Vacation whining

[schneefink]

In early September I'll go on vacation! For two weeks! My first actual, i.e. non-study vacation since February, iirc, and my first two week vacation in, idk, way longer than that. I've been looking forward to this for over a year.

Vacation planning, unfortunately, is difficult. LB and I will go together, which will be nice, but less than two weeks before the vacation starts we still have no concrete plans. I really wanted to go somewhere with Mediterranean beaches, ideally somewhere where one could also hike or go see things, we were thinking of Greek islands or Sicily or Corsica. Many places were burning, but I'm sure we could find something.

However, with the current rapid rise of COVID numbers I'm not sure if leaving the country is a good idea at all. Yes we're both fully vaccinated, and the rise in numbers is mostly because of unvaccinated people, and I've heard that Italians are mostly very good with safety measures, and it's a neighboring EU country etc. – but being fully vaccinated doesn't mean I can't get sick, and I really don't want to get COVID especially in a different country and in a place where I don't speak the language, and with the way cases are currently developing I don't know if it'll even be possible to travel home in three weeks without quarantine. So maybe – probably – it would be smarter to stay home, maybe go on vacation in Austria somewhere, and make a trip to the Mediterranean next year. But I've been looking forward to it for so long, and we'll be very careful so the risk really won't be that high (at least not higher than going to work in Vienna every day), and I could really use a beach vacation. Bäh. Stupid virus.

Comments

[trobadora]

Yay vacation!

Yeah, I wouldn't trust the covid situation either. I hope you can figure out somewhere fun to go, regardless!

[schneefink]

I'm planning to sleep and read a lot, it will be wonderful.

My vacation planning is overall a very minor problem but I'm currently grumpy about it, so.

[frith_in_thorns]

It's so hard. I am really torn between this myself - I would LOVE a holiday, but I can't decide how responsible it would be. So the answer is probably a practical no while we wallow in indecision.

[schneefink]

I don't want to be irresponsible, but otoh the more I think about it the more I think that going on vacation is barely more risky than staying here... (especially considering some other countries have far better vaccination rates than here.)

[dolorosa_12]

It's so fraught, isn't it? We opted to have a holiday just within the UK this year, and I'm glad we did — we went in June, which was when a lot of restrictions were still in place (limits on gatherings, masks indoors and so on, whereas all these have been completely lifted now) and it wasn't school holidays yet, meaning things were a bit quieter.

However, I'm just about to fly out to Germany to spend time with Matthias's family. I'm really anxious about it, because if we get COVID out there, obviously we'll be stuck, and that will cause problems for work. (The language is less of an issue, of course.) The problem is, when you're an immigrant, there is an expectation that you visit your family overseas. It's impossible for us to go to Australia to visit my family at the moment, but the hurdles to get to Germany from the UK are relatively small, such that continuing to refuse to go was causing friction in the family.

I hope whatever you decide, you have a good holiday.

[schneefink]

Oof, yeah, I understand how it would be much more difficult for people with family in other countries. I hope everything will go well on your trip and you can enjoy it despite the anxiety.

Thank you!