Traveling In COVID
Helping to socially distance in the Istanbul airport.
Living in the midst of COVID in the US, particularly in NYC, has us terrified and controlled, but there is life outside these walls. I recently traveled to a pole camp in Antalya, Turkey, and it opened my eyes. About two months ago, as I sat locked inside my Brooklyn home, I optimistically signed up for a pole dancing camp in Turkey. I kinda assumed that it wouldn’t happen, since most countries were refusing to let Americans in at the time. But in what I can only assume was an act of god, Turkey opened its doors to us with no quarantine! So off I went…
A little back story: As I said before, I live in Brooklyn, but not just any part of Brooklyn, I live in an area that was very heavily hit. From mid-March to mid-May I heard sirens outside my home 24/7. During this time, I did not leave my house for any reason. I lost two loved ones to COVID and my best friend almost died. Unlike many New Yorkers, I stayed. I went to protests and did a panic drive home to make sure I made it before curfew. I haven’t seen most of my friends in months and just saw my family for the first time since everything.
For the two weeks before Turkey, I finally fled to my father’s. I lost my father-in-law to COVID. He lived below us, and after some mourning, we needed to fix up his apartment to make it ready for rent. My husband is a go big or go home kind of person so he is doing a full gut renovation of our house, including our floor, in the middle of a pandemic. So many loud people ripping apart my home with no escape lead to me very gratefully staying with my father. This was a bit of a transition for me to go from almost never leaving my house (and carrying a spray bottle of alcohol with me everywhere I go) to Trump’s territory on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. This area barely seems to realize we have a pandemic going on, but that is a whole separate conversation. This time at my father’s gave me the confidence to travel to Turkey, and that’s what really matters here.
Let’s talk about flying and Turkey!
Antalya
Antalya
First, flying right now is the biggest joke I have ever seen. It is full of new ridiculous rules that, as far as I can tell, have nothing to do with COVID.
-First rule: No special meals on the plane.-
They only have one meal they give everyone — a lame chicken sub with some random sides. I’m vegan. Nothing in that box was something I could eat. You know, I can deal with this. I’m used to having to plan for my diet, but this brings me to rule number two.
-Second rule: You can only have one carry on bag.-
Ok, well, I’m bringing a professional camera and a computer with me. This doesn’t leave much room for anything else. However, I have a 15 hour flight plan ahead of me with zero food options. So, my husband and I had an extra bag just for food. On the way to Turkey, they let this slide, and all was well, or well enough. On the way back to NYC, they completely refused to let us bring this bag. They forced my husband to check his carry on just so we could have our food! They offer zero options for food, and they are perfectly happy to have you starve. They even told us we couldn’t bring all our food because our bag was too heavy. This is enough food for two people for 15 hours.
Trying not to die.
Everyone eating at the same time.
-Third rule: You have to wear your masks at all times, except when eating, and they serve the whole plane food at the exact same time.-
This is probably the dumbest thing I have ever seen. Don’t get me wrong, I very much want people wearing their masks the whole time, especially if they are coughing. Which, side note, they clearly let people into the plane who were coughing… there is a kid coughing on the plane as I write this. But, if everyone is taking off their masks at the same time to eat, it is like, “why are we bothering???” I never did this. I only ate when others were masked up, and I recommend the same for you. They need to have some sort of staggering system in place to reduce the mass spread. So stupid and so dangerous.
-Fourth rule: They want you to socially distance on the plane whenever possible.-
You hear this over and over again. But this is insane, and, honestly, offensive. They pack the planes!! Every flight we were on was, if not completely full, was pretty darn close! They tell us to socially distance in the aisles, but how? I guess we cannot all line up together (which still happened), but we are still walking through tight passages surrounded by people. It is very simple. If they actually cared about social distancing, they wouldn’t fill the planes to full capacity.
Turkey, who is trying.
JFK in NYC, who is not.
-Fifth rule: Temperature checks.-
I’m fine with this rule. I don’t feel like it is an end-all on making sure that people with COVID don’t get on the plane, but it doesn’t hurt and hopefully it weeds out the sickest of them. My problem with this rule is that it isn’t always enforced. On my way to Turkey, my temperature was checked. On my return domestic flight in Turkey this happened. On my long flight to NYC from Istanbul, I went through about ten forms of security, was patted down by a person who did not clean her hands between patting people down, my bag was searched three times (this doesn’t include the security from my first flight), but my temperature was never checked. Turkey cares if we bring COVID in, but apparently the US is more worried about who-knows-what than the very real pandemic that has already taken hundreds of thousands of lives in the US alone.
Now, let’s talk about Turkey and what I learned from hanging out with people from all over the world for almost two weeks!
Turkey is a beautiful country. I went to Antalya, which is a charming beach town and holiday destination off the Mediterranean Sea. While I certainly wouldn’t say Turkey is doing a perfect job with COVID, life there is very different than in the US. Let’s discuss.
First, unlike NYC which killed off their elderly population, Turkey decided to try to protect them the most, having them quarantine more and giving them special times to go out. I don’t feel like this is a fully perfect system, but it did help life not be completely changed for everyone.
Second, and most importantly, they enforce mask-wearing! Again, unlike NYC and most places I have seen, the police wear masks in Turkey. It is very important that authority leads by example. Then they walk around and ask people to put on their masks! No one does that in the US (that I know of). This is such a little thing, but it goes a long way. Some of the cops are just patrolling for this, and it can be done by any officer because it is so simple to just ask for mask-wearing guidelines to be followed. This also makes it easier for others to make the request for someone to put up their mask, like shop owners.
Third, social distancing is clearly mapped out. It is a little easier in Antalya since there is a lot more room and most of the restaurants have a ton of open-air/outdoor seating. But, when they are inside, the distance is clearly marked. This is also the case in airports.
Breakfast plates covered in plastic
Easy to socially distance
Fourth, most service workers are pretty good about wearing masks and clean options were available. Even my hotel’s breakfast and utensils all came wrapped in plastic. In most restaurants, hand sanitizer or spray was on the table. I haven’t seen this in NYC or Maryland.
Fifth, and this is more for everyone, no one trusts their government during this pandemic. I feel like the US is trying to hide our numbers. Many people think their numbers are being inflated in hopes to get more money. But we all feel we are getting misinformation and no one is handling COVID well.
For the first time in history, the world is united under a common enemy. People from Russia and other parts of the world are praying for their American friends and vice-versa. We should be taking this opportunity to become stronger as a planet and take care of each other.
At the end of the day, I felt safer in Turkey than I have in the past seven months in NYC. They seemed mature and respectful of their approach. Their tactic was very different from ours, which seems to be — everybody for themselves. I’m more scared about going home and getting COVID in my NYC neighborhood, which has already been shut down again because of stupid people not being safe and following the rules.
My vote for traveling during COVID is a yes with caution, assuming the flight won’t kill you. Maybe don’t fly Turkish Airlines — I am pretty pissed with them. But the break from the current situation was nothing short of magical!
