Snippets: Have We Forgotten How To Travel?
…Flew to Europe and realised I’ve forgotten how to travel
With mandates and restrictions easying or withdrawn and some normality coming back to travel after about two years, have we forgotten how to actually go about our favourite leisure passtime?
The question was implied in a recent article with the writer going through the motions, feeling excited, nervous, anxious and confused. Forgetting how to pack when he was always ready at a moments notice, having bags pre-packed. He was trying to figure out what he needed.
I don’t blame him especially for someone who travels to earn a crust. Packing is one of the most frustrating things. He didn’t need this extra aggravation.
He goes on to explain he has forgotten how things were: the queues, dropping off luggage, the length of time getting passports checked, bags scanned and waiting to board. The feeling of landing in another country, transiting in an airport half jet-lagged trying to kill time and queueing again for another flight and then arrive at destination hearing a different language, seeing different people and culture, etc.
In many ways nothing has really changed with travel, he says. Very true. Take away all the restrictions it’s the same old thing until you need to show a vaccination certificate and wear a mask. The mask wearing got to him. He’s not an anti-masker but wearing a KN95 for 24 hours was not a comfortable experience. But he says it is what it is, this is what you have to do. Basically live with it.
The wearing of a mask on planes has never been proven to work with an already excellent HEPA air filtration system. More like someone will get sick by touching surfaces rather than breathing in the air.
The writer goes on to describe his experience in the country he lands and the excitement the locals at seeing tourists visiting them. His major concern was returning back to Australia just in case he caught COVID-19 and taking a RAT (rapid antigen test) and if positive the consequences that came with that. Also if getting sick while overseas and the worries that would bring. So it all depends how much risk you want to take and be prepared for it.
He finishes off positively by saying if you can ignore all of this, like he has, international travel right now is still the same as it was. It’s worth queueing up for, he closes.
I take my hat off to him. Personally won’t be travelling until all restrictions, mandates, directives, etc., that were put in place because of COVID-19 have been taken away, completely. I have my strong views on this whole thing. Yes it’s political, but I base it on real science, and not on the science that was peddled all the way through the last two years or so.
The restrictions on free movement were the worst. When I say free movement I don’t mean people being sick travelling, this goes without saying. Anyone sick should be quarantined not the healthy. Society should not stop. This is what happened during SARS, the precursor of SARS-CoV-2, the COVID-19 virus. Nothing has changed from when people had influenza, which is highly infectious and deadly as well. In fact it is possible many died of influenza during the last two years but were reported differently. So, if you were sick (had influenza or another infectious respiratory disease) you didn’t travel full stop. Basically you can’t anyway.
Anyhow, we can only hope everything gets back to normal by the end of 2022. In the meantime for those of you willing to do as this writer, I wish you the best of luck and enjoy your travels.
