Rapidly Changing Travel Scene
As I write this story, I am sitting in my room in Iceland. I arrived here after spending a glorious week in Stockholm, Sweden. Everyday, I check the rules and regulations for the simple reason that the numbers of cases of COVID have increased significantly in the United States.
When I booked this trip, all you needed to visit any European country without undergoing any quarantine or testing was to be vaccinated and have proof of it. By the time I left, , Sweden has closed itself totally to Americans but at the last minute, they’d opened up. They required one to provide a negative test within 48 hours of arriving.
That was a challenge due to living in Alaska. There are limited places one can obtain a test since in many cases, the tests must be sent to Anchorage to be processed and can take up to 72 hours to complete. I ended up settling for a rapid NAAT test and only found out after I got to Europe that the PCR and other tests listed were types of the NAAT.
Sweden had tons of places to get the rapid antigen test including at the central train/bus/metro station. I needed a negative rapid antigen test to fly into Iceland. To fly into Iceland, the airlines checked my test results, vaccine card, passport, and made sure I’d gotten my arrival papers taken care of. Then when I arrived, I had to show my bar code indicating I’d filled out the necessary pre-check paperwork. I again had to show my passport, test results, vaccine card to be admitted.
I understand the necessity for all this care since the current delta version is supposed to be extremely easy to catch and is causing cases to go up significantly. The day I arrived in Iceland, I located the closest place to my hotel to get a rapid antigen test done so I can return to the United States.
Since I left Sweden, they’ve decided to say no to tourists from the United States so I’m happy I went when I did. If you regularly read up on what is happening, you’ll know that a few countries are now saying you must have gotten your vaccine within the past 6 months which means if you got it last December, January, or February, you are out of luck.
Right now, traveling around the world is almost a crap shoot because regulations are changing day to day making it harder to plan ahead. It’s more like if you can go, you go on your planned trip, taking it day by day and hoping you find what you need to get to the next country.
Will I take another trip to Europe during COVID with everything going on? Yes I would for the simple reason that I feel a bit safer since I have to undergo regular testing to get from one country to another. In addition, I could easily get COVID at home as I can traveling so why not. Let me know what you think, I’d love to hear. Have a great day.
