The horror show is finally coming to an end! At least we hope so, but at this rate, anything can happen. Who could have predicted that the world would grind to a complete stop thanks to a teensy weensy virus?. Here is our wrap-up of the shiteshow called 2020, the year that broke the world!
Good Riddance To The Year And Its Bad Rubbish: Adios 2020
No report card this year! The year started out well enough, and we were geared for another year of travel, but like it or not, life has changed for everyone, we included.
It Started Out Great:
True to our predictions for 2020 based on our report card from last year, we set out to visit the northern part of Spain in our quest to see more of our own backyard.
We had a wonderful three week plus holiday visiting Bilbao, a place l fell in love with easily, Santander, Burgos (a pleasant surprise), Salamanca (another extremely pleasant surprise), and finished up in Toledo (l still have to write about that lovely city) before heading back to Valencia. We were itching for more.
The Mayhem Begins:
We had secured housesitters in March for another three-plus week trip to Italy, Sicily specifically. We were attending a conference for a few days and then we were going to explore the island as neither one of us had ever been.
I won’t go into the whole story again since l wrote about our grand escape through France in this post. Needless to say, we and pretty much everyone else was grounded. Some were stuck wherever they happened to be while some decided to move back to their home countries to weather the storm.
There was no doubt as to where we would stay. Valencia is our home now. We felt safe, and even though the lockdown was one of the strictest in the world, we survived it with minimal collateral damage for which we are thankful.
We had a cruise scheduled for the beginning of summer that was of course canceled (not that we would have gone at any rate). Every so often, I get a teaser email saying a refund will be forthcoming, but l am not holding my breath as the company went bankrupt.
Travel Blog With No Travel:
Travel writing in 2020 just seemed out of place for me, so to keep myself occupied, I picked up podcasting again after abandoning it four years ago. Having time to research further, I think the shows sound a lot cleaner now. I enjoy chatting with others about travel and life. Each story is unique and l hope very inspiring to others.
What’s in store for 2021?
Your guess is as good as mine. As far as the blog goes, I will stick with presenting the travel stories until l feel safe enough to travel again. I will throw in the updates every so often. As far as writing about Valencia, I am writing on that on my new Valencia site, so check it out if interested.
Truth be told, I seem to have lost my taste for travel. A lot of my friends are feeling the itch to travel, it’s in their blood, DNA, etc., etc. Me? If it happens, it happens. If not, I am not too fussed. I have also been a bit more active on our YouTube channel. We are quite happy to discover more of Valencia and the sorounding areas.
I’m especially happy because I’ve had the privilege of traveling to pretty much anywhere my heart has desired. That could be why l don’t have that rush or eagerness to get out there, especially with all the precautions and travel restrictions.
Italy and Nigeria in 2021?
According to the vaccine rollout schedule, we fall into the third quarter of the year as far as our turn to get vaccinated. This means more than likely towards August or September, or even later. After that is done, we will then see about visiting his family in Italy, and mine in Nigeria. If not, we will carry it into the following year. Even though we would like to visit the U.S since we canceled for this year, I still don’t see that happening in the next year.
Bugger Off 2020:
There is a special, or it might have simply been just been a commercial on television in Spanish that l saw an ad for. The title is “a la mierda 2020” which translates to “f**k 2020”, and the woman had on the sourest face ever. I ran to unmute the sound but was too late. The Spanish don’t mince words haha! I hope l find it again as l definitely want to watch to brush up on my swear words. So l say good riddance 2020, the year that was a pain in the butt for most people.
Season’s Greetings:
Federico and l would like to take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you compliments of the season. We hope you had a great Christmas. May 2021 be an amazing one for us all. Please stay safe and healthy.
What are your plans for the new year? Any trips on the calendar?
Kemkem, I could not agree more…good riddance indeed. I have enjoyed your podcasts in 2020, so I hope you will keep it up in 2021. Keep well my friend and Happy 2021!!!
Thanks for your never wavering support, Gilda. I really appreciate it. I wish you, Brian, and my fellow chemist, a wonderful and glorious new year. Yep.. a la mierda 2020! :-).
Happy New Year, Kemkem. You can look forward to the nomadic life sometime in Q3 2020!
Thank you, and the same to you. Yes, Q3 will be here soon enough :-).
Sounds like you have excitement without traveling Kemkem! As for my family, we aren’t planning any traveling, I’m content to stay home with my hubby, granddaughter and great granddaughter. I do hope 2021 will be a healthy year and that Covid will fade away. On a different note, I just read you have 2 beagles! We just got a beagle puppy in September, he’s now 5 months old and full of energy! Our great granddaughter Lia and Rusty are growing up together.
We have indeed managed to do without too much travel. I echo your contentment with the simple things in life. That much 2020 has taught a whole bunch of us. Let’s hope the coming year is a great one for all. Oh, I did see your beagle puppy on one of your recent posts. So darn cute and it’s great Lia will be able to grow with Rusty. Ours are getting up there in years. We believe they are both about 13 years old based on what the shelters said years ago. We just cherish whatever time we have with them. Happy New Year!
Kemkem,
I enjoy listening to your podcast but loved seeing your post recapping the horrors of 2020, a year best described as bah humbug in my opinion. We, too, were so fortunate escaping unscathed at least physically from the pandemic and even did some pretty long road trips here in the US. But seeing the torment experienced by so many has been heart wrenching because we see little immediate relief in sight for untold millions of people. I am beyond thankful with the leadership change here in the US and hope that will bring in measurable change in time and a new hope for the future.
wishing you and Federico a healthier and happier 2021,
Annie
Happy New year to you and Steven! I’ve been keeping up with your stories of the road trips when it drops in the mailbox. Glad you made lemonade out of lemons, and yes..a humbug year! Lately, l have been watching the “Invisible People” channel on YouTube and l am shocked to see familiar places in L.A become overrun with homeless people and to know that immediate relief is out of reach for them is gut-wrenching. It was bad before, but now? Holy moly! :-(.
I hope and pray that this new year will be a little kinder to the world. Stay safe and healthy :-).
Happy New Year! At leas you managed to get some travel done this year and your Italy/France experience is definitely one to remember and talk about for years 🙂 I really liked the fact that you said that you indeed managed to see all (or at least most) of the things you wanted to see. I don’t think that for people like us the desire to travel will completely disappear, but not feeling the pressure to travel no matter what is a big win at the moment.
We didn’t do ANY travel in 2020 (although, boy, did we have plans!) but we still managed to complete the year 🙂 We’re hoping that this year, things will change but our country is not as organized vaccines-wise, so we have no idea if we’re in any plans for it 🙂 We’re trying to see if there will be any way for us to get the shots, but it will probably not happen too soon.
So yeah, I don’t really think that 2021 will be much improved compared to 2020, but we’ll probably have a more active and safer summer season and second half of a year. As all as we’re all healthy – that’s all that matters 🙂
Happy New Year to you too C!. Yes, we did manage to salvage last year. I still get the shakes when l think of how close we came to being stuck in Italy. It would have been disastrous for us, and the sitters who also barely made it back to Portugal before the shutdown. It will definitely remain fresh in my memory for a long time :-). I am definitely okay with not rushing to travel right now. I would find it too stressful which kind of takes the fun out of the travel in the first place… haha!
So sorry your travel plans got scuttled. It was such a brutal year travel-wise especially. It would be great to know when the vaccine might be available there, but even here, just like everyplace else, it’s just a guesstimate. So much unknown. I think it’s wise to put travel on the back burner for now because l agree with you in that it will be a while till things calm down, so for much of 2021, we can just forget about it.
Stay safe and healthy. That’s all we can hope for right now.