Traveling beyond Covid-19
Greece (Athens, Ioannina, Kalambaka, Delphi, Oia, Thira) Croatia (Dubrovnik) Montenegro (Kotor, Perast)
In early June of 2021, as the United States emerged from an exhausting year of lockdown and quarantine, the Balkan countries of Greece, Croatia, Montenegro (and others) began opening their doors for vaccinated American and British tourists.
Tiffany and I jumped on the opportunity to travel again, promptly purchased tickets and set off to explore the beautiful countries along the Adriatic and Aegean coasts.
Preparing to Travel post Covid-19 (Summer/Fall 2021)
Here is a check list of the things we had to do prior to flying abroad. This is valid as of June 10 2021.
- Vaccination Card. in protective sleeve. Take photograph backup and copies. (or willing to take a Covid-Test prior to travel -possibly during travel, and before the return leg home. These were checked at all border crossings (Airports to and from Dubrovnik as well as driving across Montenegro border and back.)
- Fill out pre-travel/location forms for your respective countries of travel. For Greece it meant going to their official website and filling out the documentation. They say you only need to do this one time if you’re a family traveling together (not for each individual person) Once the document is filled out, you will receive a QR code via email at 12AM on the date of travel – here’s the kicker – which time zone, right? For it was 12AM Greece time -meaning with an overnight flight that left the previous day, we actually didn’t receive our QR code until we got to our first lay-over destination of NYC — which at that point was 12AM Greece time -so it was a bit unnerving to board the flight at LAX without the QR code. Also, when we checked in for our flight at LAX, the woman at the counter asked for our QR code – which we hadn’t received but we could show documentation that we had filled out the Locator Form for Greece – she then asked for a 2nd Locator form (since there were two of us traveling) and we countered that you only needed one per family- she conferred with a higher up at the counter and it was confirmed we only needed one.
Now, when we arrived in Greece, the QR was only checked by a security team right before you jump in line for passport control who simply glanced at it and said have a nice day. *(Let me say that to Croatia and back to Greece it was checked a little more thoroughly but never scanned – just cross referencing the names.) - For Croatia it was a very similar process except according to Croatia’s official website, you also need to provide proof of accommodation that is PRE-PAID. Our hotel was kind enough to send us a ‘paid’ invoice to get us through, but they actually preferred we pay after our stay so a bit slight of hand. That said, I don’t believe it was ever asked for at any airport or border crossing.
Navigating airports & Covid Testing
LAX was a nightmare as always, but Athens, Dubrovnik and Santorini airports were pretty quiet. We blew through security, passport control, etc. each time. We encountered a lot of Americans, but Germans and Russians made up a bulk of the tourists we came across as well. A few Brits and Australians and French. The airport covid testing always seemed to be busy at each airport which suggests there are quite a few travelers that are going about it that way (instead of actual vaccinations)
Our return leg home we got a bit caught —
We were very thorough in all our paperwork and planning – it was always well organized and we breezed through everything airport related to traveling abroad — until we attempted to check in for our flight from Athens to LAX – they asked for our covid test results. We showed our Vax cards but it didn’t matter – apparently the wonderful CDC still has a policy in place for anyone, regardless of vax, traveling to USA must have a negative covid test. Somehow we’d missed that. Probably because it makes zero sense, but hey, that’s life in the dumbest timeline, yeah? So we scrambled downstairs with 2 hours and 15 minutes until check-in for the flight would close. No problem right? Only about 80 people in line in front of us.
There was only ONE person swabbing.
2 hours later and after asking a handful of people if we can jump in front of them (they didn’t have flights that day) we were getting swabbed. We raced upstairs to find the airlines getting ready to close up check-in. We still hadn’t received our results (which were supposed to come via email.) 15 minutes later nothing. We raced back down stairs – cut to the front of the covid testing line and asked for our results – 10 minutes later we had a print out. We raced back upstairs and the airline said we’d missed the flight and would need to take the flight tomorrow. What a disaster. We’d missed our return flight home due to needing a required negative covid test prior to check-in….on vaccinated persons. Complete joke.
Just then two more groups of Americans (roughly 8 people) come racing up to the counter having experienced the same process we’d gone through (long, slow line, results not showing up…having to go down to counter and demanding a printout of the results instead, etc) The airline told them all to reschedule too – but then suddenly there was a conference behind the counter — then they scrambled up to the glass and asked for all of our passports and said we’d need to run. I can only imagine that the airline pushing off this many people to tomorrow would probably create a problem for that flight too so best to hold our flight for all of us.
SO run we did. I’ve never ran faster through an airport. Got to passport control- which had about 100 people in line. With nothing left to lose I raised my hand and politely asked the crowd if we could jump the line. I don’t know if it was 100% approval, but enough of a consensus for me to feel we had the green light – jumped to the front and ran to our gate just as the last passengers were entering from the boarding process. We had made it. We’d ran so fast and so far the airline gate personnel were all fairly impressed – offering us a place to sit down and drink some water. Whew….
So here’s the message of the story – we’d nailed everything we needed to do to travel abroad. We had failed to check something that seemed to be a no brainer – if we can travel abroad through multiple countries with a vaccination card, certainly we could return home in the same way – I mean, that’s the whole reason to get vaccinated right? Dumb.
My advice is to check early and check often – the rules change so quickly (and possibly while you’re abroad!) so just check in a day or two prior to each border crossing/passport control situation you’ll find yourself in including your return flight home. That would have been the first flight I’d ever missed due to my own negligence. Thankfully, by some miracle, we made it on.
Masks abroad…
So masks. This was a big question mark I had prior to our trip. I live in California – Covid-lockdown capital, generally speaking. However a week prior to the trip we had been in Florida – so we had gone from “Put your mask on” to “Put your mask away” in the span of 7 days.
Our intention was to absolutely abide by any rule or law imposed while traveling abroad. We always try to travel respectfully and to represent our country the best we can when on foreign soil. This was no different.
Here’s what we encountered:
In Athens, while outdoors, as we walked around or first day, the majority of people, including tourists and locals, appeared to not be wearing mass, but they had them in evidence (around the neck, in their hand, etc.) At the major outdoor attractions (Parthenon, for example) people would wear masks, but would pull them down for a photo op or if there was distance between them and other guests. Pretty much the rule folks seemed to be following was ‘if you’re outside and not congregated, mask was optional.’
Inside shops, entering restaurants, etc, it seemed most if not all people kept them on, including employees. I always made sure to toss a mask on entering a store and if I was outside speaking to someone older, I’d typically throw it on even if they didn’t have one on – just out of respect for being in a land where vaccine isn’t entirely accessible yet.
The one thing that stood out to me were the few times locals would ask us about the vaccine – “Do you have it? Do you have side effects? Do you think it’s safe? etc.” It’s all anecdotal and so perhaps not indicative of the mindset of a population, but I found it interested the skepticism those with questions seemed to have. Perhaps that’ll change as more and more tourists flock across the pond to visit and move freely, but I definitely got a vibe that if all the green-crossed buildings all of a sudden had vaccine, there wouldn’t necessarily be a line out the door. I’m sure that will change throughout the summer.
Kalimara – Speaking the Language
Whenever I travel to a foreign destination, I’ll try to learn some of the basics of the language. Sometimes I get as far as greetings. Other times I may try to dive in deep to see if I can, say, complete a hotel check-in or a dinner scenario in the native language. All depends on how much travel prep I have.
In Greece, English is very common. It wasn’t really until I was deep into the countryside that I ran into any completely non-speaking English (oddly enough, the first being a young teenage girl – which runs counter to my typical ‘if you need to communicate abroad, ask the youth’ travel tip.)
The Greek people never seemed to mind communicating in English but let me tell you, I have never been to a place where the people genuinely light up with such adorable excitement when you speak to them in their native language. The number of shop keepers, locals on the streets, passport control persons, etc. that would grin ear to ear and return a warm response after I had said something in Greek (especially after they had greeted me in English) was incredible. I firmly believe that Greeks love it when tourists make an effort to melt into the culture and language. Know you’ll have an out for English -and yes, you can travel lazy to Greece and expect to communicate cleanly the entire time, but do yourself a favor and learn some Greek. Those human moments will be reward enough.
Driving in Greece (Croatia & Montenegro)
I have personally driven a vehicle in twenty-two of the countries that I have visited. I would rate Greece easily a top 8 in terms of stress and being comfortable at the wheel.
The major motor ways between big cities are very clean and light on traffic – in particular if you get out into the countryside, such as Epirus. Often you can feel like the only car on the road. There are ample rest-stops along most highways and I never felt like I was too far away from the nearest gas pump. Signs for gas are clearly marked to essentially say “Gas ahead X Kilometers away. The next gas beyond that will be Y kilometers.” – Really let’s you make a fairly accurate choice on whether to fill up now or later.
One major difference driving in Greece as opposed to, say, England, is the passing courtesy. In many countries in Europe you often drive in the right lane and use the far left lane ONLY for passing. To pass a car on the right can often lead to a ticket or the flashing headlights of a car alerting you to your bad behavior. Greece was more like America. No decorum for passing. Perhaps Greece, like Amerca, does teach a good driver passes on the left in a passing lane (hell, maybe it’s actually law.) of passing, but just know Greece.
On highways, speed cameras are everywhere. Speed at your own risk. I always seem to get tagged by one of these on every trip. The fines aren’t typically terrible, but it’s still an unwelcomed arrival when you get a follow up invoice from the rental car company or letter in the mail state-side from the respective countries fine department well after your trip has come to a close.
There are lots of motorcycles and scooters in Greece. They are allowed to split lanes (drive in the middle of two cars on a two-lane road.) — that’s already a way of life in California so I’m used to it, but I do understand how alarming that is if you’re not used to it. Always make sure you’re using mirrors and throwing a look over the shoulder before switching lanes. The bikes are everywhere – in particular city centres.
Shoulder driving and other anomalies:
This one caught me by surprise.
As I was driving I’d notice cars passing me (on the left) and almost rip off my bumper as they went from the left lane and drifting in front of me. (What we’d call in America – ‘being cut off’.) Now, it never felt intentional – but it happened 2 or 3 times fairly early in my drive out of Athens that made me question why it was happening. I started to notice slower cars in front of me…as I was approaching more rapidly from behind, would be straddling the white line that runs along the shoulder of the highway – almost halfway out of the lane. In America, to see this, you might think “uh, is this dude texting or drunk or something?” — come to find out, in Greece, if a car is coming up behind you and will likely pass you, as a courtesy, you drift your car to the shoulder allowing the faster car to pass you by sometimes without even actually moving to the next lane over to do so.
So those cars that were ‘cutting me off’ weren’t necessarily being jerks, they were more likely just wondering why I wasn’t’ giving them the courtesy of moving my car more to the right to give them room to pass. I was likely the jerk in their mind. It’s an easy thing to do and there is often plenty of space on the shoulder to continue driving at speed without worrying about your wheels coming off the road. Just a unique thing to this part of the world I’d never experienced.
Also — on a lot of back country two lane roads, there’ll be a double-white line in the middle of the road (much like double-yellow in America.) This same ‘pull your car on the shoulder and let faster cars pass you by’ does play. It may feel a bit like you’re passing someone on a double line -and essentially you are- but it will happen a lot and so long as your minding traffic coming in the opposite direction, will be fine and safe to do — I did it multiple times, in particular around super slow trucks and turtle-necked tourists. Driving a manual/stick shift makes this infinitely more easy to perform.
Are Greek drivers aggressive? Yes. I would say so. And I certainly rode in a taxi or two that had me a little white-knuckle-gripped at times. But for the countless hours of driving I did, I never felt like the drivers around me were fools. Perhaps it’s because I live in Los Angeles and can’t get in my car without seeing some of the dumbest driving behavior out there (We have a lot of Prius’ here) – but Greek drivers never made me feel uncomfortable on the road.
Now that said, I did not drive in the city centre of Athens. The most populated city I drive into was Ioannina. Just taking taxi’s and walking around Athens did seem a bit more chaotic – there were plenty of times in a taxi where I thought “hmm…what lane are any of these cars in?” and you’d often see cars just nudge themselves into pole position when they clearly didn’t have the right of way. There’s not a lot of honking and pissy-behavior that often accompanies inner-city driving -none of my cab or van drivers ever appeared to lose their cool- it’s almost like a “oh, you nudge you’re car in there? Well played.” As inconsiderate as the moves can appear, it never felt like like it’s going to erupt into an out-the-window shouting match and middle fingers. People have places to go and so long as your car doesn’t touch another car to get there, game on.
Stop signs are often treated as “California stops” or “rolling stops” – especially when no cross traffic is present. I absolutely did this, too, once I realized that’s just how it is. I was in a hotel van with other Americans and the van just proceeded right through a stop sign as if it wasn’t there. I was in the front passenger seat having just spent the past 10 days driving around Greece. It didn’t phase me. But the passengers in the back all struck up commentary such as “I suppose that sign is just a suggestion here?” and “Honey, maybe we won’t be getting a rental car.” I get it, it’s a bit counter to how we do it in the States, but it just makes sense under the right context to give a look left and right, see no cars in sight, and roll right through. When in Rome, yeah?
Tolls. Tolls. Oh, also, tolls. Did I mention tolls? Let me tell you about all th-oh, wait, sorry, lemme take care of this toll before I continue…
So these damn things are every where. Must have hit 10 or 12 of them on a 4 hour drive to Epirus. The good news is a vast majority of the toll workers are extremely friendly. They do accept credit cards -and while the lines for booths requiring change or credit card usage are often 4-6 cars longer than those with exact change to toss in the basket and head on the way, the convenience of credit card usage was quite appealing – to not blow through your cash on toll booths is a plus. Just tap the card (assuming you have a chip/tap credit card) to the device, get receipt, move on.
The other good news is the tolls aren’t egregious. On average they were €2 for a two-axled car with some as low as .80 cents and the highest being €15. (yes, that was awful, but there was only one of those.)
Croatia and Montenegro
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People and Crowds – Summer in Europe
Let me just say that I typically avoid summer in Europe (say, Mid June thru end August) like the Bubonic Plague (too soon?) – however, coming out of the covid timeline,
Except for the Parthenon photo (which was taken roughly 1 hour after opening) all of the photos above were taken roughly around mid-day or later. To experience these sites in the summer with very little ‘tourist’ influence around has to be fairly once-in-a-lifetime. Some of these places (Dubrovnik, Parthenon) I can only imagine are just plain insanity at their summer peak.
Accomdation in Greece / Croatia / Santorini
Traditional food of Greece
While booking our accommodations, the one anomaly that stood out was when booking for Greece, there was always an option to Pre-Pay, which also usually came with a pretty nice decrease in price (maybe $40 or $60 per night.) The catch is, those are non-refundable. Miss the check-in day, you’re out the cash. Now, when traveling abroad, in covid times, that’s a little unnerving. Especially for places like Santorini which usually have a much higher price tag if you’re staying somewhere nice. At that point you’d literally be out big bucks if you didn’t make it.
But we had faith in our plan. We knew our itinerary and where we needed to be each day. So we booked our the entire Greece portion of our trip pre-paid. We felt if there was ever a reason where we didn’t make it to a town to check-in that night, then we have bigger problems on our hands than losing out on the hotel room payment for the night. It worked out.
Here’s a list of some of the places we stayed that we would highly recommend:
Athens, Greece:
Ioannina, Greece:
Kalambaka, Greece (Meteora)
Dubrovnik, Croatia
Santorini, Greece
Countryside of Greece
Traditional food of Greece
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