It's 11:59 p.m., with the typical excitement of those who rush to say goodbye to the past year and the excitement of those who welcome the new one, we raise our glasses and begin the countdown: 10, 9, 8 how cool 2019 was... 7, 6, 5 2020 is sure to be a great year... 4, 3, 2 ains, how exciting... 1 HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Welcome to 2020, the year terribilis. Of course, as we celebrated the first hours of 2020 with Claudia and Jairo, we had no idea what was in store for us. And neither did you. On paper, this year was going to be a blast: it's January 1st, our family is fine, we're fine, the blog is working and we've already organized trips to Japan, Korea, Uzbekistan and Egypt, we're planning a trip to Peru and another to South Africa. And most importantly: the word pandemic sounds like the Middle Ages to us.
I guess we all feel the same way: if on January 1st someone had shown us in a crystal ball what would happen in a few months… we wouldn’t have believed that witchcraft. A pandemic? In 2020? Nah. Impossible.
To be honest, we had no intention of writing this post, but hey… customs must be respected and yes, undoubtedly 2020 was a difficult, complicated year that we wish we hadn’t had to live through. But it will be part of our history and well, why delete it? In fact, writing in black and white is always a way to exorcise things… And here we are, with our traditional (not so) traveler summary of the year.
January
We started the year in Chiang Mai, our favourite little corner of Thailand. There, between a massaman curry and a Chiang(s), we spent the first days of 2020, ignoring what was going to happen to us. After saying goodbye to our Asian home, we boarded a plane to Hong Kong. It was our second time on that strange island, but the sensations didn't change: it's the bomb! Maybe it's the neon lights that light up the night, the hustle and bustle of the streets, the skyscrapers, the street food or, surely, everything together... but we love Hong Kong!
We also had time for a trip to Macao (you know, the Las Vegas of Asia) and to Hong Kong Disneyland, which, by the way, was strangely empty, as news of a certain virus was already beginning to circulate… It must be a bad flu, we thought. Oh, how naive.
In the middle of the month we changed countries again and arrived in Japan, one of our favourite places in the whole world. And yes, everyone (or almost everyone) was wearing a mask, but since it is normal here, we continued with the idea that the “Corona Virus” that was being talked about so much was just the flu.
February
After returning to Kyoto, getting drunk in Nagoya with our friend Yukino, thoroughly exploring the Japanese Alps and visiting the icy, snowy island of Hokkaido for the first time, where we coincided with the Sapporo Snow Festival and the Otaru Snow Path Light Festival, we settled down for 3 weeks in Tokyo, a city we are completely hooked on and where we escape whenever we can.
At the end of the month we parted ways: Rober was going to spend a month in Myanmar with Jordi, a friend from Barcelona with whom we had already travelled to Sri Lanka a few years ago, and Lety was heading to Seoul, the capital of South Korea, which she had not yet visited and was dying to see.
But we were still suspicious: at that time, a super outbreak of what was already known as Covid-19 arose in South Korea, following a religious ceremony of a sect in the city of Daegu. Is this virus not going to be as mild as we thought?
March
In Myanmar, the word Covid did not frighten anyone, life there went on quietly among pagodas, faces painted with thanaka and smiles. In Seoul, on the other hand, things were different: the city was deserted, many attractions were closed and EVERYONE was wearing a mask. Even so, the capital of South Korea seemed to have the situation under control and there were few cases.
But something happened that made me very nervous: several countries started to restrict flights to/from South Korea. The plan was for Rober to arrive on the 20th to travel around the country for about a month. Then fly to Uzbekistan, where we would stay for 2 weeks and finally return home.
What to do? Stay there, alone, waiting for them to close the door to Rober? Things were getting worse by the day: the number of cases kept growing, the list of countries cutting off air traffic with South Korea was growing, and the hopes that “it was just the flu” were fading away.
And then the cases started to appear in the rest of the world. An outbreak in a small town in Lombardy made me make a decision: we are going back. I spoke with Rober and we decided that the best thing was to forget about the trip to Korea and Uzbekistan and go back to Europe. He would stay one more week in Myanmar, to return to Spain at the end of March, and I would head to Italy.
I remember it was Sunday, March 8th, and the news seemed bleak. That's it. I can't wait any longer. I bought a flight from Seoul to Venice and back to my parents' house. But soon another bad news came: Italy was closing the door to flights from South Korea. Long story short: I changed the flight (Emirates customer service did a spectacular job, honestly) and went to Madrid. Rober, who understood that things were going to get really bad, also brought forward his return and arrived two days later than me. On Saturday, March 14th, we were already quarantining in Sigüenza, together.
April
What can I tell you that you don't already know? Since the state of alarm was declared, until... until today, we won't deny it, we live in a kind of parallel life. At first we didn't believe what was happening and, if I'm completely honest with you, even today I find it difficult to accept and understand the reality we are living.
Who would have told us that we would spend months locked up within the walls of our houses? That people would run out of toilet paper and yeast reserves? Did millions of people really watch The Tiger King on Netflix XD? Had balconies really been transformed into stages? Had we all really been, at least once during quarantine, Belén Esteban? Would we really endure, become better people, and everything turn out fine?
It turned out to be a bit of a mess, to be honest… we're not going to talk about the obvious, but the scar that we're going to be left with is one that won't go away. We don't want to even imagine what it must be like for people who fought and are fighting on the front line, for those who lost someone…
May
After spending a long quarantine in Sigüenza (Rober lost his sense of smell so he had to lock himself in his room again for quite a few days), we went down to our base of operations in Spain: Vera Playa, close to Cabo de Gata. This month was a month of hard work, of getting back into a routine that brought us back some normality. Or rather, a new normality (what a horrible expression). Different location but the same emotions, with that strange feeling of vertigo when we see ourselves suspended in the air without knowing when we will put our feet on the ground again. It was a completely timeless period. We don't know if it happened to you too, but it seemed like the hours weren't passing, that everything was paused and forced into invisible and enormous parentheses.
Suddenly Saturday would come and we would go crazy. What happened to the rest of the week? We are not doing badly being in a glass cage, in fact we are used to spending a lot of time locked up. It may seem strange since we spend our lives traveling, but when we come back, we usually lock ourselves in the cave to write. And we love it. Of course now the circumstances were different and obviously we weren't loving it at all.
June
In June we were able to travel again, with care and taking all precautions, and of course after the end of the state of alarm: the Costa Tropical and the Alpujarra Granadina seemed to us the most exotic in the world. And although it was a strange trip, in which we were more concerned about having the mask on properly and washing our hands every now and then, we enjoyed that handful of days in the foothills of Sierra Nevada as if it were our first trip.
We also took a mini-road trip through the province of Malaga, visited Setenil de las Bodegas (Cadiz) and met up with dear people again: it was so good to see you again, Maria and Fra!
July
We assume it was because of the hunger for travel that the lockdown left us with: after months away from what we like most, the honey that the mini-trip through Andalusia left on our lips and the flattened curve, as soon as we were able to travel... we did it to the fullest.
So we packed our backpacks with the Valerianos (Rober's parents) and headed to Zamora and Lake Sanabria, before visiting a lot of places in Galicia. And, although it was a fast-paced trip, we enjoyed it tremendously... Because, who can resist the charms of the land? From the Ribeira Sacra to the Rías Baixas, from the Cíes Islands to Santiago de Compostela, from the Costa da Morte to the Rías Altas... there was no place in Galicia that didn't conquer us. And the food, mother of all beautiful love... that seafood feast, celebrating Valeria's birthday, we will never forget it.
August
In August, together with half of Spain (oh my god, seriously, we were all there) we were able to complete the road trip by spending a few days in the Principality of Asturias. And since then we have dreamed of a triangular wooden house, lost in the Asturian mountains. Seriously, what a gem of a place. We are looking forward to returning, with more time and NEVER AGAIN IN AUGUST.
September
We returned to Sigüenza, where we stayed for a month between August and September, and then we got back on a plane to Italy. But not without thinking about it over and over again. Finally we took the PCR test and went home: I hadn't seen my brother or my grandfather for almost a year and the last time I was with my parents was when we left them at Male airport (Maldives), back in October last year.
What a change of scenery! It was strange to return to my hometown. It was strange to return to Italy. One Saturday in September we boarded a plane and crossed the boot from north to south to reach the heel: Puglia. Together with my parents we made a quick trip through Puglia (and Matera) and then…
October
… In October we were left alone and continued touring the south of Italy (Basilicata and Calabria). And we got rid of a thorn that had been stuck in our side for a long time: we finally set foot on the Aeolian Islands (Sicily), and although it was very fast, we felt that energy that, it seems, only exists in places as special as this one.
Unlike the trip to Galicia and Asturias, these were slow days, in which we enjoyed the little things from start to finish. And what a delight: the south of Italy is a true wonder, if we ignore the tons of rubbish, of course, what a pity.
In the middle of the month we returned to Vera and, confinement again.
November
Although the month was boring and it was almost the beginning of a forced hibernation in Vera, something unexpected happened that gave us some life: our friends Claudia and Jairo rented a really nice little apartment opposite our house! So we can now say that we have nice neighbours. The BBQ on their roof terrace, the afternoon with Jack, the nicest dog in Mojacar, a coffee on the beach, a beer in the sun or talking from “terrace to terrace”… are things that get you out of your lethargy.
Let's see, we haven't seen each other that many times either (I think we're all in a constant state of quarantine now), but knowing that they're across the street cheers us up a bit XD and since then, whenever we go to the supermarket and see tofu, we think of them.
December
And we have reached December, what a strange month in this strange year. Our families are still healthy and, although Rober has not recovered his sense of smell -_- we cannot, nor should we, complain. Objectively, this year 2020 was horrible. For everyone. But NOT ONLY because of Covid-19, although the virus overshadowed everything, during these 12 months we have had :
- Fires in Australia
- The attack on Iran almost caused a new world war
- The helicopter accident that killed, among others, Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna
- Floods in Indonesia
- Locust plague in Africa
- Chernobyl fires
- An asteroid “grazed” the Earth
- Asian giant killer hornets
- Volcanic eruptions and earthquake in Mexico
- The murder of George Floyd sparked a wave of protests and demonstrations in the US.
- The Beirut explosion
- Incessant propagation of denialists and brothers-in-law
- Another year without winning the lottery
Yes, it's clear that it hasn't been an easy year. At least Trump hasn't been re-elected, something that would have been good for 2020. And although on a personal level we wouldn't say it was a super enriching year, we didn't reinvent ourselves (ugh, that word), nor did we take advantage of the crisis to become gurus or to launch online courses-podcasts-workshops or to do sports and say that we have a healthy mind in a healthy body . But we did learn to value much more what we had and have and that we didn't see. We're still going full throttle with the blog, we read more than ever, we watched a lot of series and we dream of the day when all this ends and we can fully enjoy traveling again. And to value health, damn it.
The day is getting closer when everything will be a sad memory , like, do you remember 2020? The leap year that began on a Wednesday. In which the Pope slapped a Chinese hand, which according to certain theories was that of a time traveler, who had come from the future to warn humanity. The year in which an invisible virus produced enormous scars on the collective body. It was the year in which hugs were banned and art was enjoyed from balconies. Heroes wore uniforms and houses smelled of freshly baked desserts. It was the year in which we learned to listen to our lungs and our heartbeats were confused with the applause at 8:00 p.m. It was the year of many epilogues, but also of new beginnings.
2021 is almost here and, as we all know, its beginnings are not going to be easy either. But we have to be positive (light lots of candles, go on) and hope that things will get better, or better yet, that things will go back to normal… Because if 2020 taught us anything, it's that we were happy, even if sometimes asymptomatic . And I'm sure it taught you too.
May 2021 be better and may we all, ALL, behave with common sense. Please. We send you a virtual hug.
