Post pandemic travel is not for the faint of heart.
I don’t care if you’re going to Harrison Hot Springs or Timbuktu, the new reality is, travel has changed.
My husband and I hadn’t flown since the fall of 2019 and four years later as we prepared for overseas this month, I wondered how it would be?
The biggest question was to mask or not to mask. To my surprise, no one wears masks on planes, it’s like the pandemic never happened.
The young man beside me on the airplane chatted freely, his breath wafting over me.
I asked myself, “does he have COVID, is he giving me COVID?”
Frankly I didn’t want to wear a mask on an eight-hour flight, so it was a relief not too.
The package of disposable masks I bought at London Drugs has not left my hand luggage. Our first few days in Paris were spent sightseeing with the rest of the world and let me tell you it’s crowded. The streets, the museums, the shops, the cafes, all packed, sometimes shoulder to shoulder. Then there is the unprecedented heat wave in Europe that continues. If the Parisians are complaining, you know it’s hot.
Here we are in 2023, all of us in a frenzy to travel.
Economically it’s a boom. France alone will make $19 billion in tourism revenue this year. Canadian tourism numbers have reached pre-pandemic levels with no signs of stalling. Why, because the urge to travel is human nature. Most importantly travelling widens our view of ‘the other’. Travel instills empathy and gratitude for what we have. Fills us with pride when people discover we are Canadian and love us instantly for it.
Whether close or far, discovering the world is magical and I am grateful for the depth of experience it gives me, no matter what comes.
Ingrid Abbott is a freelance writer who can’t sleep on a plane no matter what position she contorts too.
