Corona-Cation!

It’s crazy to think we are 4 months from Christmas and basically 2021! What a year!

I realised that in August, I celebrated one year of being a single homeowner. It’s amazing and yet truly scary. My house and I have a true love hate relationship, I love it but it hates me and likes to constantly challenge me. In the last year I’ve done a lot (new heating system, electrics, ceiling fans, oven, etc…) and still have more to go (painting and no doubt new surprises). Next week I shall install a new shower thermostat bar… I still refuse to use my office as an office, which is ironic given that Ive been working from home for over five months. It’s just not as close to the kettle as the kitchen table is.

I regularly getting emails from HR telling me it’s important to take a holiday. I’ve been thinking about a holiday for a while (since my original holiday to Egypt was cancelled in March) and looking at different options, I really wanted either Egypt (still considered a no go zone as it’s not in the EU), Cyprus (yeah, no real issues but flights aren’t that frequent) or Spain (I go roughly ever year to Mallorca). I didn’t want to stay in the Netherlands, I need sun, sea and all inclusive, whilst reading at least a book a day. In the end, Spain was the best and easiest choice…

The Netherlands classes EU countries by colour and risk: Green (no special security risks), Yellow (caution, security risks), Orange (only necessary travel, serious security risks in this country or region can create dangerous situations for travellers and vacation trips are not “necessary”) and Red (do not travel, very serious safety risks can create a life-threatening situation for travellers). When I booked my trip, Spain was yellow and then a week before I travelled it was categorised as orange. My travel agent panicked and suggested I cancel… I said ‘thanks but no, Im going’ and opted to travel. I was then told that if anything went wrong on my holiday it would be at my ‘own risk’ and I’d be personally financially responsible for any costs/issues. The Netherlands is considered a orange country to our neighbours/other EU countries, so going from one orange country to another didn’t seem like a risk to me. I could also feel the change in my mood and realised that I really needed a break, to get away from work and my stresses.

It’s interesting to think how much everything has changed since Corona, airports are functioning well under capacity, as are airlines. I was surprised when I had less than 30 people on my flights. I wasn’t expecting a popular tourist destination of Spain to have no tourist or people and to be a ghost town of itself. It creates a lot of questions around what the future holds for travel and aviation, tourism, social distancing and the ‘new normal.’ 

Spain has a rule that you must wear face mask when in public or generally out of your home (something the Dutch refuse to do). They also enforced a new rule of no smoking in public areas (outside of your home) when I arrived, given my anti-smoking stance, this delighted me. I have to say it is odd wearing a mask constantly, not great for make up either but for me its most difficult not being able to see facial gestures. A world without facial gestures is so odd, I think my functioning autism doesn’t help this but so many queues are missed with masks. 

I spent a week in the sun, by the pool, on a sun lounger reading, it was amazing! I got through 11 books in 8 days, I was aiming for 10-14 books, reading target hit! I liked the fact that my books ranged from sci-fi fantasy to psychology to the civil war to the Holocaust. I even had a bit of a personal break through, which was funny, it was a pure  light bulb moment reading the psychology book and I wanted to dance with excitement but instead I just looked around at the other 2 people by the pool and thought, ‘best not interrupt their naps’. This was a break that I really needed. Normally I get bored on holiday and want to spend a day doing something and on this holiday, I wasn’t bored at all, which is amazing for me, given my small attention span. Or as I would say, I missed another opportunity to scuba dive, theres always the next holiday! 

The resort I stayed at had less than 50 guests, which was truly amazing. There were never more than 10 adults at the adult pool and never more than 20 people at the family pool. It was one of the nicest, quietest holidays Ive ever had, which was fantastic, I can’t say it enough but it was also surreal that it was so quiet. It was weird to see what should have been a tourist destination with no tourists and 9 out of 10 stores/bars/restaurants closed. It’s obvious that the majority of businesses are affected and will likely not make it past the year due to a lack income and missing what is the most profitable part of the year. Also with Corona numbers continuing to spike and governments putting in different restrictions, theres no guarantee that tourists will return this year. 

And with all good things, they come to and end. It was an amazing week, that I needed and Im now looking at sunny destinations to visit in October, as I feel like I need more sun and dont want the tan to fade, maybe this time Ill even go scuba diving… Now to self-isolate for 10 days and adapt to my 5am alarm clock again!