Ninasday

Recap of year 2020

February 2, 2021 - 0 Comments

Slightly delayed blogpost due to plenty of work. But I still wanted to write a few words about last year and add some of my best memories. Although year 2020 has been very weird in many ways, I have many awesome memories and this blogpost took quite some time to create.

I decided to go month by month from the beginning of the year until the end of the year.

So, let´s start with a pretty accurate picture that describes more than 1000 words of how this year has been. Which is the feautured image of this post.

The picture is from the new year’s party we had 2019 – 2020. You had to add something “weird” to your outfit, so, a Gatorade in the hair was my choice. I was feeling really bad, I have no idea if it was because of that I ate something bad or if it maybe actually was the virus… After that party I was feeling really weird for 2-3 weeks. That is also the reason there´s not many photos from January. So, who knows, maybe it was the virus, maybe not.

January 2020

No joke, basically the only photos from January that I have are from the slopes, I am happy that we enjoyed them while they were still open. The only other highlight was a very nice charity gala dinner that we attended, and also that I decided to change my hair color to silver-ish.

February 2020

February was by far one of my favorite months last year. We booked a company trip to India; were we have an office with some pretty cool developers. It was a trip I had wanted to do for a very long time, and finally I just decided to start checking the flights and planning the trip. We also brought with us our 2 friends (who as well are our working colleagues).

We spend around 3 weeks in India, and it was such an experience, both in good but also slightly “eye-opening” ways. I wrote several blogposts about the trip if someone is interested in reading more about our India trip:

Not only did I spend 3 awesome weeks in India. I also managed to pass the “Captain” course in Andorra when we got back. Or I mean, the exam was in Andorra, but the practices were done in the coast of Barcelona (Vilanova). I have to say here, I am pretty damn proud of myself, since I am not a person who likes to study. And not only that, the whole course was done in Spanish, but just because they felt like, the exam was in Catalan…..

This is me walking like a boss to my boat (which I don´t have and I certainly don´t have enough experience to be a captain of a boat hahaha – BUT on paper I can sail whichever size of a boat… which is kind of weird (some things in Andorra does not always make much sense)

March 2020

March 2020… The month many of us will never forget. This is when everything changed, and nothing is yet not back to normal.

I want to add some memories from before all the COVID-19 measures started. To not actually forget about that there were some good days as well! Andorra La Vella was so beautiful, fully blooming and some days you could even experience a hot spring day, but in the night it was snowing. It was also in March when they closed all the ski slopes in Andorra, there was not much snow neither though.

This is the last photo of me and my friends that I have from March before all the restrictions started. Look at how happy and unconscious we were about what was about to come.

Andorra went on full lockdown in the middle of March. You were only allowed to take out your dog, go for groceries or to the pharmacy. I am very get used to working from home, I mean we have a room that is an office at home so that was not an issue. But I am also a person that likes going out to bars and restaurants with my friends (quite a lot to be honest). The solution was facetime, I spend a lot of hours on the phone with my friends, that was kind of the new “let´s go for a drink”. The other spare time I had, I tried some funny jokes on both Mamba (my dog) and Jammu (my boyfriend).

This is how the streets looked in the center of Andorra La Vella, which is the capital city of Andorra…. It was just so crazy. These streets in the middle of the ski season are packed with tourists.

April 2020

In April the full lockdown continued. There was though, at some point, a possibility to go out on X days and X hours depending on if your house number was even or uneven. With the facemask obviously. Most of the photos I have from April are photos of food, I remember checking everyday a different recipe or ordering something with homedelivery. It was by far the best moment of the day. I surprisingly also got energy to start training every day at home, although I am definitely not a fan of training at home.

I did as well continue doing jokes on my boyfriend, and different challenges like the “pillow challenge”.

Another thing I just have to add, I think I found my male doppelgänger in April 2020 – I mean if I do the same face expression as this guy, I literally look like him hahha.

May 2020

Beginning of May was still full lockdown. And 6.5 was my birthday. Birthday in quarantine…. Wasn´t actually that bad at all. I ordered fresh oysters including some seafood and created a party for myself. In the beginning of May, I also started to put on proper clothes instead of just walking around in pyjamas or training clothes all day.

In the beginning of the month, I did the covid-19 test, they had like non-stop labs in a parking next to us. My result was negative.

Since the full lockdown was still ongoing in the middle of May, I forced my boyfriend to camp with me on the balcony since I missed hiking so much haha. We (or at least me) had an wonderful night camping in a tent on the balcony.

Finally in the end of May they chilled a bit with the restrictions so you were able to go out whenever you wanted and also to the mountains. Before you could just basically walk around your block. And last, but certainly not least – you were able to be 10 ppl at the same place. I – of course – organized a small party to celebrate that.

June 2020

June was definitely a busy month due to that they opened the bars & restaurants on the 1.6. What did that mean? Visiting bars & restaurants as often as possible with friends.

I don´t remeber the restrictions in the bars but I mean even parties were allowed. We were invited to a party with the theme: 80´s and I just wanted to also add photos of how extremely “out of the box” thinker I was… Super Mario – founded in 1985!

In addition to spending most of my time in the bars and restaurants (oops). We also did some very nice hikingtrips with friends in June.

In June it was allowed to travel to France (I don´t remember about Spain but I think it was just France). To take advantage of this I reserved an epic house in Beziers (south of France) for almost 2 weeks. In there it was not even obligatory to wear the mask so it was great. It was just to do something different after being locked in Andorra for over 3 months.

June was a really nice month – besides all of the great memories above. We as well setup a new project / company with some of our friends which is already doing really good!

July 2020

July – another awesome month! So many nice memories.

In the beginning of the month, we rented a house near Barcelona and met up with the family of my boyfriend for one full weekend. We hadn´t seen them since the Christmas.

We had another trip planned with 2 of our friends to the south of Spain, Cadiz. And I am so happy that we got to do that trip, since we at this point had cancelled so many trips already this year. We had a great time together, and this was the first time I tried kitesurf, in Tarifa. I loved it, although it takes some time to learn it properly.

After Cadiz we drove through, and stopped few days in Marbella and Malaga, from where we came back to Andorra.

Arriving to Andorra in the end of July I had one of my old friends from Highschool visiting us. Always when friends or people I know, comes to Andorra I want to show everything. It is impossible though, since Andorra has so many things to offer. I was able to show some nice hiking routes, Caldea (a really cool spa in the center), and some of my favorite restaurants.

August 2020

I remember that in August there was a lot to catch up at work since we were away basically all July. I spend most of the time in August on the laptop, but when there was some free time I spend it in the mountain or playing padel tennis. I also bought an GoPro as you might notice.

September 2020

After getting slightly annoyed at all the restrictions they were putting in Andorra again. I wanted to leave for some time, and I chose to rent a house in Sant Pere Pescador to practice kitesurf, since it is quite famous for that. It´s on the north coast of Barcelona in Costa Brava. The trip did not start off that well since our car broke down just 100 km from Andorra. But the trip was worth it anyways. We rented it with our friend / neighbor and had so much fun. It was 2 weeks filled with work, kitesurf, beach life, strolling around in cute beach towns…. But to be honest, mostly Catan (a table game) and shisha hahahhaha.

October 2020

October was as well filled with so many memories. The first weekend we spend in Barcelona with our two working colleagues and as well friends. Discussing and making improvements of the company. And – obviously enjoying the nice weather and good food!

The next two weeks of October I spend in Andorra, working, but also taking some time off for ourselves, and what´s better than going to one of the most awesome Spa´s in Europe – Caldea.

In the end of October, it started to get colder in Andorra, and I felt like being on the beach instead. I (again) decided to check for a trip to the south. The original plan was to fly to Fuerteventura to do kitesurf, but our beloved Mamba was too fat for the plane. Plans changed and we took the car and drove down to south of Portugal instead – Algarve.

It was a very long trip, so we stopped on the way in a very nice dog-friendly hotel. Mambas first hotel experience.

I had rented a very nice house in Lagos, Algarve. And it was so beautiful, I just fell in love with all the surroundings. Our friends joined us as well. Although I have to admit this house annoys me still, since we did not get the deposit back, although we left the house perfect. But apparently, I was too arrogant when speaking with the owner, so I did not deserve the deposit back…. I mean wtf.

November 2020

The original plan was to stay in Algarve for 2 weeks, but I liked it so much, and it was snowing in Andorra…. So, I rented a second house for another 2 weeks in a town next to Lagos, which was as well stunning.

So, the second “original plan” was to just stay 2 weeks more (again). But I mean the weather was so nice, and Algarve had such a chill and welcoming vibe. That I booked another place, this time an apartment, for 2 weeks more. It was a really nice apartment with the most awesome views over an castle. This was in Ferragudo, and for me this was one of my favourite places during the whole stay in Algarve.

The environment was so calm and beautiful, I felt like working and training way more than usual. We did as well visit a lot of spectacular places, not only to mention that we had a stunning beach and beach walk in front of the apartment.

I actually think Mamba loved this trip even more than us.

Here are some photos from the towns and nearby places that we visited.

December 2020

Although I love travelling. After almost 2 months being away from home. The feeling coming back to the Christmas decorations and christmas vibes in Andorra…. Was incredible. So, December for me was all about Christmas. The first thing I did when coming back was to bring up the Christmas tree and decorate our apartment (although it was 1.12).

For Christmas I actually wanted to go back to Finland to be able to spend the holidays with my family but due to so many restrictions and uncertainties, I decided not to travel to Finland. Instead, we spend the Christmas holidays in Barcelona with my second family, my boyfriend’s family. We also had the opportunity to meetup with our working colleagues and friends to discuss a bit about the company’s future.

To end this very long blogpost, I want to add few photos from the new year as well. In Andorra for new year’s you were allowed to spend new year’s with 10 people, so we decided to spend it in our favorite bar: 13,5, with some of our close friends.