Our second home: Spain (The Eurotrip begins)
“¡Es que es tu casa!” (It is your home!) is what an old Spanish lady would say to make you feel welcomed. And that is —in a way— what Spain is for us (Peruvians): a sweet and loud grandmother, happy that you are visiting her, but also eager that you follow her rules and respect her customs.
Every time we have traveled to Europe in the past we have almost always entered through Madrid. Even back when we needed a Schengen visa —since 2016 it is no longer required to Peruvians—, Spanish authorities were very uncomplicated and always let us in with open arms. However, due to the pandemic there were new regulations in place that we had to fulfill if we wanted to go through immigration control.
I took the precaution to fill all the information we required —names, dates, and the type of COVID-19 vaccine we had received— and saved the QR codes of the formats while my boyfriend (X) was packing. We were about to leave the country for a couple of months, and we had a lot of things to do ahead of that. As it usually happens, we finished with everything just a few hours before our flight`s departure, and we had to rush to the airport to catch our plane.
At the airline counter in Lima, a guy revised our documents to check that all our papers were in order. We had passed the first filter, however we wouldn`t be able to relax until we entered Spain officially. The waiting on the gate, the boarding of the plane and the 12-hours flight happened in the blink of an eye. All of the sudden we were in front of a migration officer that asked us: “How long are you staying in Spain?”
The best thing one can do —and you should take this as friendly advice— is always tell the truth, no matter how difficult it is to process. “Ten weeks!” we said in unison, with a big smile in our faces (We had agreed in advance that saying "two months" would sound too much.). Another vital piece of advice is that one should never talk too much, all the question should be answer with the bare minimum. The migration officer looked at us, looked at our papers and after a brief consideration, he put the stamp on our passport and told us: “Welcome to Spain”.
After that, we already had one foot in Spain, although they still could send us back to Peru; a COVID-19 control was still pending. Since we got the Pfizer vaccine in the United States, in our vaccination cards only appears our first name and surname. We were still afraid they would say something because it does not exactly match the information in our passports, in Peru we use both our paternal and maternal last names.
We walked as nonchalantly as we could to catch the train to terminal T4. There, before we went to pick up our suitcases, a team of nurses in medical gowns checked our QR codes. They looked at me and let me pass —without showing them any vaccination card— but they asked X for his card. I had to assist him, because I was carrying all our documents, and soon they let him pass without much fuss.
That was the last checkpoint we were officially in European territory! Before we could even celebrate, we were leaving the arrivals area of the airport. Our ten weeks of living abroad had officially begun, after several months of careful planning. Looking back, it wasn't that difficult, although it did took us a series of steps to get exactly where we were. We had finally arrived at our new temporary home.
