Motivated by the shortage of things to do and fear that if she spends another weekend indoors she’ll lose her mind, a woman from Esch has planned a visit to the capital on Saturday to sample free hand sanitizer in Grand-Rue boutiques.
“I’m so excited just thinking about all those fancy scented hydroalcoholic gels,” said Itzayana Davila, 32. “Some might smell like lavender, some might smell like lilacs, and some might smell like floor cleaner.”
“And if I find one that smells like schnapps, I’ll drink it,” she added.
“I’ll be like Julia Roberts in ‘Pretty Woman’ except that instead of having unlimited credit and a fun 60s song backing me up, I’ll have a credit card with a 250-euro limit and the song ‘Mad World,’ which sounds like something you’d play at a funeral, stuck in my head.”
“Still, I’m looking forward to it,” she said. “Don’t judge me. This is all I’ve got.”
Davila had originally considered hanging out in a large supermarket in Esch or Foetz, she says, which is her usual social activity in the time of Covid restrictions, but they’ve all kicked her out for loitering.
“Apparently they don’t like it when you sit down on the chairs in the garden section and watch a movie on your phone,” she said.
Experts say that sampling hand sanitizers in boutiques is now one of the most popular leisure activities in Luxembourg, fourth only to binge eating, having lunchtime cocktails, and arguing with people you live with.