We Made it Safely to Praia, Cabo Verde

Dear Family and friends,

My better half and I have officially made it to Praia, Cabo Verde.

But the journey was not easy . . .

We started off our day not being able to properly leave our apartment because of an anti-mask demonstration in Berlin. That‘s right, thousands of people assembled literally in front of our doorstep, without masks, to protest against the German governments‘ alienation of their human rights.

This, as Bae and I stood inside the courtyard of our building with 5 suitcases and four carry-ons hoping that our brother-in-law would be able to make it through the throngs of police standing, literally, between us and our path to the airport.

Babay, if there is one person you can count on, it‘s my brother-in-law. He talked / yelled his way through police barricades and told us we had one shot to get all of our stuff out and into the car. With one very large suitcase in the front seat with my now very uncomfortable sister-in-law, we made the short trip to the airport, thankful that we did not have to deal with an anti-mask protest for too long.

Anti. Mask. Protest.

Y‘all . . . I just . . . What do you even say at this point?

We made it to the airport and we got to spend time with the family before we said our goodbyes. We then made our way to the mercifully empty business class lounge and marveled at the fact that this was the last time we would be traveling for the foreseeable future. After grabbing a bite to eat, we then made out way to the security line where the incredibly rude security officer told us that we had too many carry-ones.

To be clear, we each had a weekender and a bookbag. How, sway? How do we have too many bags?

She said the German government had just changed the rules so that we could only have one bag. Didn’t we hear the announcements?

In my best Karen voice, I said „let me talk to your supervisor!“ I then explained that we were leaving this place to literally move to another country, and that even if we did hear the announcements, what we were supposed to do with bags that had already been packed?

The end results: they literally made us put one bag inside the other and carry what wouldn‘t fit in our hands onto the plane.

I wish I was joking, but this is 2020.

Sweet relief came in the form of the Lisbon airport. Although most things were closed, we did manage to grab a few croque madame‘s for 10 dollars each as we waited for four hours at the gate. At the two hour mark, we were told to exit the seating area to then be reseated after showing our negative coronavirus tests and passports.

The actual flight to Praia was actually quite lovely, and since we were in the front of the plane, we were virtually the first in line at the health screening where we were required to fill out yet another contact tracing form and get our temperatures checked. We then made it to the security line where we waited another hour before finally being allowed in the country.

I have to say, all of the shenanigans were worth the wait because this place is phenomenal. Almost every day, we wake up and go for a walk along the esplanade to take in the exceptionally bright African sun, salty ocean spray and healing island breeze. We have quickly made friends (or at least, we know everybody’s faces) and have already tried one of the local dishes, Cachupa! There is gin at every store and we are in the process of trying all of the local wines and spirits including „grog.“

We are indeed in paradise, and we cannot wait for you to visit. Now, for those of you who do plan on visiting, we want you to know that we are excited to see you, but can‘t really host you until air travel normalizes.

And it most likely will not be in 2020.

Big sigh . . .

But we are here, we are happy and we are safe.

And we hope you all are too.

Peace and blessings to you all,

. . . The Trendy One