My dad’s Turkish, and when I was tiny, we used to drive to Turkey about once a
year. It took us four or five days. So my travel experiences from the age of
about one to four were in the back of a car. My mum and dad would put bouncy
chairs onto hooks, and me and my twin brother sat in the back, bouncing up
and down as we drove along.
I remember crossing borders – in those days, we had to go through the
Bulgarian border to get to Turkey: checkpoints, car searches, travelling
through Eastern bloc countries. We’d stop along the road and my dad would
fry eggs on a little Bunsen burner. We were away for two or three months, so
my idea of travel was quite exotic.
My ideal holiday now is to go somewhere like the Golden Door health retreats
in Australia and spend a week detoxing: having a complete internal makeover,
swimming three times a day, going for walks in the outback, having a really
strict diet, but being pampered with massages, acupuncture and hypnotherapy.
That’s my idea of a holiday: getting myself sorted out. I like 100% luxury.
I want more comfort than I have at home – that’s the point of being on
holiday. I won’t rough it, ever.
Places where there’s lots of fresh produce excite me, too: plenty of fish and
vegetables. That’s why I like going to Australia, the cuisine there is
amazing. I spend nearly all my time in Sydney; I like the architecture. It’s
very hilly, but feels open, not at all cramped or congested.
The city is spread out and the temperament very easy-going. It’s also quite
cosmopolitan, with cinemas and art exhibitions. In Sydney, I’m not always
very sociable. I go to bed early and get up early, whereas in London it’s
much more full-on. I’m good on a beach holiday for maybe a week, then I
start to get cabin fever.
When I’m in New York, I like to stay at established hotels, such as the
Peninsula. You can be Mrs James from Derby or Madonna – everybody gets the
same level of respect. I love the anonymity afforded you in those big, old
places – in the more classic, old-school hotels, you get to disappear. I’m
not a bijou-hotel person at all.
One of my main criteria is that a hotel has to have a swimming pool. The
Peninsula has one on the top floor, so you have this brilliant view down the
avenues to the park.
There’s a tiny little spot in Kenya called Kiwayu, near the Somalian border,
which has to be one of my favourite places on earth. It’s so tranquil. You
just lie on the beach and thousands of pink crabs cover the whole shoreline
– you have the combination of the aquamarine sea and the pink crest of the
crabs. I went there for a week on my own in January, and I definitely want
to go back. There was a brilliant pastry chef, and I ended up playing chess
with the owner, which was good for my brain. I like to go to places that
mentally stimulate me.
My mini art kit travels with me everywhere – it’s just a snap-close freezer
bag with my watercolours, different sized brushes, pencils, pen, pencil
sharpener and a tiny watercolour pad. At the air-port, I’ll buy a lined
writing pad, and wherever I am, I’ll try to get someindige-nous paper. In
Africa, you can buy old faded notebooks and really old paper, so when I do
drawings on them, they become my special “African” paper.
I’ve been to Las Vegas and done road trips across America, and now my thing is
to do driving trips across Europe with my boyfriend. I like the idea – I
suppose it’s because of when I was a kid, driving to Turkey. Driving slows
everything down; you understand where you’re going and recognise different
cultures, instead of just getting on and off a plane all the time.
My big problem is that I suffer from the most terrifying jet lag. I’ve tried
everything – nothing works. It takes me a good three weeks to recover from a
trip to Australia. When I come back from holiday on a Friday, I’ll tell
people I’m returning on the Monday. It gives me the weekend to get my head
to-gether. Sometimes, the best holiday can just be at home when nobody knows
you’re there.
Tracey Emin talked to Veronica Groocock. Her exhibition at the Scottish
National Gallery of Modern Art opens on August 2 as part of the Edinburgh
Festival
I agree, the whole point of travel is to stay in places that are better than you have at home. Otherwise the whole western imperialism thing comes in to play. I am surprised T.E. made no mention of Venice, especially as it has been a supporter of her work for years!
Alexander Carraro, Horsham, UK