1 MAY
The Italian government has said it will reopen the country region by region, depending on the state of play with coronavirus. Rome and Florence airports are reopening, and long-distance trains are also going to be running again. In the UK, BA is shedding more than 1,000 pilots and heavily cutting back its Gatwick operation. BA has told its workers that it does not know when its services can start up again at London City or Gatwick, and that its remaining services at Heathrow may be shut down.
In the process of cancelling and rebooking a number of hotels and boats, I have been dealing with many travel workers in Greece and Italy, and I have to say (as someone who has been known to complain at the drop of a hint of bad service) that they have been without exception polite, helpful and quick to respond. I'm doing my best to write to them in Italian and Greek (both of which I've been studying, just in case I ever get there) and that may have helped, but their English, too, is perfect. A minor cock-up was averted when I realised just in time that I had written an email in Greek – to someone in Italy.
2 MAY
I've just been out for the first time in three days – a walk to Asda at Clapham Junction, mainly to buy some shorts in celebration of the unseasonal summery weather we keep having (because you can't buy shorts anywhere else at the moment). As a result of coronavirus, the changing rooms were closed. So I bought the smallest size available – which I now find is too big for me (Asda seems to cater only for people of a certain size). That means another walk to Asda before too long – to take them back. There seems to be an increasing amount of traffic and an awful lot of cyclists and runners. Social distancing is actually quite difficult to achieve. A few people – including me – are masking up. But most people are not. And some almost walk into you, while absorbed in their phones. The UK government's lackadaisical approach seems to have resulted in lackadaisical behaviour. Many people are doing their best to follow the guidelines, flawed as they are, and a few don't really seem to give a toss.
3 MAY
The French government plans to extend its emergency measures for up to two months – which will take us into July. There will also be some sort of quarantine for people entering France – which could put paid to any plan I have for taking the train from London to Paris, although that wouldn't be until late August. Eurostar is now saying that from tomorrow its passengers must wear face coverings, otherwise they won't be allowed to travel. Meanwhile, the Irish government has upstaged the UK by publishing a detailed and lengthy timetable for a way out of lockdown. I seem to have picked the worst country in Europe from which to begin an odyssey.
4 MAY
There is talk in France and Italy of "health passports" which might allow foreign visitors to enter these countries. From today, Italians have had some travel restrictions lifted: they can visit their relatives as long as they stay within their region. Travel between regions is allowed only for work, health or emergency reasons.
Heathrow has made the (fairly obvious) point that social distancing won't work in airports and on planes – but that health checks, masks and more rigorous hygiene might make passenger flights possible again.
5 MAY
Italians have started emerging from their lockdown – which really was a lockdown, as opposed to the woolly and increasingly frayed-at-the-edges lockdown which seems to have been happening here. Some Italians have not left their homes for two months – while in the UK the parks have been full on sunny days. Some Italian children haven't been allowed out – while in the UK kids happily relieved of having to go to school have been playing outdoors with their friends for hours on end. It remains to be seen whether the Italian lockdown will have "worked"; and even if it has, it will be no indication of how things might go here, where politicians have seemed frightened of frightening the populace.
6 MAY
The only thing we know for sure about the coronavirus is that nobody really knows very much about it… So governments now seem to be throwing caution to the winds to varying degrees (to the extreme in the US, with something similar probably being hatched here, although not quite so blatantly). And everywhere now there is talk of the second coming of the virus – even in Italy, where people this week started cautiously putting their heads above the parapet – and that it could be worse than the first. Meanwhile, old people are dying in their hundreds and thousands – an awful lot of them in care homes. I used to think the worst place one could end one's life would be in hospital, but I think now that it would be in a UK run-only-for-profit "care" home – many of which are staffed by low-paid, low-skilled and often low-on-any-compassion people and where medical expertise extends not much further than dishing out the daily multi-dose of drugs. God save me from ever entering such a place to end my days.
7 MAY
A neighbour who's a doctor was saying something similar about "care" homes today. He was saying that when a GP is summoned to a care home in an emergency, it's always a dreadful situation. He was also saying that colleagues working in intensive care reckon that it's now a 95 per cent mortality rate – if you go in there, you are unlikely to be coming out. Like me, like despairing Italian, Greek, Spanish and American friends, the doctor felt no one really knows what is happening or what will happen next.
I bumped into the doctor (not literally, we stayed two metres apart) on my way back from an errand to the local DIY shop (not a DIY superstore but one of those rare, old-fashioned shops that is happy to sell you just one screw of the exact size you want for a few pence rather than force you to buy an overpriced pack of two dozen of everything). Just going there to buy a can of WD40 to fix a jammed door lock was a treat – a flash of a much older "normality" than the old "normal" amid the misery of this new "normal". And now the door lock is unjammed. This is the joy of small things...
8 MAY
France is staying closed until at least 15 June – so no trains to Paris for a while. That was to be the original start of my odyssey – a Eurostar to Paris. Will France be open by August? And if it is, will it let people from the UK, with its (so far) fairly abysmal record on coronavirus, into the country?
Until today, I'd never heard of the UNWTO (the United Nations' World Tourism Organization), despite writing a fair number of travel pieces over the past 40 years. Anyway, it's predicting a huge decline in international travel as result of the coronavirus. Hardly rocket science, you might say. If borders open up in July, it reckons the hit will be 58% down; and if borders stay closed until the end of the year, it will be 80% down.
9 MAY
The whole of the EU is being encouraged to keep borders closed at least until mid-June. The European Commission's advice is not binding on individual governments – and no doubt, the UK won't pay attention. However, it has at last announced plans for quarantining for two weeks new arrivals into UK airports, ports and Eurostar stations. Why on earth was this not done seven weeks ago? The UK has never taken the virus threat seriously and has paid – and may well go on paying – the price.
I'm pissed off about having to cancel my odyssey and having to re-arrange my odyssey – and I'll be even more pissed off if/when I have to forget about it altogether because of the uselessness of this government that has only ever been firm on one issue – the ridiculous Brexit. I've started but won't finish...
Britain doesn't have a monopoly on idiots. It seems that crowds of Italians flocked to walk along the canals of Milan with no regard for social distancing – and only for themselves and their newfound freedom to behave irresponsibly. Understandably, the city mayor, Beppe Sala, used colourful language to condemn their behaviour as shameful.
Back to the UK's quarantine proposals... airlines, predictably, say they see this as the final nail in their coffin. The death of international flights would not entirely be a bad thing, of course. I will take that last flight to Athens if I have to... and if I can... but after that... no more.
10 MAY
The latest shock-horror story from the tabloids is that over-60s may not be able to go on holiday this year. This misleading coverage is based on the fact that insurers may not cover old folk if they head off in the virus-infected blue yonder. If that is the case, it is hardly surprising. Insurance companies were increasingly wary about insuring "old" travellers even before the arrival of the pandemic. One small reason that I wanted to complete my odyssey this year was because I would still have my EHIC health card for Europe to fall back on – I wasn't planning to take out any travel insurance. I used to take out travel insurance regularly, as if it were impossible to travel without it. But I never made a claim on it; and I'm sure that if I had done, I would have been directed to paragraphs in small print making it (not all that) clear that either I wasn't covered or I would have to pay an excess payment. So several years ago, I stopped bothering – or even thinking about it. Travelling round the Greek islands had become no different to going to the Midlands – so what was the big worry? That was then, of course. The problem about travelling to Greece and Italy now or soon, or even to France, is that one has no idea whether you might be caught up in a second or third wave of the plague and be locked down, quarantined or whatever. Being forced to stay in Greece doesn't fill me with too much dread. Being stuck in England... that's another matter.
11 MAY
How do you make chaos more chaotic? Involve the UK government, it seems. A statement was made last night by the UK prime minister that seems to have left everyone confused. From what I've read (I can't stand the sight of Boris Johnson, so never watch him – and try not to read too much about him), it sounds vague and with the usual mixed messages (on school, work, transport etc)... it sounds as if everyone can take from it what they want to hear... so those people who've been ignoring the rules, partying, going to beaches, not social distancing... will feel completely justified now in doing that... the rest of us will probably stay locked down for a while... and after that, who knows?
The UK is indeed talking about quarantining people coming into the country, but at the same time it's saying that these measures would not apply between France and the UK at the moment.
Meanwhile, Italy has recorded its lowest daily rise since before I started this journal in early March.
In Greece where, remarkably, only 151 people have been killed by the virus, it is now possible to leave home without authorisation, some shops are reopening and some older children are returning to school.
A week from today I was due to start my odyssey. A friend suggested that I should write about the trip from my imagination – what I think it would have been like. I may try that – although it could be tinged with sadness, as I am seriously beginning to think more frequently about calling the whole thing off.
12 MAY
Bars, restaurants and hairdressers in Italy (along with shops, museums and libraries) will be able to open next week – two weeks earlier than was originally planned – if regional authorities agree to it. There will need to be four metres between diners in restaurants – which could make intimate soirées difficult – although some couples (including ones that I've been involved in) often seem a much greater distance apart than four metres when they go out together.
I just heard that my ferry ticket from Bari to Greece next week has now been turned into an open booking. All I have to do is give the ferry company a new date for when I want to set sail from Bari and all will be well – that is, if I can get to Italy via France and if Greece will allow me in. I wonder if Odysseus spent a lot of his 10 years at Troy thinking about how (or whether) he would ever make it back to Ithaca. I suspect he knew that it is the journey, not the destination, that is the thing…
13 MAY
Greece – which has done so well so far in dealing with the virus – understandably wants to take no risks and is going to be very careful about opening up to flights and tourism. But it's been talking to several countries with low infection rates (including Austria, Israel, Norway, Denmark, Australia and New Zealand) about the prospect of a safe tourism "bubble". Thanks to the UK government's ineptitude and success in achieving the worst virus death record in Europe, this country is unlikely to be allowed inside any "bubble" and the prospects for my odyssey look another step bleaker.
14 MAY
Would you believe it? There is confusion over what the UK government is doing about its expressed intention to impose a 14-day quarantine on people arriving from abroad. It said these measures would not, at this stage, apply to France; and now it's saying that people coming from France would not be exempt. It claims there is no confusion because it said "at this stage"... but then it doesn't apply to people coming from anywhere "at this stage". Apart from all the obvious closing-stable-door-after-horse-has-died-and-gone-to-the-knacker's-yard implications of this policy which may or may not be a policy at some stage or other, all this just adds to the existing uncertainty for anyone even contemplating trying to travel between the UK and Europe.
Let's be honest: if you were in Europe, would you want anyone coming into your country from the UK – after all the Brexit posturing and disinformation, and after the failure to deal with the virus?
Greece is due to lift internal travel restrictions next week, with city hotels reopening in June, and holiday resort hotels reopening in July. But whether it will be possible to get into Greece from the UK (or via France and Italy) remains to be seen. There is talk of tests on arrival and possibly even tests prior to departure.
The mood music from Italy is getting better and there seems to be a positive feeling that the summer season will actually happen there.
15 MAY
So Greece is opening up some of its beaches for what is forecast to be a very hot weekend – complete with social distancing of four metres between sunloungers (and heavy fines for offenders). The kind of beaches I head for in the Greek islands tend to have social distancing of many more metres than that – and ideally a mile or two. And they don't have sunloungers. As I think I've mentioned previously, a picture of one of my favourite spots – on the island of Tinos – adorns the cover of the notebook I'm using for my Greek language course (I've been doing an hour every morning pretty much ever since the lockdown started here). So I've been reminded of that beautiful place every day for many weeks, and – if the gods are willing – I will swim there on the evening of 1 September.
16 MAY
Italy was expected to open up inter-regional travel from 3 June. But it appears to have gone a step further and said that it will be possible for international travel to take place to and from the country from that date – just under three months since the big shutdown and the start of this journal. This is a huge step forward (hopefully). But will Greece really welcome visitors from the UK so soon?
17 MAY
Last autumn I was on another odyssey – walking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela with some very good friends. Because of fairly awful weather conditions for most of the walk, it turned into an ordeal as well as an amazing journey. I wrote about my experience for a UK magazine, and my Spanish friend who was on the walk has just written her own account of the trip – hers is a completely different piece of writing but in a way our conclusions were very similar.
I had written: "The Camino is a metaphor for life. We are all the same on this road – all travelling in the same direction, with the same ultimate destination. Sometimes we have to endure setbacks and pain, but if we recognise that we are all frail mortals, and that if we support each other, then the journey can be joyful."
My Spanish friend has written: "Without facing the rain, and without adding mine to the footsteps of so many others, I never would have realised that however we walk, all walking implies pain and glory, and that, ultimately, nobody is alone in doing it. I believe that to see oneself in those who walk differently to us is to arrive at God. Today, I know that the place I went during that pilgrimage is not in my country or in any rainy forest... I know that it is here, in the heart that finds communion with another, travelling side by side, at different rhythms, following this arrow we call time, along this ground we call Earth, on this path that we call life."
I think both of us were trying to capture that wordless experience that comes from committing oneself to an odyssey – to seeing where it leads, but perhaps all the time having an inner awareness that its conclusions will be revelatory yet ultimately indescribable.
18 MAY
My diary entry for today says: Odyssey Starts. But now it has a line through it. If this odyssey does ever start, it will either be in the last week of August or a year from today. But in a year from now, the UK is doomed to no longer be part of Europe – which is terribly sad. I wanted to go before the final disastrous chapter of Brexit came to an end. I had toyed with the idea of tracing my odyssey virtually over the next six weeks – but I think that might prove a bit depressing. Suffice it to say, I should now be on a train half an hour away from Paris... and I'm in lockdown (increasingly self-imposed) in south London. The only consolation is that this is due to be a very sunny week.
Greece is now talking about relaxing border controls at the beginning of July, but whether it will continue to impose quarantine on foreign visitors (particularly from the virus-ridden UK) remains to be seen. Ferries between Piraeus and Crete (one of the best journeys in the world) are reported to be running today, so maybe the islands will gradually start to open up. One can only pray that Greece doesn't get hit now by the pandemic that It so brilliantly and seriously closed the doors on.
19 MAY
I said I wouldn't do this but... today I should have been on a train from Milan to Bari to make a connection with an overnight ferry to Greece... Oh well... I've been consoling myself for the past few weeks with a wonderful screensaver image of a woman on a Greek beach. No, it's not a dirty picture... but it is perfectly seductive. She's lying on her back on the white sand in the sun with the clear sea and sky before her. But really all you can see is her big blue straw hat and her lightly tanned right hand with pink fingernails holding it in place. Beyond that hat she could be old, young, wrinkled, flawless, fully clothed or fully naked... It's impossible to tell... and always will be... The only thing for certain is that it's more enigmatic than the Mona Lisa... and I know which of the two pictures I would prefer to have on my wall... Before I get too carried away, I should explain that I found this photo by chance, while searching for images for Pembrokeshire.Online, the county's community website, for which I've been editing and contributing articles for the past few months. Pembrokeshire is a place I love and another place that I would have been visiting if it were not for the virus and the lockdown. With luck, I may be able to go there in June... although I'm unlikely to encounter anything like the woman with the blue hat.
20 MAY
This morning I should have been sailing past Ithaca... But I'm not. There's now a report from Italy that the numbers of virus cases and deaths have both risen again, just a couple of days after restrictions began to be lifted. Everything, it seems, remains uncertain. I've just finished reading The Arabian Nights, concluding with the seven voyages of Sinbad. Sinbad has a lot in common with Odysseus in that he gets into one nasty scrape after another as he sails the world. "By Allah, it seems that as soon as I get myself out of one dangerous situation, I fall into one that is more perilous or distressing," he observes – more than once. But he does go to some interesting and exotic places. The temptation comes to mind to undertake a journey in the wake of Sinbad (which would definitely be a dangerous one) after the odyssey. But that would be crazy, wouldn't it?
21 MAY
Today I should have arrived on Andros to spend five days exploring the island... But while Greece tentatively opens up, and Europe braces itself for a second wave of viral infections, here in the UK (where the first wave seems to be still going strong in the face of not an awful lot being done about it in time) research has suggested that over 50 per cent of people over 30 are not complying with lockdown rules. One could more or less tell that from taking a walk through a park, or even down a busy street. The "rules" are partly to blame for being vague and illogical, and younger people are increasingly to blame because they are fed up with the lockdown and don't see that it has any connection to them. The "new normal" that has been much talked about is actually set to be "same old, same old" where selfishness takes precedence...
22 MAY
I just heard from an old friend who has lost his job... In fact, I've lost count now of the people I know who have lost their jobs or their self-employment in the past two months. They certainly outnumber those I know who have contracted coronavirus. It feels as if the economic mess can only get worse and worse... My friend, who has many contacts in Hong Kong, was reminding me that HK managed to limit coronavirus deaths to four people... yes, four people. Perhaps it wasn't quite so well handled here in the UK, he mused... You can say that again...
23 MAY
The weather here stays bright and sunny but not quite as hot as it is in Andros. Along with the rest of the Greek islands, Andros remains virus-free and tourist-free, so it must be pretty quiet. Although Athenians will probably be taking advantage of the chance to pop over on the ferry from Rafina and have the place pretty much to themselves. Envious, me? Of course. But the delay to my odyssey means that I'll be able to finish my Greek studies – and also do more work on my Italian – before I head off into the blue in August (if some semblance of sanity has returned to the world).
24 MAY
Like many people I know, I feel a continual low level of disgust for the establishment's corruption, hypocrisy and (right now) uselessness. But after the news that Dominic Cummings had seriously broken the lockdown rules (possibly more than once), with the implication that his family concerns are more important than those of "ordinary people", I felt so angry that I have just written to my MP, to 10 Downing Street and to Conservative central office along the following lines: "I have not seen my children or grandchildren for nine weeks. Even when one of them was seriously ill and waiting for an ambulance to arrive at their home in the middle of the night, we agreed that I should not go there to be with them because of the lockdown rules. Dominic Cummings is an example of shameful hypocrisy – and if he is not fired, then the Government will be seen in a similar way." Writing this didn't make me feel much better, but it did make me feel better than if I had written nothing at all. I remain ashamed to be part of a country that voted to leave Europe and put a bunch of charlatans in control.
25 MAY
The disgraceful Cummings hangs on to his job (with the shameless support of his employer), the media (from left and right) fume, and "ordinary people" across the country (particularly those who were not able to be with sick or dying relatives) are furious. Will any semblance of justice prevail? Don't hold your breath...
With ferries between the Greek islands back in (domestic) business, Greece is saying that flights there will resume by 1 July and there will no longer be a 14-day quarantine for foreign arrivals. But, as ever, doubt hangs over whether that will apply to visitors from countries with high rates of infection, eg the UK.
26 MAY
Today I would have been on my way across the water from Andros to Tinos to stay one night in a fondly remembered place: the Stone House, an old cottage in the grounds of the home of Francy Foskolou and her family. Francy was a kind host to me last year and, thanks to her, I went on a most enjoyable walk into the interior of the island – organised as part of the Tinos Food Paths festival. I'm guessing that the festival – organised by Francy and a number of local restaurateurs and foodies – might not be happening this year, or if it is, it will be quite low-key. I was also looking forward to a reunion with the four Foskolou dogs who patrol the grounds, and who also made me most welcome last year. I never did learn their real names but I made good friends with all of them: Brownie, Blackie, One Ear and Noisy. I would also have been swimming this evening on that favourite little beach just over the road from the Foskolou house – and whose picture is on the front cover of my Greek notebook.
27 MAY
Today I would have been taking the boat to Syros to stay for a few days with my friend Eleni, a remarkable carer for many, many cats (20, the last time I visited) and a remarkable swimmer. Most mornings, she heads down the road to the bay of Galissas where the water is broad and shallow and still, just like a vast swimming pool. Maybe in September…
28 MAY
After a lot of online toing and froing, it looks like five of my odyssey's Greek ferry bookings can be transferred without any problem from May/June to August/September. I have to say that the woman I've been dealing with at the Paleologos agency has been not only brilliant at replying straight away to every query, but also at explaining and resolving "issues". I wonder if a Greek person would get the same excellent service if they were rebooking a series of British ferry trips…
29 MAY
According to my occasional (over the past 15 years) writing partner Rowena J Ronson: "This period of time is an invitation for us to look at the shape of our life – and consider what we might shift! That might be thoughts, or negative feelings, or limiting behaviours. I am working much more deeply now – on myself and with others – to use this time to Shape Shift. Let's Shape Shift our planet together. Let's wake (the fuck) up!"
My response was: "Just as the lockdown (despite its tragic dimension) has given individuals the opportunity to re-shape themselves and their lives, it perhaps points the way for humanity to get itself into shape. And the forces of nature are helping in that respect. I would ask in what way you think we will shift shape... but I suspect the answer is that we can't know that. If we come up with some sort of plan or target to aim for, then aren't we still stuck in the old paradigm? Don't we have to be completely open to being reshaped in a way that we can't foresee?"
Just after that, I read a report that referred to "re-shaping" cities in favour of cyclists and pedestrians. Athens, Berlin and Paris are all said to be increasing their car-free areas.
30 MAY
Today I should have been leaving Syros on a boat bound for Piraeus. While there, I hoped to see the big shaggy street dog whom I've encountered there for the past two years. I hope he is still alive and that he will still be alive on 5 September, which is when I now hope to be there.
Greece has listed 29 countries from which it will accept visitors from 15 June. They, of course, do not include the UK. Why would they? They may add other countries to the approved list in July.
I wished I hadn't, but I started reading online views of the Greek ban on UK visitors and it mostly turned out to be a torrent of racist vomit online. Shall I count the ways I'm ashamed to be part of this country. France and Italy are also not yet on the approved list for Greece.
31 MAY
This was going to be a tricky day... getting from Piraeus to Patras, over to the west, in the Peloponnese. I think the plan was to get the metro into Athens and then a bus and/or train. I was last in Patras in 1985 and have hazy but fond memories of it. With luck, I'll see it again on 6 September.
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