The World Out There Is Just Fine
- Matt
- Jan 9, 2022
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 24, 2022
Going outside one’s house, country or continent is no more dangerous than staying indoors.
In the summer of 2020, taking advantage of a seasonal respite between worldwide campaigns of excessive border closures I resigned from my job to start a trip involving 6 countries and 11 international flights before coming back to the starting point 15 months later.
In December the same year Arsene started his own world itinerary with the intention of tackling Latin America again.
In summary
The world out there is ok. People live normally and make do with whatever random constraints their governments force on them. Most individuals I talked to were not convinced that those constraints, together with the atmosphere of fear curated by the media, were in proportion to any tangible danger.
A list of mosts
Most normal people: Mexico. People were friendly, laid back and chill.
Most psychotic country: France. Divided, arguing, debating, etc…
Most care-free country: Croatia. They really don’t give a monkey.
Most expensive PCR: Spain. EUR120 for the privilege of having a wooden stick stuck up both your nostrils.
Most annoying masks: Germany. You can’t just put on any mask, it has to be one specific standard. So German.
Here is a country by country takeaway:
France
France was very clearly to be avoided during the cold months but from June onwards it felt very normal. In August 2020 if you sat down in a random café you would hear French people arguing for/against wearing masks. One year later, sitting down in the same café you would hear them arguing for/against the vaccination.
Arsene and I hired a car to drive through the beautiful and varied vistas of Brittany, eating lots of crepes in the process.
I came back to France one year later, still in the Summer, and had a mini-road trip through Provence.
Croatia
Dubrovnik is usually a packed place. But in October 2020 it was very quiet. You could have those Game of Thrones backdrops all to yourself (see video further down). There were temporary spikes of visitors following the rhythm of Easyjet flights. Surprisingly, many people from the USA were there. Why? Because at the time Croatia was one of the few (if not the only) country of Europe that welcomed Americans without requiring a PCR test. I’ve even met a British guy who said, “I came here for one week and decided to rent a hotel room with a sea view for three more weeks. I keep it quiet and stopped posting to Facebook because all my colleagues are locked down in rainy UK”. Good on him.
Unlike Dubrovnik, Split can be lively even without tourists. Locals were enjoying the last warm days of the year.
Croatian water in October is still great for swimming: fresh but not too cold. Beaches are rocky and on sunny days, water is blue.
Portugal
Like Croatia, Lisbon was an opportunity in November 2020 because accomodation was super cheap. For €60 a night I rented a large top-floor two-bedroom apartment right in the centre of Lisbon, two minutes walk from Garrett Street. When I came back one year later that specific flat had gone off the market and prices had tripled.
In July 2021 some misguided person in the French government publicly declared “French citizens should avoid going to Portugal” to which French citizens replied “Booking flight now”. August 2021 was an opportunity month because the vaccination logistics were just starting. The initial friction meant there were relatively few tourists and you could find last-minute cheap accomodation, which is usually impossible in August. However in September and October Lisbon was again packed like never before, with visitors from all over Europe and daily cruise boats. Great holiday atmosphere though.
Sunny days can extend until the end of November. Then it becomes wet and gloomy.
Mexico
At the time of writing (January 2022), Mexico still doesn’t impose any kind of testing on entry and vaccines are not mandatory. Also, Mexico's tourist visa lasts a very generous 6 months.
There was a big variability between local regions. At the start of January 2021 Mexico City was no fun: coffees, restaurants and museums were closed. However, exactly at the same time, the small resort of Playa del Carmen was completely open. Playa sits on the opposite side of the country, facing the Caribbean sea, somewhere between Cancun and Tulum.
Playa del Carmen is normally a holiday resort, within easy reach of the USA. American citizens come here for one week of sun, maybe two but hardly more. One very long and narrow strip of restaurants and a large array of accomodation covering the whole spectrum from shabby to luxurious. The rest of the city is not touristy and sprawls very far into the reclaimed jungle.
In 2021 Playa was morphing into something more than a convenient seaside destination. A community of people fleeing the worldwide restrictions was quickly taking shape. People who did not agree with mandatory vaccines and health passes and who decided -instead of complaining- to anticipate government decisions and make an early move. There were citizens from the USA of course, but also from Canada and even Germany, France, Poland, Romania. Initially they had only come for a few weeks but eventually they decided that it made sense, for the sake of quality of life, to remain there long term. Some of them were taking the legal steps of obtaining temporary residence in Mexico, taking their kids out of the schooling system.
I talked to Canadian citizens who were especially angry and motivated to leave before vaccine madates are deployed. This was in April 2021. A few months later unvaccinated citizens were effectively banned from leaving Canada.
Settling in front of the Caribbean sea with reasonable rent in a place with minimal Health&Safety annoyance was the ultimate heist of 2021.
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