Social Distancing After Travel

I haven’t been around as much. I have had a lot on my mind and heart lately, as everyone has.

For as long as I can remember, I dreamed of visiting Italy. In February, we made that dream a reality by spending two weeks traveling through Italy and Greece. First Rome, then Venice, and lastly Greece. We knew about Covid-19 in February, but it hadn’t become an international pandemic yet. I am the the type of person that refuses to live in fear and believe deeply in the motto, “do it afraid.” So, naturally, I didn’t let the fear of the virus outbreak affect our plans.

The first few days in Rome were so wonderful, in fact, I am absolutely in love with the city and hope to return there someday. Initially, I wasn’t very excited about Rome, which is why I think that I loved it so much. It surprised me in every way and it now has my heart. Next, we took the train to Venice, which is the place I was the most excited about visiting. The canals, the romantic narrow walk ways, the singing gondoliers, and old buildings and palaces everywhere you look are exactly like how you picture them to be. Better yet, we planned to visit during Venice Carnival, perhaps the oldest and most famous Carnival in the world. This is when things started to get…weird.

I am already a germaphobe and wash my hands often, I also avoid opening doors and touching public surfaces, so I had that going for me. But there was no social distancing in Venice… It was crowded, mostly with tourists from all over the world, and of course the local Venetians. Everything seemed business as usual, until the day we left, which was Sunday, February 23rd. On this day, suddenly, the police presence was stronger, and the police were all wearing face masks. I hadn’t heard much of anything, being completely disconnected from the internet and not having time to watch TV to see what the news was saying, although I wouldn’t have understood it in Italian anyway, but I digress. I just felt a very sudden “off” feeling, knowing the virus was a concern but not yet fearing it.

We arrived to the airport to fly to Greece and this is when I started to really feel concerned. Many people at the airport had on masks, or scarves, wrapped tightly around their face. I sat in the airport and watched as a mother, who realized while walking with her teenage son that he pulled his scarf down, scolded him and wrapped it tightly around his face before storming off in an hurry. Of course we looked for masks, but every pharmacy was out of them. They were already gone. I soon found out that they canceled Carnival that day, which was a shock to me, Italy, and the world. In hindsight that was too late, but being there in the middle of it and having no idea this was spreading so rapidly around me, it seemed drastic and abrupt, and that was just the beginning.

We spent the next week in Greece, and had an amazing time. Even more cautious but how careful can you be when you’re in public most of the day and eating out for every meal? We looked for masks, again they were sold out, and this was before we knew about the mask shortage for the medical community. So much we didn’t know.

Once we arrived back to Norway we watched everything continue to unfold. How we were in the center of the worst outbreak in Europe, and how we had been traveling for two weeks felt unsettling. Were we going to to get sick? Would we be responsible for bringing it home? We were uncertain and scared. By the time they implemented the two week quarantine in Norway, we had just been home for two weeks. All is fine, for us, for now. But there are active cases in Nordland, where we live.

As we all know things rapidly deteriorated after that. Countries are closed and people are advised to shelter in place. Many people are experiencing food shortages and shortages of supplies. It has been an unsettling feeling being in Norway while all of this is going on, and feeling like if I needed to get home to America for any reason, it would be extremely difficult to do so.

Ironically, I actually feel like being in Norway, in this remote village, is probably one of the safest places I can be. I already practice social distancing most of the time (not intentionally, I just don’t have many friends here), and the bad weather keeps me indoors. When I do go out I’m usually in nature, away from people. The restaurants have closed and the message to the community is consistently kind and to look after one another. People are volunteering to shop for seniors or people at risk so they don’t have to leave their house. There is plenty of food and supplies.

It has been a surreal experience to be so far away and I feel like I am looking through the looking glass at my family and friends, and America as a whole, as they panic (which is dangerous), or the people I see that aren’t taking it seriously (which is even more dangerous).

I do plan to share more of the amazing parts of our trip, but in the meantime I suppose I felt the need to share where I have been, both physically and mentally, along with a message that is on my heart:

It is good to be prepared, and I encourage you to do so, but that does not mean hoarding, and rather it is an opportunity to exercise your compassion and empathy to your community. Practice gratefulness for what you have and that you don’t have to make the terrible choices that others have had to make. Be kind with your words because people have illnesses you may know nothing about, or loved ones that do and they have a right to be afraid. I hope you all take care of yourselves and your family, share with those who need it, practice self-care, and stay home.

xo, Kelly