Normality

 

Last weekend I stayed at a hotel for the first time in about 1.5 years. This may not sound like a remarkable fact for a lot of people even if there were no Pandemic, but for me, who used to travel a lot it definitely is. We spent the weekend at a hotel by Lake Neusiedl, redeeming a voucher we had got as a Christmas gift from my parents. 

Masks aside, you could almost forget this was still not quite the "old normal" and even if it was barely an exotic location by any means, it felt quite extravagant and also a little bizarre to be sitting among so many strangers (with a safe distance) and being able to stroll around on a sightseeing mission. 

Unlike many of my friends, I am still not that keen on travelling abroad when this is still dominated by tests, forms and uncertainty if rules and regulations may change while I am there, but I am definitely looking forward to the day when the new variants won't be anything for news headlines any longer.