An Odyssey in the Second Year of the Plague – The Maltese Sanction

A map... and a rather good one

Weird a place as it is, I've always had a soft spot for Malta... and so of course does the British government.

The latter says it's now fine for tourists to visit the former.

But hold on... Malta says it's only fine if they can prove they have had two vaccinations. And – here's the rub – the proof has to be in a letter, not on a smartphone. That's a piece of paper! Not some app-based thing.

Not possessing a smartphone, I made sure to take a letter with me to Ithaca this month.

Wouldn't it be rather wonderful if the ubiquity of the smartphone began to fade just a little bit?

We might then see tourists using maps instead of walking around staring at their phones... or looking about them at their surroundings... or even talking to local people to ask them the way.

Congratulations to Malta, which is reported as saying: “From 30 June 2021, all arrivals from the UK need to present proof of full vaccination (two doses). Only the paper version of the NHS Covid vaccination letter, with subject ‘Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination confirmation: two doses received’, will be accepted, not the digital app version, nor a printout from the digital app.”

An Odyssey in the Second Year of the Plague – Payback at the Acropolis

 

And so to Athens... which I have visited many times over the past 40 years... but not since the awful mistake known as Brexit.

A small reminder of what the British have done – and of course they don't enjoy a good reputation here in relation to the Parthenon and the cultural treasure purloined by Elgin – was provided by staff at the Acropolis Museum.

People as old as me get half-price entry there: €5 instead of €10. To get my discount I was asked to provide ID. I handed over my passport and was about to get my reduction when a supervisor appeared and intervened.

She told the ticket seller – and the ticket seller told me – that there was now no discount for the British since they were no longer in the EU. I asked futilely whether it made any difference that I hadn't voted for Brexit...

It didn't of course. And I paid my €10. I fear the cost of Brexit will go on increasing – on so many levels.

An Odyssey in the Second Year of the Plague – One More U-Turn

Bust of Odysseus in Stavros, Ithaca

 

It's wonderfully surreal to be back in Ithaca and visiting the site of the Palace of Odysseus.

I gambled on things taking a turn for the better while I was here: i.e. that Greece would go from amber to green.

But against all the odds – and after 18 months of refusing to do so – the UK government appears to have acted sensibly... and turned Portugal from green to amber, thus quashing hopes of Greece and Spain getting some sort of reprieve.

Will I be doomed to roam the Mediterranean until at length the gods decide to allow me to return home?

An Odyssey in the Second Year of the Plague – Faith in the Fates

 

No, that's not the UK Cabinet trying to figure out what to do... it's the Fates (as portrayed in the wonderful Disney movie Hercules) measuring out what should happen next...

In fact, you'd probably be better off trusting the latter than the former...

You want an example of the UK government's ability to still send mixed messages and sow confusion?

Travel to Greece has not been banned but we are being told not to go... Add that to being told you can now mix with people indoors but you are advised not to do it...

We've had to put up with this kind of thing right the way through 2020 (see this blog for An Odyssey in the Year of the Plague – a day-by-day account from March through to October last year) and we're still having to put up with it in 2021.

Those with essential reasons will – at the moment – be allowed to go to Greece. It's essential for me to go to Ithaca. And I feel increasingly that it's essential for me to get out of the UK for a while at least...

An Odyssey in the Second Year of the Plague – Vaccination

Greece, August 2020 Photo©Nigel Summerley

My 2020 odyssey had to contend with more than a few hurdles, probably the greatest being the obtaining of certificates to prove that I didn't have coronavirus. That kept me in the Greek port of Patras for four days before sailing to Italy (see this blog: An Odyssey in the Year of the Plague – 9: 1-7 September 2020 and An Odyssey in the Year of the Plague – 10: 8-14 September 2020) and in the Italian port of Bari before sailing to Greece for one of the most stressful 24 hours that I can recall (see this blog: An Odyssey in the Year of the Plague – 12: 22-28 September 2020).

Now this plague year of 2021 sees the possibility of having to obtain vaccination certificates before being allowed to travel in Europe. The prime minister of Greece (fearful of another huge hit to his country's economy) has asked the European Commission to consider such a move and hopes to raise the issue at an EU summit on January 21.

Right now, pending quite a few (for me) unanswered questions on the much-vaunted vaccines, those hard-won certificates of negative coronavirus test results still look more appealing.