Flying To Romania (Part 1 of 4)

Dear readers, I am very sorry that I have not written an article for so long... As some of you may know, every summer I go to Romania, a country of beauty and fun. It is the only real vacation I get, apart from the weekends during the school year. So, I am very busy going to places, and doing stuff. But, I will share my experience with the plane ride to Romania, and then I will tell my biggest adventures there.

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I have finally finished school, and I am stepping in Summer vacation. I will still miss some things about school, like the teachers, my friends, and even some homework. And actually, I wish I did have some homework to do, since I will be bored in the upcoming eternal lockdown (which I will get to later). 

I wake up, greeted by the final chirps I will hear of American birds, and I am very excited, for today is a very special day to me. Today I will be traveling to my home country, Romania. Or might I say, my parent's home country, since I was born in the US. Planning this trip was very difficult, and a big headache. Mostly because of this Coronavirus pandemic.

Let me tell you what happened before this crisis. As usual, in December, we buy our plane tickets for our summer vacation. Of course, this year, in December, there was no Covid-19 in the US. We were all perfectly fine, until things really started to get bad in the spring. The virus was all around, and our first plane ticket, which was booked for June 17, got canceled. We switched plane tickets, with what was left, and we were supposed to go Jun e20. Then, that plane ticket got canceled as well, so we bought another one, and this one was on July 1. And as expected, that one was canceled, and moved to July 15. 

And after that, we got "wonderful" news that we would have to stay two weeks in quarantine when we arrived there. Ok, that got everyone really mad. The vacation was already short - less that two months. Now we had to stay two weeks in isolation too! And so after a long time, of planning and searching, we found a plane ticket for June 19. That was shocking, because that was only two days after our original plane ticket. Finally, they did not cancel this ticket, and we were able to go to Romania.

Before heading to the airport, I went to the shed, and said bye to all the little chicks that were growing there. I will not see them again, so I wish them the best of luck. I have everything packed in my luggage, clothes, cameras, etc. But I still have the fear that I will not be able to do anything fun this summer, since everybody will wear masks and we will be prevented from doing certain things. Anyway, the future is still to come, so I wait patiently.

Oh, and I must mention, during this trip, me and my family were taking every precaution to be safe. We had goggles (for the virus can get in our eyes on the plane). We had black gloves (mostly to remind us to not touch our faces). And of course, each of us had a mask. We rented a car, since our luggage would not fit in ours and also because we had no one to drive it back from the airport. 

We had fun in the car, and once we arrived at the airport, it was time to return it to the rental company. There is a car drop-off at every airport. We left my mom at the terminal, along with the luggages, and me and my dad returned the car. We took the AirTrain back to the terminal.

Now it was time to check in. We waited in a short line (which would have been very long if there hadn't been a pandemic and people were traveling as usual). The line was full of Romanian people, which made sense, since most of the planes there were going to Europe. We weighed our luggages, and it turned out one was too heavy, the carry-on, so we had to make it a checked one. 

After booking, came the part I hated: security checking! You always have to take everything out of your luggage and even take (some) of your clothes off. And taking stuff out of your luggage is not a big problem, but putting them back is. You need to cramp everything in there, and you do not have time to put everything in order. But this time, I really hated it, since I had to take out all my lenses, and cameras, and put them in the scanning machine. But if you think about it, security checking is for the good of everyone. I took off my shoes, and out them back after the checkup.

Next came another thing I hated doing. WAITING! We waited and waited, hours and hours, until finally the plane came, and they let us in. First, we had to show our passports to the people there, to check that we were not doing any harm. But the bad part was that we had to take our masks off, so the people could check our faces, to make sure that it matched the picture on the passport. It was all ok, so we scanned the barcode on our plane ticket, and they let us in. Before reaching the plane, we had to go through that long tube that I really like, because it gets me anxious to get on the plane. 

Oh, and I must say that I have been traveling on planes since I was 6 months old! So I am very used to them, and I love traveling. I never get sick. Actually, I really like the turbulence, because it feels like I am on a roller coaster. What I like on a plane most of all, is the food! Great, yummy, food! But in the back of my head, I am still scared because there could be a plane failure, and we could crash.

Anyway, we greeted the flight attendants, and found our seats. The first flight took around 9 hours, and the second one took 2 hours. I played some games, ate, watched movies, and slept. It was really fun. But we had to take our masks off when we ate (obviously), which exposed us to the virus. When we arrived in Romania, people kept asking us how we coped this much with our masks on. And honestly, it was ok. I even liked it a bit, because it kept part of my face cozy.

After the tiring ride, we landed at an airport in Switzerland. There we changed planes to get to the airport in Bucharest, Romania!! We repeated the process, and got on the plane. This time they did not give us any food, just a chocolate bar, but that was good too. Again, I took a short video on this plane as well. The landing was a bit rough, but ok.

When we arrived at the airport in Bucharest, we waited in a long line. They were giving us stuff to sign, and had to promise we would not leave our house for two weeks. Next to us, was a woman that was not feeling well, and she was with us on the flight! But then some men in white costumes came and took her. Those men looked SUPER spooky. It was like a horror movie, happening right in front of my eyes! You could not even see their faces, because they were wearing goggles. But the men were not my concern. The virus was! If the woman was infected, then when we took our masks off to eat, there was a big chance that we got the virus as well. It is not about us getting sick, because we will probably not die. The problem is that I do not want to spend my vacation in the hospital. But I bit my lip, and hoped the woman was just experiencing plane sickness. 

I was relieved when I got out of the airport, to fresh air. I could finally take my mask off. We called a taxi cab, which took us to the train. Trains in Romania, are, well, SLOW! It took us 14 HOURS TO GET TO OUR TOWN!! That is a long time. But we slept most of the way there. My dad also took a photo of me next to the locomotive, as you can see. 

We finally reached the train station the next day, and we were greeted by my aunt, and my grandpa, to take us home. We wore masks, and were very careful not to get them sick. It was my last chance to say goodbye to the city, because I will not be seeing it for two weeks. We finally reached the countryside, and said goodbye to my aunt and grandpa. They would bring us food while we were in quarantine, and I thank them very much for that. Quarantine was not that bad after all. I took a ton of photos, and very rarely got bored. I never knew the countryside could be this cool. And it turned out that the woman in the airport, or anybody else in the planes, were not infected, for we did not have any symptoms. We risked a lot, but it was worth it for a fun time in Romania.