TRY THIS!
Travel in the pandemic
Some people say that travel broadens the mind. I can agree, but I can disagree as well. I mean, yes! Travels always teach us something, for example: how to get along with people, but they don’t always broaden our minds.
I recall the time when we first flew to Bulgaria with my friends. We arrived very late, and when we got to the hotel, we received a key-card to doors. We went inside the room and we noticed that there is no light. The same with our friends’ room. Perfect! - I thought. That’s how it ends when you buy cheap holidays! It took a short while before we found out, that we have to put this key card into the special place to run the electricity in the room. That was my first rendezvous with the hotel card switch. Now it seems so obvious, but back then it could puzzle a newcomer!
Does travel broaden the mind?
As for me, I deeply value the other side of travel. Jacek Walkiewicz, a man famous for his performance on TEDx, explained: “Travel broadens the mind, but only for open-minded people”. He explained that on the example of a man, who stands in front of the pyramids with a cigarette, saying: “Well, it seemed bigger on the pictures.” End of reflections. Modern society is instant society — we are lazy in thinking, we don’t want to force our brain to action, we want everything now and there. In consequence, we don’t ponder over depth, sense, idea, history, results, and so forth. Too bad! Because thinking over these things creates lasting paths in our minds. As a result, we will remember and feel that long.
Do some research!
So when we are about to travel, it is invaluable to do some research about our target place, to learn something about the culture, history, tradition. Don’t focus only on the weather forecast. And when we finally get there, take your time to visit interesting places, but do it calmly. Take a close look, smell the air of that place, use your imagination. When you walk into a castle, imagine the people who lived there hundreds of years ago. What kind of clothes they had and were they comfortable? Did they have some sense of humor? How did their daily life look like? How could they defend themselves from other nations? Let this place bring some history to your heart. Imagine a story that could happen.
Put your fears aside
You may have noticed the mass media do whatever it takes to deter us from travel. We enter the era when it’d be best for people to stay at one place — that’s what they want us to do — work and sleep. Of course, because of such habits, we lose a proper view of the situation. To produce mass fear of travel, they show us shoots from the airport. People cry, explaining how complicated it is to travel — don’t do that, you have to fill thousands of forms, prove that you’re healthy, and then you have to wait in queues for hours.
But the truth is completely different. First, because most of the people are scared of travel, there are no queues. Second, it is not really much more complicated. Do we have more papers to fill? Yes, but only two. The first one is the covid test (in Germany, where I live now, it’s still free of charge) if you are not vaccinated. But if you are vaccinated or a convalescent, you just have it in your app. And the second form is that you have to inform the government that you enter the country and where you’re going to stay. That’s it! But in fact, no one really checks that at the airport, they don’t scan QR codes. There’s no time to check everyone, so they let us go. Of course, they keep up appearances of taking care of the health, for example, they force you to keep 1,5m distance from each other, but later they put 100 people in just one bus to the airplane. What’s funny about that? We sit in the airplane as always — without distance. It’s good to have a credit card because most airlines don’t accept cash now.
Cheap traveling
When I want to fly, I’m looking for special offers — last minute. You may often get really nice holidays at very low costs. Or you can do it another way. You can book the flight and the hotel separately. Sometimes you may find flights for as low as 15 euros. On booking.com you can find a hotel. I don’t take an all-inclusive option. It is good for people who want to stay at the hotel. But if you want to explore, it is better to take breakfast and dinner only. You have time to do something during the day, and you won't regret that you skipped lunch. Moreover, we don’t need to eat that much on our holidays. But if I need something additional, I’m looking for a Lidl-type shop.
Certainly, the ways of buying your holidays are plenty. As for me, I’m looking for cheap ones, and when you buy the cheap ones, you are always bombarded with additional offers such as transport to the hotel. Surely, you may like to use these offers, but it’s always better to check the alternatives. For example, when planning a trip, you can choose a hotel that is near the airport, so then you don’t need transportation. Mostly, these additional offers are very expensive. Another way you can get to your hotel is through public transport. In most of the tourist areas, we have a comfortable shuttle service.
If a car...
Sometimes people decide to rent a car. It might be helpful on your holidays. Mostly it’s better to book a car earlier. After the touchdown, the representative of the rental cars company will lead you to your car. But here’s a word of caution: pay careful attention to what the offer includes — what kind of insurance it has, how many kilometers you can make, and so on. But always stay calm and enjoy your holidays.
Alright!
Those are some of the remarks and observations I came up with this year and before. They might become helpful as you will plan your new adventure. And remember: don’t be afraid of travel, even in the pandemic.
Read about the places visited by the author:
About Try this!
Try this! is a new series of articles on pdulski.com. I often cover subjects concerning emotional or mental health on my blog. However, proper care about these important life factors usually requires some knowledge and concern about other technical or mundane matters. If those are not well-organized, it may impinge on our emotional health. Therefore this section will discuss some situations from our day-to-day life. For example: living below the line, having debts, may cause us to feel bad. That’s why we should learn how to manage our budget. Some may say it’s obvious, but not for everyone.
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