Some days ago, I started my trip to Rhodes/Greece, which shouldn’t be something special, because I have been three times to this beautiful greek island already, but this time it turned out to be a completely different experience.
In contrary to a lot of people in Germany I still have been travelling during this pandemic. I was carefully choosing my destinations and visited Italy, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia this year already. All these trips were done by car as a precaution.
These trips were already amazing and a very special experience. Seeing Venice almost empty and without the crowds was so beautiful. And also the other destinations I went to see had such an calm and relaxing mood. On the other hand I saw that the very economic existance of so many people was in danger. I guess I never gave such a high amount of tips before, just to show my gratefulness for the hospitality and all the effort to try to make their places safe.
But now as a, more or less, end of my travelling season this year, I’ve had a close look at the infection numbers and chose to travel to Rhodes / Greece for a week together with my love.
We booked a full package, knowing already that we possibly won’t eat in the hotel restaurants based on how many people are there and how it’s all organized. The full package included the trip to the airport and back by train, the flights and the hotel with half pension. We also booked the flight option as early as possible to avoid crowds on the airport.
Pre-travel preparations.
Quite early in the week before the trip, I realized that it isn’t a good idea to use the train when the infection numbers were going up. So I started with my preparations by booking a parking spot directly at the terminal of the Munich Airport. With this we minimized the risk of the first part of our trip
Next thing to keep the risk down, was the booking of the XXL seats in the plane, which kept us a bigger distance from other travelers in the plane.
The last thing was booking a rental car
So far. So good.
The Journey starts.
Travelling to the airport by car was business as usual. And due to the fact, that my flight was starting at 5:50, it was also the better option compared to the train, not only for safety reasons/social distancing reasons, but also for preventing myself of staying in the airport overnight, which would have been a problem anyway because of the covid restrictions.
At the airport.
I arrived at the parking area directly at the airport terminal and after getting all the stuff out of the car, I walked to the check-in point to hand in my luggage.
This was the first weird experience, because the airport was completely empty. A bit of a “I am Legend” feeling with all the empty halls and passages.
When arriving at the check-in, which I have done the day before already, I noticed that the flight won’t be too crowded, because there were hardly any people waiting for the counters to open.
Handing in the luggage was fast and easy, but security was keeping an eye on the people to wer the masks and keep the distance. Very good! Well done of the Munich Airport staff.
The security checks were also watched by security and airport staff, but because of the limited number of people it was no problem to stick to the regulations.
But this was the first time, when other travelers seemed not to care about the security rules. A lot of times the airport staff had to remind people of correctly wearing a mask and keep the distance.
I really ask myself, what is wrong with the people? Do they really have to convert to Dramaqueens because of wearing a mask? Annoying!
In the plane.
Boarding was done without problems and was done slower than usual, so the people had the possibility to keep distance at all time, but when reaching the plane it was quite clear, that the plane would be only half full. That was a quite pleasant surprise and made it also in the plane much more easy to have a bigger distance than usually.
On the other hand it showed me already that it is clear that the tourism sector is clearly having it’s problems with the situation, because people are frightened to travel and I thought of all the jobs related to it.
The flight itself was more silent than usually. This surely was also because of the people wearing the masks quite consistently and there are less interruptions, because only a basic supply of drinks, food and the usual shopping offers is done during the flights, which is perfectly fine.
Overall it felt different. People not belonging together avoid talking to each other. Everybody seems to think a second time before going to the toilet. Strange. But very understandable during these times.
Arriving on Rhodes/Greece.
Leaving the plane in Rhodes and being transferred with the small busses to the terminal feels like nothing has changed, until you arrive at the terminal and signs inform you to be ready to show your QRcode of the Passenger Locator Form (PLF).
Actually the QRcode wasn’t really checked, but some security personal just had a short look if you actually had a registration and that’s it.
At the baggage claim everything seems to be like in the old times and this is where most tourists start to ignore all rules. No distance is kept. Masks aren’t weared like they used to be.
It feels a bit like people think the pandemic is not present, just because Greece isn’t a risk country. In my opinion this is idiotic and it also is disrespectful of the people and the country all these people are visiting.
I kept my mask on correctly all the time and I also kept the distance correctly all the time, because I felt extremely lucky and happy to be able to travel to Greece and I was extremely thankful for this opportunity. This is why I’ve chosen to always stick to the rules to protect these people.
Others didn’t and there were a lot of German tourists that dropped the masks immediately when being at the baggage claim. In my opinion they’re idiots. Sorry to say.
In the transfer bus.
The bus driver explicitly had to remind most of the tourists to wear their masks and this was also a foretaste of the behaviour of most tourists in the hotel and most places.
This also meant that the only “unsafe” moments I felt during my whole trip were not caused by any greek people, but only by tourists being mentally unable to stick to the rules to protect the staff working at the hotel or at sightseeing spots. Sometimes this even made me angry.
In the end we safely arrived in the hotel and I really have to say that the whole hotel staff was doing an absolutely great job in making my stay safe and secure, even in these hard times. Down to every single maid, cook, waitress, waiter, reception staff and buffet service, everyone was doing a great job! Thanks!
Conclusion.
Travelling feels different during the pandemic and it sometimes feels unsafe, but only because of other tourists.
It saddens me, that so many tourists show their disrespectfulness with their behaviour.
It also saddens me, that I did notice, that most tourists are not giving bigger tips during these times, where it is clearly visible during the whole time, that it actually is having a huge impact on the tourism sector and the people working it it.
And it also saddens me, that most tourists don’t understand that they are the ones responsible, if we can’t travel to some countries that changed into risk countries after the main vacation times.
For me it was a beautiful trip nevertheless and I truely have to thank the greek people to have made it such a safe and pleasant experience once again.
Thank you very much!