A little over a week ago, I was torn between going to Greece at a time when the Coronavirus was getting serious, and staying home to be safe. I have tried to live by the theory that life is short, and you never know when you’ll have another chance to do something. The virus is spreading, but it currently hasn’t affected Greece very broadly, so I made the decision to stick with my travel plans.
The first day in Greece, we had a meeting with our tour director. We were informed that when we arrived in Olympia later in the week, that we wouldn’t get to do some of the activities because they had been shutdown due to the virus (school children had been there a few weeks prior, so they were taking time to sanitize everything).
We began our tour, and continued with most of our original itinerary. Most of the tourist stops were very empty, because people had already began to cancel trips.
On day 4 of the trip, we had turned in for the night, and then most of us were awakened around 3AM by phone calls and texts from family back home. President Trump had issued a travel ban for anyone flying from Europe to the U.S. My family was freaking out that I wouldn’t be able to get home and that I would be stuck in Greece. Once the details of the travel ban were explained, we learned that U.S. citizens would still be allowed to enter the country.
At breakfast the next morning, we were anxious for our travel director to fill us in on what she knew. It was recommended that none of us change our flights because it would just cause a bigger mess. And even if we had wanted to leave on an earlier flight, we were over a day’s drive away from Athens, so we wouldn’t have been able to make it to the airport in time to leave before the travel ban started. Again, we were not going to be stopped from entering the country, but if we had made it home before the travel ban then we wouldn’t have had to go through extra border checks at U.S. Customs.
The travel ban started on Friday night, and my flight was scheduled for Saturday morning. Because of the travel ban, it meant that we could only fly into certain airports because additional screenings were required when we our international flight arrived in the U.S. There was still so much unknown about what the screening would be, and what would happen. I had friends that were ready to drive to Atlanta to pick me up just in case I was not allowed to get on my domestic flight.
Luckily, Atlanta was one of the designated airports that would be doing the extra screenings. So I didn’t have to change my flight. When the wheels touched down in Atlanta, we were asked to remain seated because Homeland Security was going to board the plane and screen each of us. This consisted of us filling out a form and noting if we had any symptoms. It was a pretty simple process……..in Atlanta anyway. Other airports had 3-4 hour long waits in a line to check temperatures.
Once I was off the plane and cleared for my next flight, it was a creepy feeling walking through the almost empty airport. Almost as strange as the empty plane I just got off of. I had the entire row to myself, including the row behind me, in front of me, and next to me!
I finally arrived home Saturday evening, am I’m now getting settled in for the recommended 14-day self-quarantine. I am not looking forward to two weeks at home by myself!