I’ve planned three trips to be done within the last few moths of 2020. First of these, London, is now cancelled in my mind since the COVID-19 situation seems to be still relatively badly out of control in the UK.
The reason for the London trip was a gig — Kandace Springs was going to be performing at the Alexandra Palace. Of course it might be that the whole gig is going to be cancelled, but nonetheless, I decided not to proceed with the trip just because of the health risks.
However, I’m still hanging on to the latter two trips, Budapest in November and Berlin in December. Fingers crossed, but ready to delay or cancel if needed. Going to have a look at the general status of COVID-19 on those countries a month or so before the trips, as well as what the Finnish health regulators tell us about traveling to Hungary and Germany.
New destination by the Danube
Budapest would be a totally new experience for me, because I’ve never been in Hungary. A fast search tells me that there’s two sides, Buda and Pest, which are divided by the Danube river (the second longest in Europe, after Volga). I’ll leave it to that, let’s see more when the trip is closer and once I get there.
I usually don’t like to overgoogle things about my upcoming destinations, because there’s an additional layer of excitement and interest when you just go to a destination and pretty much improvise your staying there as the days progress. Of course you can explore things a bit in the Internet before leaving the hotel once you are in the destination, but no Grande Plan made at home, and no tight schedules to follow.
Old destination as a waypoint
The historical city of Berlin I’ve visited about ten times or so. As much as I would love to continue exploring once again the Berlin avenues, my heart wants to take it a bit further.
I’m thinking of going to a smaller destination outside Berlin, but have not made the decision yet which one will it be. When I was still walking — before the Charcot Foot and it’s second coming — I did a trip flying to Berlin and taking a train to Schwerin, a city with a lovely castle.
Maybe it will be Görlitz this time, or Meißen or Würzburg. On the other hand Dresden would be very interesting because of it’s war time history, but then again it’s not a small city. Well, I have time to make my pick, so no hurries or worries at the moment.
On COVID-19
I understand the reasons why the world is now upside down when it comes to travel (and lots of other areas of life). I myself am in the high risk category, with my chronic Lyme’s disease, endlessly lasered retinopathy eyes, incurable Charcot Foot damage (2x in the same foot) and signs of the coronary artery disease.
So I’m not going to take the risk of traveling straight to COVID-19 hotspots or make otherwise brainless decisions when it comes to traveling in the COVID-19 times. However, I’m not going to stop traveling completely, and I have actually done lots of it inside Finland after the first easenings of COVID-19 related rules were made.
This Saturday I’m going to take a train to Tampere and back, and next month I will be going to Salo, Oulu and Tornio, all of them also here in Finland. In November it’s time to go to Levi, in the Finnish Lapland. Finland is a beautiful country. Even with a mask on your face.
But let’s hope that the situation with the virus gets better sooner than later. Traveling is just one of the plethora of reasons why it would be great to see it go away, one way (by itself) or another (with vaccine).
Stay safe.
