It often takes a vacation to gain a little perspective on everyday problems.

And for Carrie Bradshaw — who hightails it out of town with her three best friends in Sex and the City 2 for an ultra-luxe getaway to Abu Dhabi — the time away is spent reflecting on her recent nuptials to Mr. Big.

“There was a wedding, and now there has to be a marriage,” explains Sarah Jessica Parker, who portrays the iconic fashionista.

The actress (in Elie Saab Couture), along with castmates Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, and Cynthia Nixon, is perched between glittery Louboutins and Manolo Blahniks in the shoe salon of Bergdorf Goodman for the film’s press conference.

“Where Carrie finds herself at the top of the movie is starting, as she typically does, to ask herself about the environment in which she currently lives. Those questions and the theme of the movie for all of us, is tradition. Why do we run toward it? Why do we push it away, and why, when we so willingly want to commit to the institution of marriage, do we find ourselves squirming and asking questions? How do we define tradition for ourselves?” wonders the actress aloud.

And then, she adds with a smile, “What better place to ask these questions than the Middle East?”

Though vacations with girlfriends can also mean nasty fights (have you been following The Real Housewives of New York?), Parker says that the bond these characters share, in addition to being the hallmark of the blockbuster, is what she finds most powerful.

“In an era where women are really unkind to one and other, and call each other horrible names, and there’s vernacular that our ears have adapted to, which I find really objectionable, I really really love how these women love each other. How decent and honorable they are to one another,” she says.

“I love that they were never made to be friends. Their DNA is so radically different from one to the next, and they have found this incomparable friendship that is truly inspiring to me, and it changes the way I think about my friendships constantly.”