I read it again and again. To enter Egypt, “you’ll need a Covid test that is stamped and signed on original paper, not a copy. This test must be taken within 96 hours of the departure of your last flight to Egypt.” That was the clear directive from the Egyptian government.
The Plan(s)
Fall 2020 brought a new school year but a strange one. Kids could go to school and wear masks, or they could do the “online option.” They could sit in front of a computer for 8 hours and watch school. My oldest daughter, an extremely outgoing and social senior, opted for the online option. She hated it. So, she decided she wanted to do “homeschool” instead. This would also allow her to work first shift once she had turned 18, relatively early in the school year.
One thing that was disappointing about her not going to school was that she would not have any senior trips. So, I said to her one day, “Why don’t we do a senior trip and go somewhere in the world. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you like to go?”
She replied, “Scotland.”
I said, “Let’s do it.”
Now, I had not travelled outside the country in 25 years, other than Canada, which, with all due respect to my Canadian friends, was not that different than driving somewhere within the United States. So, I had a lot to learn.
That fall, it was my great pleasure to research the ins and outs of travel to Scotland. I planned the trip day by day and even made cancelable reservations for hotels. We were going to spend two weeks in Scotland and explore it from one end to the other.
There was only one really big problem. Covid. Now, I am not saying that Covid itself was the problem, even though I do think it is a problem. The problem was the reaction of the Scottish government to Covid. Scotland’s reaction to Covid made the strictest state in the U.S. look virtually unconcerned about Covid. So, that was the problem. Continue reading “Traveling to Egypt in the Time of Coronavirus”