Traveling and Sightseeing in Central Europe in Times of a Pandemic
For someone that has been on the road for work more than two-thirds of the year recently, it was very unusual to be stuck in the own apartment for more than three months. As of late May 2019, I had never spent more than five days in a row at home until Christmas and the ceiling was quite literally dropping on my head at times.
There was that kind of itch to check the news for travel restrictions regularly and figure out a way to get around. Obviously that was already possible to certain agree if I had opted to explore areas of my home country but somehow that had not crossed my mind.
Late in June 2020 I checked once more as most countries of the European Union had eased their restrictions for EU citizens and a negative test or mandatory 14-day quarantine was no longer mandatory. Some other contacts on my social media feeds had made up their mind and opted to visit friends in neighboring countries, which seemed very appealing to me.
Flying with low-cost airlines wasn’t on my 2020 bingo card
After all, it didn’t take long to settle on yet another trip to Romania and Austria in order to catch some fresh air while also incorporating sightseeing opportunities to broaden my collection of travel pictures.
Until now it had never crossed my mind that I may actually not be able to fly somewhere as flights were available every day of the week. As part of the efforts to limit the spreading of the COVID-19 virus, many airlines reduced their flight schedule to a minimum and even now only return to a frequency of 30–40% at most.
The usual airlines I would have picked for such a trip such as Lufthansa or Tarom (national carrier of Romania) had very few flights available and were quite expensive. As a vocal opponent of low-cost budget airlines, the prospect of depending on WizzAir and RyanAir seemed quite fitting to a bizarre year 2020 so far. However, both flights were two hours or less and the lack of non-paid onboard service didn’t matter much.
Social distancing at airports
Ultimately, the entire travel on the way to Bucharest would include wearing a face-mask for most of the eight total hours and the social-distanced security check-in at Nuremberg (NUE) airport lasted far longer than usual. The airport itself seemed like a ghost town with very few check in counters open. Listening to the tunes on my headphones was a welcome distraction while walking past all the signs informing all guests about the additional security measures.
Once the check-in was done with plenty of time to spare before boarding, everyone had to wait again to enter the gate as the WizzAir staff checked all hand luggage based on their “one piece on standard booking, two pieces for priority customers” policy. Those with additional pieces had to fork out €30 each on the spot.
There was a family of three right ahead of me waiting to enter the gate.
“There is no social distancing here, no markings on the floor. How do you know what 1.5 meters is?”, the mother said. I hope they didn’t hear me groaning while my eyes virtually rolled on the floor.
Whether or not the amount of travelers itself was restricted or not as many people booked this flight remains unknown but the plane was about two-thirds full. My row of three was full but nearby seats were empty and both neighbors moved away before takeoff.
As I glanced outside of the window and right over the engine and wing, the ground staff cleaned the handrail of the ramp that all passengers had used to enter the plane. This had never happened prior and was not part of their standard routine until now.
Half an hour before the landing, the flight attendants instructed everyone to fill out the health declaration and there was some uproar by an older couple, who burst out in Romanian and would not be quiet for at least five minutes. I can only assume what it was about as I speak very few words of the language.
The same social-distanced waiting in line to provide the health declaration to officials on the ground and checking the papers by an immigration officer was organized quite effectively, the luggage showed up five minutes later and I was in the bus towards the center right after. Similar to Germany, it was mandatory to wear a face mask in public transport and in supermarkets, my collection of coloured masks came in handy.
Was the travel experience fun? Definitely not. It was by far more stressful and annoying in general but that applies for a lot of things in our lives.
Why did I actually go to Romania? A friend suggested to go hiking in the mountains for five days and stay in a tent overnight. I am in my thirties and had never done that but it’s never too late to try something new. A clear amateur mistake was buying new hiking shoes and not walking with them in the days prior to the trip, something that would fire back in a painful day during the trip.
From 900m to 1950m on Day 1
I also didn’t inquire exactly where we would go hiking and how high up that would lead us, which was kind of naive considering the fact how out of shape I was and still am right now. By train we headed to Bușteni, a small mountain town at around 900m and situated at the bottom of the Bucegi Mountains.
In the city center you can see a cross at the top of the mountains in the far distance (see picture above). Little did I know that this scenic spot was actually part of our trip. The first day of the hike started in a rather innocent way with the Cascada Urlătoarea (waterfall) but eventually brought us up to approximately 1950m along cliffs and with very steep parts. Did I mention that I am panically afraid of heights?
More often than I would have liked, I stared down to drops of hundreds of meters next to a very narrow path and carefully grabbed the iron ropes while not trying to lean back too far.
The trail is considered to be easy to medium difficulty. Ouch.
Proud city person meets countryside hiking
What the hell was I thinking? Of course the hills would not be as pleasantly low as at home. And the bright sunshine with more than 30 degrees Celsius didn’t help much either as I drained way too much of my water reserves on the first day already. Thankfully we would later stumble over rivers with fresh and clean mountain water.
The first night was spent next to Cabana Caraiman, which was closed for renovation. Fortunately, the owners let us take as much fresh water as we needed and kept an eye on our tent right in front of the building. At night, their cows munched the grass right next to it and the melodic sound of ringing bells kept me awake for a long time.
On the second day we remained on the plateau and made it to the Sfinx and Babele Natural Monument before heading to the cross previously pictured cross. It was cloudy and windy up there on nearly 2200m and the cross vanished every other minute.
Cabana Omu on 2505m was the goal for the day and the climb towards the end simply would not end. It was closed on the weekdays and on Friday morning, we witnessed a helicopter landing nearby to provide drinks for the weekend guests.
Being prepared and in shape helps a ton
I cursed, cried, bitched, complained, nearly collapsed and the wind kept blowing from all sides. Some goats checked out the scenery below when the tent was set and I eventually realized how fortunate I was to travel and soak in this amazing view from the top of the mountain.
It was time to shut up and gaze into the distance as the sun broke through the clouds, a mesmerizing experience to let the mind flow in the evening and the morning alike.
The next day we walked all the way back down to Busteni through several snow-covered portions and a rollercoaster ride of a trail through the woods to place our tent in the garden of a friend next to the river. My feet and pride were hurt, the city guy had completely failed in the countryside to admit defeat and cut the hiking portion of the trip short.
We checked out Brasov (which you should add to your list if you visit Romania!) one day later, and on a sunny Sunday I took advantage of the Botanical Garden in Bucharest before visiting a friend in a nearby city for coffee and ice cream.
That second flight of the trip was with RyanAir and I had a window seat with an empty middle seat next to me. Check-in and getting through security was super easy, the same health declaration upon arrival had to be filled out. It was super easy to find the AirBnB, which turned out to be excellent and right next to a metro and tram stop in a quiet area on the outskirts of the city.
Once upon in Vienna
I had visited Vienna several times but never saw much of the city as it was always for poker tournaments, and I made up for it this time by checking out nearly all major tourist spots. It is a wonderful city with some amazing buildings and the Wiener Schnitzel are still bigger than the own face.
Describing all the places would not do it justice and I’d rather invite people from all over the world to check out the city which is filled with history and beauty. Go ahead, visit the churches and palaces, grab a snack at Naschmarkt and enjoy some fresh ice cream at affordable prices.
Did I already mention that I really like freshly made ice cream?
There were definitely by far fewer tourists than usual and it was actually possible to enjoy all the touristic places without facing huge crowds. Perhaps, that may be one of the few advantages that the current COVID-19 pandemic has to offer. Nearly seven hours on trains (and with face mask on) later I was back home but only now it has hit me how urgently needed this trip actually was.
A lot of interesting cities in central Europe remain on my personal travel list such as Bulgaria, Hungary, Portugal, Greece, Croatia and all Scandinavian countries. Hidden spots in Spain and France are also on there. Only time will tell when it is possible to explore again without having to worry about restrictions changing overnight and without any warning.
One thing is for certain: Traveling is much better and more exciting when you are not alone.