Let's wrap this year up! It is a beautiful winter’s day today in Barcelona and the sun is smiling down on us in our perfect marina in Arenys de Mar. Living on a yacht has its benefits; one of them being that, outside of going to buy groceries or our many excursions into the nearby hills, we are mostly removed from Covid, mask-wearing and restrictions.
While we might have chosen Arenys de Mar for our winter home based on the easy access to some incredible mountain biking trails, it turns out we lucked it into a bizarre little pocket of nature that is protected from the worst of the weather. The frequent winter storms and gale-force winds that barrel down from the North Atlantic are channelled up against the East side of the Pyrenees and across the Gulf of Lyon, creating havoc for sailors. Here in Arenys, we have mostly calm and sunny days while the winds create drama not even 100 km either side of us. We will appreciate it while we can because come spring we want to cross the Lyon!
We have been more than impressed with this perfect Marina and now even more because of the shelter it provides us. Come take a walk around with us
Crazy times for our friends and family back home and we feel your frustration and disappointment. What a year this has been for all and we definitely have some mixed feelings as it draws to a close. We have had a few laughs - mostly at ourselves - made a few mistakes and learnt so much. Yes, it’s a constant learning curve; like buying a heater for the yacht when what we actually needed was a dehumidifier to suck all this cold moisture out of the air. Or asking the local mechanic/handyman for his advice on a small issue and a week later he still hasn’t left. Something was clearly lost in translation here. Possibly because being a native Catalonian his Spanish is almost as bad as ours. Anyway, the problem that didn’t really need to be fixed has been fixed and we continue to learn.
Speaking of learning; our Italian friend recommended we watch some Spanish movies to improve our language skills. So after Googling “top Spanish movies” I (legally, of course) downloaded some from Netflix. El Gaurdian Invisible, Contratiempo and Durante la Tormenta were highly recommended, so it was with great excitement that we settled in to watch our first movie – keen to see how much we would understand. Ten minutes and much debate later though – is this Spanish? Yes, no, definitely, maybe – we came to the realization that the Spanish movie with English subtitles I had downloaded was actually dubbed into Italian. (Damn, I know that free download site was too good to be true). I have since then learned that the lexical similarity between Spanish and Italian is over 80%.
What! What do you mean I am now learning Italian not Spanish??
Either way, I have to tell you that Spanish movies are exceptional; they have the right mix of drama, love, murder and a really healthy amount of mystical magic or superstition thrown in.
I am slowly learning the language though and according to Duolingo have added 7,644 words to my vocabulary in 2020. However, when caught in an unexpected situation, I find that all these 7,644 words seem to go out the window and my standard line of ”tu hablas ingles?” doesn’t always work. I was sending it down the single track the other day, “mass rapido”, when two little old ladies stepped out from behind a bush and nearly got run over. I greeted and apologised and relied on my standard “tu hablas ingles?” when she started going off at me “mass rapido” in Spanish. Sensing the nature of her words, and in a panic, I for some reason asked “hablas aleman? Frances?” No idea why, since I clearly can’t speak either, and so I sped off down the track, laughing as she hurled the word “animales” at my departing back. No translation needed, message received – it was a good day out!
We have been fortunate enough to successfully obtain 5 years residency in Spain, sneaking in just before the brexit deadline. It was a lot of fun completing the process on my own in on Spanish websites but somehow those extra Duolingo words helped at last. And, I always enjoy the trip to Barcelona that goes along with it.
My mind is starting to move towards next year and new goals to keep my love of adventure alive. Being isolated at this time of year away from my family is hard for me, but it’s ok because roll on next year. I will not only enter 2021 with a bang, but will do so knowing that things are going to improve and we are going to make more dreams come true – for us and others on GypsyDjango.
In April we begin our return journey to Croatia, first spending some time discovering Ibiza and Mallorca before tackling Menorca for two weeks of sail / ride / run adventure. We have mapped out routes connecting cala to cala and plan to complete most of the challenging 185km Cami de Cavalls trail circumnavigating the coastline of Menorca. We are expecting some friends to join us exploring this ancient path created in the 1330’s for soldiers to patrol the island by horseback. And of course plenty of swimming in turquoise waters and tequila shots under starry skies.
In May it will be time to start the crossing to Corsica (remembering that Gulf of Lyon), some Italian coastline and (hopefully this time) a brief stop in Albania before arriving in Croatia in June. It is a lot to plan and even more to look forward to. Optimism is high as enquiries and bookings for the 2021 Croatia season have been picking up with many keen to join us island hopping between Split, Hvar, Vis, Trogir and wherever else GypsyDjango may take us. We are especially looking forward to our first trip in June built around a mix of friends keen to join.
And remember, we have space for you too...
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