ships ferrying people across to an art gallery, you can also pedal across the lake in plastic swans. I don’t think anyone will ever outdo Japan in the surreal stakes.
The coast of Almeria in Spain.I have a lot of different dreams in Spain because I’ve visited the country as a child and as an adult. One of my first memories of Spain was of my mother wiping my face with a lemon-scented damp towel. The smell of lemons always makes me think of Spain. I also like to imagine the fleets of Roman ships that used to sail across the same waters that are in the picture.
I always seem to dream of bridges when I dream of Paris, I was fortunate to be with a native when I visited, so got to see all of Paris from a Parisian’s point of view.