Traveling during the COVID-19 Outbreak

“Scary, weird, anxiety-inducing, apocalyptic.” These are a few of the words that have been circulating over social media and the news throughout the last few weeks. I’ll admit the world feels a little off-balance with everything that is going on. I never want my blog to be a place of darkness or sadness, but I feel I would be doing everyone a disservice if I just ignored what was happening. Especially since I had firsthand experience while traveling during the peak of this virus. We know hindsight is 20/20 but here is an account of what was taking place while planning our trip to Europe.

January 26 – Arizona (my current home) breaks the news that there is a confirmed case in my county. This individual contracted the disease while returning home from Wuhan, China – the suspected birthplace of this virus. This was the 5th confirmed case in the United States, coming just 5 days after the first US case. With everything we knew at that time, I didn’t think it was a big deal.

Feb. 5 – US confirms there are 12 cases in the country. The death toll reaches 492 – mostly from the China area. 12 still seemed low and I was focused on the numbers. My trip is a few days away and none of the areas I’m visiting have any confirmed cases. It’s no big deal.

Feb. 24 – US confirms 53 cases (39 from the Diamond Cruise) and Italy becomes the most-affected country in Europe. I had friends visiting Italy at this time so I was frantically reaching out to them to make sure they were safe. They told me that it sucked the Venice Carnival was cancelled, but in all reality the media was blowing it out of proportion. It was no big deal.

Feb. 27 – Our vacation to Turkey, Switzerland, and Poland is less than a week away. Every other day, Allie and I are refreshing our news pages. There are no confirmed cases in Poland or Turkey. Iran is getting to be a bit crazy, which shares a border with Turkey, but we are confident we will be fine since we are visiting central Turkey. Friends and family start reaching out asking us what we plan to do. Are we going to postpone? No. We don’t want to live in fear. There are only 9 cases in Switzerland total. That’s less than in the US. This will all die down soon, we are sure of it.

March 5 – Some of our flights got cancelled or changed. I spent hours changing them to make this trip still possible. We have two days until our trip and as of right now, Switzerland is surrounded by countries that are heavily affected but the three countries we chose to visit in Europe seem to be better than the rest of the world. Poland only has one case. It’s fine.

March 7 – We arrive at the airport to fly from Phoenix to LA and then to Paris for a quick layover. We know France has confirmed cases so we were hyperaware of any coughing at the airport or on the airplane. I was expecting to see people distancing themselves or at least in masks (we tried to get some but they were sold out and our nurse-friend told us with the way the virus was being transmitted, it would be a waste of our money). But no, everything was super calm and low-key. We truly did not experience anything crazy and everyone appeared to treat it like another normal travel day. On the plane, I listened to my podcast “How Men Think” as they did a special report on Coronavirus. They interviewed a passenger from the Diamond Cruise infected with coronavirus. The older gentleman said he had a one day fever and a dry cough but that was it. He says the virus is being blown out of proportion and the 14-day quarantine is the worst part. The doctors interviewed on the podcast agreed. I shared it on my Instagram stories because it brought me peace of mind. We are all freaking out for no reason.

March 10 – Everywhere we go, we are sanitizing seats, suitcases, basically anything we touch. Again, we are hyperaware of people coughing and sneezing but we didn’t experience anything out of the ordinary or see anyone who looked extremely sick. We continued to enjoy our trip, washing our hands often. We went to Auschwitz, walked around the Wawel Castle and saw other Polish tourist sites. Crowds of people were still out and about and this virus was the least of anybody’s worries. We left for Turkey, not knowing they had just reported their first confirmed case of COVID-19.

March 12 – The night prior Allie and I flew from Cappadocia to Istanbul, Turkey after spending some time in the most beautiful place on earth. We had a 9AM flight to Switzerland booked. At 5:30AM (Turkey time) Allie and I woke up in a panic. Not only did we not know anything about Turkey’s morning prayer ritual that is blasted over speakers across the city, but we looked at our phone and collectively had 22 missed calls, and dozens of texts from family and friends. Something was not right. We were filled with dread as we called our dad. After 1300 confirmed cases and almost 40 deaths in the US, President Trump made the executive decision to restrict travel from Europe. Basically we were told to start packing and looking for a new flight because if we didn’t make it home by Friday at midnight, we were (for lack of a better word) screwed. We were bummed since we were supposed to skydive in Switzerland the next day. But Allie has a job and we couldn’t afford for her to go into a 30-day quarantine just so we could check off another country on our bucket list. We started researching flights home to the US. Things were just now starting to feel a little more serious.

We made it to the airport, purposely missing our 9AM flight to Switzerland and instead boarding an 11AM flight to Germany. We had a long 24 hours ahead of us but we would ultimately make it back to the states by midnight. Sitting at the Istanbul airport, we were trying not to think about how our trip was cut short. I hate to admit it but I was pretty pissed off. I had not educated myself well on the coronavirus so I was only going off of what I was seeing in realtime. It felt like the media was causing fear in a time that felt like complete normalcy where we were. Yet, we had no idea the chaos we were about to get into at the Munich airport.

Every terminal you walked through at Munich was airing Tom Hanks and his wife on the television screens. They had just tested positive for the virus. Allie and I wiped down two reclining seats at the airport and spent the next few hours catching up on the Bachelor Finale. With one hour until we boarded, we made our way toward our gate. And that’s when things started getting a little wild. I kid you not, there were four gate agents trying to calm all the Americans down and get five different flights checked in. Almost every single person in line trying to get to their gate was an American that was frantic due to President Trump’s latest announcement. Everyone just wanted to enter whatever US city they could by midnight. People were flying into Chicago, San Francisco, New York, and Boston – all major airports but that was the final destination for few. Most of us had very long days ahead of us. And, I’ll be real most people were livid with Trump. A ton of vacations were getting cut short, a ton of students studying abroad were being flown home with no idea on whether or not they would be graduating in the spring now. We simply had no idea how big of a deal this virus was. We were naive and annoyed.

However, in all the confusion and hurt, I have never witnessed more compassion from people in my life. I have always loved airports. Watching people reunite with their loved ones never ceases to bring tears to my eyes. On this day, Thursday, March 12 the energy could have been negativity but instead people arose to the occasion. Everyone was talking with one another, building relationships, and showing kindness to the stranger next to them. We watched as the last boarding call was announced for Chicago and New York and people continuously sprinted to the gate agents trying to make their flights. In a world, oftentimes in the mentality of “too bad, you should have prepared better,” everyone stepped aside and made room for those about to miss their flights. I cannot even put into words the selflessness and acts of kindness that were taking place. I had never heard more remarks of “please, go in front of me,” “safe travels,” and “good luck!” In a time as crazy and unknown as this, it appeared everyone was putting others before themselves. It was truly the most beautiful thing I have witnessed this year.

Because Allie and I had extra time between flights, we started conversations with those around us during passport control and security checks. Below are a few stories and anecdotes from those impacted:

“I had to pack up my entire apartment over night and throw away a ton of stuff. To be honest, I haven’t even slept yet (at 4pm).” – Student studying in Budapest  

“I got an email at 2am confirming we had to leave so I immediately started packing. We knew it may be coming because our friends got pulled from Italy days ago.” – Student studying in Paris 

“People are in a panic. The government is going to declare the country a class 3 tonight. There is nothing left on the shelves in the grocery stores.” – Paris student

When asked when their semester will continue: “We don’t get to come back. The semester is over. Each school has to figure out how they are going to give us credit. Everything stopped prematurely.” – Vienna student

“My parents were supposed to come visit me tomorrow. Now I have to leave. I woke up to a flight confirmation from my grandpa early this morning. We’ll just have to send receipts to the college to try and get reimbursed.” -Budapest student

“We were told it was safe to stay in Ireland, but everything we wanted to do was cancelled and closed. We still have 2 weeks of vacation time so I guess we’ll spend it at home.” – A Texan couple using their PTO.

Of all the people we spoke with, almost all of them had booked a flight that morning. It was unreal to think of how busy airlines and airport staff had to be working that day. To say people were grateful is an understatement. Every single person that went through security, scanned their passport, and checked bags were immensely thankful. I thanked a TSA agent, literally while he was patting me down, for all the work he had done that morning and all the work he would be doing in the upcoming hours. He thanked me for saying “thank you.” It was a sincere moment for me. Gratitude is so simple to give, yet few of us practice it on a daily basis.

The moral of the story, is the Coronavirus was not super prevalent when we traveled across Europe. We did not see the point of going home early and many of us were upset about the money lost and adventures not experienced. But, here I am, coming forward, stating that I was a part of the problem. I continued to go about my life, travel, and be angry when I was sent home before my trip was supposed to end. The fact is, I was not educated and I did not know. Now, knowing what I know, I am so grateful we went home when we did. Yes, quarantine would suck and it’s not ideal but more than anything I would have never forgiven myself if I continued to visit tourism hotspots potentially spreading a virus I was unaware of having.

I’m trying to have compassion for the people who are continuously making jokes about the seriousness of this all. I’m forgiving my friends who celebrated St. Patty’s Day in Chicago and other major cities around the world with hundreds, if not thousands, of others. This is serious, you guys. It took me more than 3 weeks to understand that its not just the media using a scare tactic but that it is in fact deadly. I pray that people don’t wait three precious weeks, like I did, to wrap their heads around the seriousness of this.

If you’e still hanging with friends, going to restaurants/bars, and acting like this isn’t a big deal, get your shit together.

The following thread is taken from an Italian citizen.

As they put it:

“To the rest of the world, you have no idea what’s coming.”

MUST READ👇

— Yano (@JasonYanowitz) March 14, 2020

At the end of the day, we are living in an unpredictable time. We do not need to live in fear, but we do need to be informed. I’ve experienced every single emotion since this virus appeared on my radar. Right now, I am experiencing gratitude and watching as the world comes together as one. I had the privilege of witnessing a group of 100+ people at an airport in Munich show tremendous patience and kindness to each other. People of all races, genders, and economic status stepped aside to let people go ahead of them, wish one another luck on their journeys and demonstrate immense empathy for changed plans. Since returning home, communities are showing acceptance and compassion. I’ve seen people offering to buy groceries or run errands for the elderly or those who are more likely to contract the virus. I’ve witnessed Targets and other grocery stores put a limit on how much toilet paper or paper towels a single individual can buy to reduce hoarding. We all need to do our part to come together and help one another.

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It is believed that the US and England are 10 days behind Italy in the COVID19 progression. We asked people from all around Italy to record a message for the themselves of 10 days ago. @athingby

A post shared by Olmo Parenti (@olmaster) on Mar 15, 2020 at 8:36am PDT

While this situation is not ideal, especially as we live in a country that is constantly in a “go, go, go” mentality, may you take this time of social distancing to actually distance yourself from large groups. Visit your local library and check out books. Read a genre you usually don’t. Meditate. Journal. Do yoga or an at-home workout. Watch a new TV show. Do something you’ve been wanting to do for months, something you’ve been complaining that you wished you had more time to accomplish. But most importantly, use this time to allow others to lean on you. Write a letter to your grandparents. FaceTime your parents and long-distance friends. Start virtually attending a church and watch sermons online. Read the Bible. Do something that makes you feel connected while we are disconnected.

I’ll leave you with this. Instead of reflecting on the fear and negativity of this situation, be grateful for you health and look for the goodness that is all around you. Use this time to reflect on what changes you need to make in your life and say “thank you” for having this time to slow down a bit and put everything into perspective. If you don’t need to travel, don’t. Do your part to stop this from spreading. The world will get back to normal, I know this, but it can do so much sooner if we all do our part. Stay safe and healthy, friends!