Coming from one hot spot to the next.
{Part 1}

Now that I have digested a little bit, I can now tell you the experience I have gone through with the COVID-19 outbreak. My outlook is not medical but one through the eyes of someone working hard and trying to enjoy life with my family and friends.

It all started planning my annual Daddy-Daughter ski vacation, back to my dad’s hometown, Bad Gastein, Austria. This was also the very first time that my boyfriend would experience Europe. Also, by surprise, my friend reached out to tell me they would be in town as well. My thoughts at the time were, “this is going to be an unforgettable trip.” Boy, was that an understatement.

The week before we were to leave, the mention of the COVID-19 virus started to get more media. After talking to my family, we were pretty confident that in dad’s small hometown, we would be fine, I mean we are all the way tucked in the middle of the alps at the end of a valley or canyon as my boyfriend refers to them. To be safe, I ordered some facemasks or bandanas that had a carbon filter in it to stop bacteria and pollutants from getting through the fabric. Pretty cool technology and invention. #nerdAlert.

A few days before us leaving, my boyfriend heard from his hairdresser quite a few people in Milan had the COVID-19 virus. I assured him Milan is several hours from our house and that there aren’t many Italians that vacation in the Gasteiner valley.

Fast forward to departure day. We are about to board the flight in Newark, and we see a few, and when I say a few, I mean a dozen people wearing a mask in the airport and airplane. We land in Frankfurt to find more people wearing masks in the airport, so we keep ours up. We land in Salzburg, and at last, we made it, masks come off.

After a few days of catch up with our local friends and family, we learn a bit more about how COVID-19 is affecting Europe. Italy’s infection has gotten worse in Milan and has now spread to Venice, which is 4 hours away from Gasteinertal. My antenna went up, and I started reading the news a bit more closely. We continue to enjoy our vacation and behave how you would typically behave in the alps in the winter, ski, walk around town, go into some shops, buy souvenirs, eat at restaurants and go to the spa.

I get a text message from my friend who was supposed to be in town for film production. Production canceled due to the virus. They aren’t coming. What’s next?

We had been planning on going to other valley’s to ski, but the two major ski resorts, Obertauern, and Saalbach, had cases, so we decided we would only stay in the valley this trip. With this news, we felt we shouldn’t go out to dinner and possibly expose ourselves to contamination.

Italy stops flights out of their major airports, and Austrian borders are preventing people from driving across country lines. Austria puts extreme flight restrictions to-and-from particular countries. Things just got a bit more real.

In the meantime, my Uncle was staying with us, getting his 100 ski days in for the season. His daughter’s ex-husband had taken their four-year-old twin boys on a planned weekend getaway to his parents. His parents live in Israel. When he lands in Israel, the airline tells all passengers that if they leave the airport, they would have to take a 14-day quarantine, managed by the Israeli government. They also had the option to stay at the airport and return to Austria. This man chose to leave the airport and go to his parent’s house where they were all then forced to a 14-day quarantine. The military would check on them daily to make sure all were all there. My Uncle’s daughter was a mess. She spoke with the embassy, and they told her that her ex-husband should try and escape the country and get home. So he did. The penalty, if he got caught, was to be sent to prison. He didn’t get caught, not by the Israel government, at least. At this point, shit got real, real fast. I started the conversations with my dad to change his flight and travel home with my boyfriend and me, but he wasn’t convinced. Dad was still planning on staying an extra week.