Life After Lockdown

As I write this we sit here in the last days of Spain’s de-escalation plan after one of the strictest lock-down’s in the world. Spain appears to be, at least for now, on the other side of this awful pandemic. We went into lock-down in mid March and for eight weeks we were not allowed to go out at all except that one of us could walk to the nearest grocery store for supplies. No exercise outside, no trips in the car; it was just the two of us, our sofa, Netflix and some inexpensive Spanish wine for two months.

At the time it seemed endless. Knowing we were incredibly lucky not to be affected personally by the virus, we still rode the roller-coaster of emotions, while we absorbed the scenes from around the world. Much like everyone we just felt punch drunk by the onslaught of bad news from every side.

Then the Spanish government announced it’s three phase de-escalation plan. While the rules here have been harsh, they have been clear and strictly enforced, which I think has been a good thing. And now we are almost at the ‘new normal’.

So what’s it like now? I would describe the release of the strictest conditions of the lock-down as euphoric. The joy and excitement of people being finally allowed outside was palpable. And for the most part the good mood seems to have continued. It was March when we took to our sofas and kicked off our winter boots. Now that we are released from the confines of our apartment it is full on summer and the flip flops are being broken out. The restaurants in our neighborhood have been busy, although the tables are spaced out further apart, the atmosphere is still vibrant.

Everyone is wearing masks as they walk around, only taking them off to eat and drink. The police are regularly patrolling to make sure that masks are being worn and to ensure there are no excessive huddles of people. We have seen them enforcing these rules, but not in an aggressive way.  Altogether it is a much better atmosphere than a couple of months ago.

For us, being able to get out and about has enabled us to properly pursue our months long fantasy life of becoming homeowners again.  Finally our obsessive online real estate habit can move from the virtual world as we can now drive around areas that we had previously only seen on Google Street View. That search moved at a pace, and having a home base in southern Spain is looking like a reality in the next few months. Update in next post!