To Travel or Not

by | Aug 14, 2021 | What I'm Thinking | 0 comments

I am looking forward to a trip to Istanbul, planned for mid-October 2021. And yet we wonder whether travel means exposure to the Delta variant or other variants that might be even more pernicious. A recent episode of NPR’s 1A discussed this issue, and one caller claimed that she felt safer on a recent trip to Turkey than in the US, as people had to show proof of vaccination before entering any public buildings or public transportation. Of course, I don’t know whether she is comparing Istanbul to Florida or to New England. I hear that airplanes are actually quite safe due to frequent air exchange. Traveling as a couple, we will be seated next to one another in a 2-person ‘row’ for at least the long-haul portion of the flight. We’ll be flying Air Canada and Turkish Air, changing planes in Montreal and Paris. Both Canada and Paris have stricter COVID policies than the US. And our tour company has required that everyone on our tour be vaccinated at least 2 weeks before the tour begins. So I’m still leaning toward going! In the meantime, I am learning some very basic Turkish from an app on my phone. And I’m reading Orhan Pamuk and Elif Shafak.