In this article, read what it was like to fly during the corona virus pandemic, and what we did on our first few days in Greece.
My friend, Nada, and I, had planned a trip to Greece before the whole Coronavirus pandemic came into the picture.
We decided to keep our trip on the calendar, as restrictions in Europe have been easing up. As things panned out, our trip was planned for after the first big wave of the CoronaVirus. Since the numbers of cases were dropping and restrictions were easing up, we felt it was alright to travel. We also were staying in one place, not traveling around to stay in a bunch of different cities, which I felt would have not been ideal in this situation, as the more you travel, the more you up your chances of spreading or coming into contact with the virus.
Health aside, it was time for a trip. I had just taken an exam and put finishing touches on a 15 page paper for the university. Nada and I picked a cheaper round-trip flight, meaning that our flight left Germany at 5 am and arrived in Santorini, Greece, at 9 am.
Because of the virus, only one terminal of the airport was open, so we had to get there 3 hours early to get ahead of long lines. I went to bed the night before at 7 pm (never did that in my life) and woke up at 1 am. We made it to the airport at 2:30, and just minutes after we arrived, the line got super long behind us.
Lesson: Get to the airport early, if you need to fly during the pandemic
The flight was fine and calm, the only difference was that passengers had to wear masks the entire flight and wash their hands/ sanitize often.
We touched down on the island of Santorini, Greece, at around 9 am. There is only one runway at the airport. I don’t think I had ever been to an airport that small!
The first thing we did was find our shuttle to take us to our hotel- the Andromedas Hotel in Imerovigli. He took us up a winding mountain road to our hotel. We were welcomed with a seaside view of the Mediterranean sea, fresh air, and a warming sun.
After dropping off our luggage, we went to a market to grab some waters and snacks, and then spent the afternoon relaxing in the sun and chilling in the pools.
Dinner was interesting. I found out that Greece has a lot of salads, and I’m not talking about lettuce salads. They have lots of cold salads, like with pickled beets, pears, and a type of mayonnaise (I found that was not very appetizing). For our main course, we had rice and meatballs with tomato sauce. I found this dish bland- I was getting the idea that perhaps the kitchen was low on goods, and they were just serving us what they had left. Dessert was fruit, and in my opinion, you can never go wrong with fruit!
We slept like rocks and woke up perky the next day. I made a video of our first day in Greece, below. I would love it if you gave it a watch.
Stop by next week to hear about day 2 in Santorini, Greece!
“ONCE THE TRAVEL BUG BITES, THERE IS NO KNOWN ANTIDOTE, AND I KNOW THAT I SHALL BE HAPPILY INFECTED UNTIL THE END OF MY LIFE.” – MICHAEL PALIN.