It has been about 23 months since we returned from Ireland, to a vastly changed world, with no idea how long the changes would last. My most traveled year, I boarded a little over 30 airline flights, 4 last year. A couple of times I have gone to Europe twice in a 12 month period, it has been a couple of years since the last trip, and I am longing for the good old days.
I am maxed out on accrued vacation and paid personal days at the office, and struggling to find reasons to take a day here and there to minimize the loss of paid time off that I will never get. In the past this was never a real issue, only when I was distracted or careless did I run afoul of the rules. But without travel, both business and personal, I find it hard to take the time I have earned. I often add a few days to work travel, staying over at my own expense to see people or places. I have had one work trip in 28 months. And nothing seems to be coming up.
I recently had a thought, oh get on with life, I should just book tickets and go. The response was, is it time? Is it safe? Be careful.
We are going to New York in April, train up and back, and a hotel. NYC long ago instituted needing proof of full vaccination for indoor anything, and masks. It makes it a bit safer. I look forward to it.
I long to hop the pond, I long to see familiar places and faces, and to explore places and experience adventures unknown. Spain, Portugal, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark are all on the bucket list. I read the online news in Iceland, an island nation that has done well at isolation in the pandemic, yet 1,400 positive tests and one death of a young person in the week before my latest read. Maybe this is a longing I need to experience just a little longer.
I want to travel aboard in the worst way...but just looking at that picture has given me way too much anxiety, and in too close of quarters for me.
ReplyDeleteIt will get better, someday we will once again feel okay sleeping in a tube full of strangers
DeleteSo much anxiety. I look forward to my first trip across the ocean in 3 years, as long as I don’t think too much. I just want someone (who knows what they‘re talking about) to tell me it’s completely safe to come out now. Things have again been improving here but there are still so many rules ... and too many stories of positive diagnoses.
ReplyDeleteAnd I am hearing reports of people who have traveled, who have been careful, and are just fine, and refreshed by the experience.
DeleteIt's a crapshoot!
ReplyDeleteAnd I never was one to play in traffic
DeleteWe flew to Oregon late last year, and luckily the flight was broken up into two two-and-a-half hour flights because a long time masked in a tiny space would not be fun for me.
ReplyDeleteA friend flew to Germany to visit his wife, 12 hours, a true sign of love and devotion
DeleteI can sympathize, I get the same feelings. I tell myself just go and then the little thoughts creep in. Will I be safe, what if my immunity is waning. Things like that.
ReplyDeleteSomeday I will just start going
DeleteWhen I read this kind of thing, I'm very grateful that I have never been much of a traveler. I do miss my cruise ship days, but the fear of being stuck on a ship during a pandemic surpasses any longing of mine to bask on a glorified petri dish! I do feel for those of the wandering heart and feet.
ReplyDeleteA trans Pacific Cruise, repositioning from Alaska to Japan is on my bucket list, after I retire
DeleteEven countries that have done exceptionally well have failed with the latest Covid strain.
ReplyDeleteAnd the USA has not done really well
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