Sex, Travel and The Pandemic

Normalcy, Love Interests, And The Way Of The Apollo

Most of my summer in Europe was spent in Finland. My friend Pipa had told me that in Finland, there were no restrictions. All the clubs, bars, and restaurants were operating at full capacity. No one wore masks and weirdly enough, the death rate due to COVID-19 was next to none. What the hell was Finland doing to be able to keep the COVID-19 rates so low despite having no restrictions? This was the complete opposite to its neighbor Sweden which also had no restrictions but had sky-high cases. I wanted to see for myself.

I booked a last-minute flight from Cologne, Germany, to Helsinki, Finland, on August 7th, 2020. It was a trip of discovery but also one to visit Pipa. We had met in Miami and spent days together exploring the American city. Right before the pandemic started in February 2020, I had a quick stint in Miami to open a bank account before flying off to Frankfurt. I remember the exact day that we met for many reasons, one of those reasons being that it was the memorable day of international love, Valentine's Day 2020.

We had become quite close during our few days in Miami. Very close. We would walk through the populated streets, hand in hand, as though we were a couple. We weren't a couple, though, not in the actual sense of the word. We were just two people who met in a hostel and, for a short time, became intimate. On the day that we met, we pretended to be each other's valentines, only for it to escalate into a little bit more than pretend. I began to see her as more than just a hostel fling or a friend with benefits.

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Pipa, my second official Love Interest since I became single. As you already know, my first love interest since I became single was Anna from Germany.

Let me explain a little something about my relationships with women since I became single. Most had been short and fleeting, with no real connection. That's what the life of a digital nomad is like. If you are a single digital nomad, even a tiny bit attractive with a good enough way with words you will meet and attract much of what you desire in the opposite or same sex. All this to say, you will make a lot of friends, some of them a little more than friends. A few, however, will stand out above the categories of Friends and more than Friends and be what I like to call Love Interests.

In works of fiction, a love interest is a man or woman with which the protagonist seeks to develop a romantic relationship beyond sex. Nicholas Sparks is famous for creating compelling storylines around this idea. Will the protagonist get the girl or the guy? Will they live happily ever after? Well, in this story, I was the protagonist, and Pipa was my Love Interest.

Pipa was a calm soul, very quiet and peaceful, and not into too much drama. Nothing seemed to bother her. This is the complete opposite of Anna who was a fireball of a woman who wasn't afraid to tell you exactly how she felt.

These were the only two women who I've met in my digital nomad journey at the time of this writing to whom I graciously and unsparingly gave the right to break my heart, a right I don't give up that easily.

Anna and Pipa became my main Love Interests because after spending some time with them, I developed, dare I say, feelings. I had told Anna during our time together that I wanted to travel the world with her and only her. I then told Pipa that one day I was going to steal her from Finland. I had actually meant these things.

This is not to say that they are still my Love Interests. This is to say, that, at the time, they were.

It was a bit of a struggle to get into Finland. Inside the country was open and free without restrictions, but its borders were tight and heavily restricted. You couldn't come to Finland just for vacation. Most Finnish people would think you're crazy if you ever came to Finland for vacation. They would say, "Why would you come to Finland?" This was just a running self-deprecating joke by the Finnish. Now it was illegal. You could only travel to Finland if you're a resident, for work, or to visit friends or family. Lucky for me, I had a friend in Finland. They asked me for her name and address and even for her phone number. They asked everything, only just stopped short of asking for her shoe size and sexual orientation. They asked me what she was to me, and I said, "She is my girlfriend." She wasn't really my girlfriend, but it seemed like the right thing to say at the time.