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Slovakia & South Africa Holidays
5 years ago
General
So this year has got off to a good start. I doesn’t seem like the world is ending or anything. - of course, I hope everyone can see the huge dose of sarcasm there.
In this journal I'm going to go through chronologically; taking briefly about my holiday last December and my holiday in March - of which because of the current pandemic, I might have been stuck out there. And then finishing on my opinion on current topics. I will try and put headers in this journal so you can skip areas you don't care about.
December 2019, Holiday to Bratislava, Slovakia
Slovakia wasn't high on my list of places I want to visit; but it was still one I wanted to mark off nevertheless, Sitting on the Danube between Austria's Vienna and Hungary's Budapest Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, is a very small, rustic old city with old churches, and roads but otherwise it felt quite modern, especially with what looked to be a brand new castle turned-museum overlooking the city atop the hill. I wasn't expecting much, and didn't really get much - but it was a nice way to get a few days away with my parents and sample another culture.
Because of the time of year the streets and plazas were filled with Christmas markets serving many a local delight including these large hash browns with any condiment you like on them (including a whole wheel of brie), mulled wine and punch. On the first night I got a "thinly sliced pork goulash with butter dumplings" which I've since nicknamed "Slovakian Goulash" and love, the second night I had a proper Hungarian Goulash with these large slices of "dumpling-bread" which I've never had before, but also loved, and then because my father was not that adventurous and thought the restaurant that was filled with Chinese tourists the first two nights but then suddenly empty on the last night was going to be good; we went there and I had a pretty poor cordon-bleu. (When I go to a foreign country; I want to try their foods, not something I can get back home.) And, as I suspected, it wasn't popular, it was just filled with a cheap tour group the previous nights. With my father leading the holiday I didn't get any or much say in what we saw or where we went, so I think there was a fair bit I missed out on, but I'm not in any hurry to go back as even then there wasn't too much to amaze me to see; perhaps the highlight was the little blue church which I featured on my "holiday drop image".
March 2020, Holiday to Cape Town, South Africa
So... In the UK, or at least in my town, there was a general feel of disbelief that the Coronavirus was a big deal; the government wasn't panicking, our hospital only had one case and there was just a general sense everywhere that people are just getting too worked up over something that is not going to have any real effect. Oh, how wrong we were. Our UK government just advised against traveling to China, Italy and Iran and nowhere else, and our airline didn't advise against traveling, so as far as they were concerned, we were going. We were aware though that the day before our flight, the president of South Africa had announced that two days after we arrive, no more UK and other "high risk" countries' nationals will be allowed into the country; so we were still able to get in and because of the rate of infections recoded, we believed we would be less likely to catch it out there then back in the UK, even though at the time, both were very slim. We landed in Cape Town with no issues; we had our temperatures taken and filled out a form about our health, but faced no issues getting in.
The holiday was very nice! The people were so nice happy and polite and kind. We spent plenty of hours on the V&A Waterfront, Camps Bay and Signal Hill, but unfortunately the fort, Table Mountain, Robben Island were closed due to forest fires and the fear of the virus which was a shame. Otherwise it was a very normal and pleasant holiday where the only difference was getting free hand sanitizer to wash your hands when entering shops and when you sit down at a table at a restaurant. ...oh! And the fact they banned alcohol which did annoy my parents as it was one of the reasons for coming to one of the best wine countries in the world. The reason was apparently because 'Saffas' kiss and touch a lot more with alcohol, so they banned it to help try and prevent spread of the virus. (which turned out to be a stupid idea a couple of months on it's lead to incredible damage to their wine industry as well as domestic abuse, alcohol smuggling and a rise in gang activity.)
Otherwise the only other significant thing we did was go on a Zipwire tour in the Hottentots Holland Mountains with Cape Canopy Tour, which was really great fun for everyone in the family! Especially my mother and father who screamed like little girls afraid of heights :3
However after a week into the holiday we had confirmation that our flight from Cape Town to Nairobi (a 3hr wait in Nairobi before heading to London) was cancelled due to Kenya closing their boarders, so my father had to book us another pair of flights back, ended up being a large sum of money for the last four seats on the flight for the of us and they were from Cape Town (West coast of South Africa) to Durban (East coast of South Africa) and then onto London.
We continued our holiday as normal; having to eat in our self-catering accommodation due to restaurants deciding to close because they did not find it profitable to stay open with all the restrictions the government put in place up to the second-to-last full day where we found out that our new flight from Cape Town to Durban had also been cancelled. It turns out that all internal flights in the country had been banned to prevent the spread of the virus. We began to panic; knowing that we only had once choice and that was to drive all the way to Durban to get on our flight back home to London. We initially misjudged this as we were pulling out of the car-park, realising that we were going a day early and could stay in our accommodation that night and go the following morning, driving 19 hours during the day to get to our flight on time. However collectively we decided it would be best leaving that afternoon and driving 19 hours thought night along unlit roads in the pitch black wilderness of South Africa traveling the whole width of the country (We were passed by other cars filled with suitcases and saw that someone had hit an large animal in the road as well as a random tire and other things that you really don't want to see come at you from the pitch black void only 5 metres ahead of you). As dawn broke the following morning we received a text on our family holiday phone which told us that our flight home the following day was actually brought forward to today due to South Africa closing it's boarders to the rest of the world at midnight. It was at this point we realised we made the right decision in starting our drive when we did, otherwise we would of missed our flight and would of been stuck in South Africa for as long as the virus continued. Once we were at the airport, tired and weary, it was completely empty. We dropped our rental car and tried to check in, seeing that there were only a handful of illegal internal flights and our flight to London. We were the first there and ended up talking to other passengers who filtered in over the day who told their story and we told ours; all were quite amazed our of feat driving 19hrs non-stop through the pitch black night in a rental car to get this flight home. We also found out that all other international flights out of South Africa were cancelled, leaving ours as the last one, with people driving from all over South Africa to try and get on this flight on stand-by (as our family got the last 4 tickets), and with the fact that the flight was moved a day ahead meant that not that mean people who were due to be on the flight ended up getting on; so everyone who did managed to get to the airport got on. The airport was essentially closed and we had to fill out the same form again about our health before we could board. It was one tense wait, hoping we could take off before midnight otherwise we were stuck.
Once we landed back in London, we felt free. So incredibly tired, but free. The story of our journey across South Africa is not one we are ever going to forget, and will now think again about whether we should go or not during what eventually became a global pandemic - but no one knew it would get this bad.
However... one thing did shock us when we got back. When we got off our flight, we were fully expecting for our temperatures to be taken and medical forms to be filled out just like we did when we arrived and left South Africa. Nothing... There was no a single thing to stop us from walking straight though normally. This sickened us. They could at least have taken your temperature before or at boarder control to try and gleam some sort of information - and if the excuse is there is no staff available to do a simple temperature reading and then jot it down onto a piece of paper for record; BULLSHIT. There is a lack of flights at the moment meaning an abundance of staff at airports not doing anything! Just get them to point a temperature gun at someone's head to get something! It really does sicken me that the UK government has been so slow to do anything. (And don't tell me Labour, Liberal or the SNP would of done any better as they have all just sat there with fingers up their arse just complaining about one another! Forget party politics! We need to get through this to pull yourselves together!)
Otherwise, we do have plans to go back to Cape Town and South Africa when this all hopefully clears up to see what we missed as it was a beautiful country filled with beautiful people; and we have some family friends who would like to come with us!
Future plans
My July Italian holiday to Sardinia is cancelled, my September Southern France & Monoco holiday is still unknown, and my end of year holiday with friends to Canada with
PhoenixRage16 and Ukraine with 
FoxHound1710 are now is very unlikely.
The world will be a different place when this pandemic ends. Let's hope it will eventually be a better one for all.
In this journal I'm going to go through chronologically; taking briefly about my holiday last December and my holiday in March - of which because of the current pandemic, I might have been stuck out there. And then finishing on my opinion on current topics. I will try and put headers in this journal so you can skip areas you don't care about.
December 2019, Holiday to Bratislava, Slovakia
Slovakia wasn't high on my list of places I want to visit; but it was still one I wanted to mark off nevertheless, Sitting on the Danube between Austria's Vienna and Hungary's Budapest Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, is a very small, rustic old city with old churches, and roads but otherwise it felt quite modern, especially with what looked to be a brand new castle turned-museum overlooking the city atop the hill. I wasn't expecting much, and didn't really get much - but it was a nice way to get a few days away with my parents and sample another culture.
Because of the time of year the streets and plazas were filled with Christmas markets serving many a local delight including these large hash browns with any condiment you like on them (including a whole wheel of brie), mulled wine and punch. On the first night I got a "thinly sliced pork goulash with butter dumplings" which I've since nicknamed "Slovakian Goulash" and love, the second night I had a proper Hungarian Goulash with these large slices of "dumpling-bread" which I've never had before, but also loved, and then because my father was not that adventurous and thought the restaurant that was filled with Chinese tourists the first two nights but then suddenly empty on the last night was going to be good; we went there and I had a pretty poor cordon-bleu. (When I go to a foreign country; I want to try their foods, not something I can get back home.) And, as I suspected, it wasn't popular, it was just filled with a cheap tour group the previous nights. With my father leading the holiday I didn't get any or much say in what we saw or where we went, so I think there was a fair bit I missed out on, but I'm not in any hurry to go back as even then there wasn't too much to amaze me to see; perhaps the highlight was the little blue church which I featured on my "holiday drop image".
March 2020, Holiday to Cape Town, South Africa
So... In the UK, or at least in my town, there was a general feel of disbelief that the Coronavirus was a big deal; the government wasn't panicking, our hospital only had one case and there was just a general sense everywhere that people are just getting too worked up over something that is not going to have any real effect. Oh, how wrong we were. Our UK government just advised against traveling to China, Italy and Iran and nowhere else, and our airline didn't advise against traveling, so as far as they were concerned, we were going. We were aware though that the day before our flight, the president of South Africa had announced that two days after we arrive, no more UK and other "high risk" countries' nationals will be allowed into the country; so we were still able to get in and because of the rate of infections recoded, we believed we would be less likely to catch it out there then back in the UK, even though at the time, both were very slim. We landed in Cape Town with no issues; we had our temperatures taken and filled out a form about our health, but faced no issues getting in.
The holiday was very nice! The people were so nice happy and polite and kind. We spent plenty of hours on the V&A Waterfront, Camps Bay and Signal Hill, but unfortunately the fort, Table Mountain, Robben Island were closed due to forest fires and the fear of the virus which was a shame. Otherwise it was a very normal and pleasant holiday where the only difference was getting free hand sanitizer to wash your hands when entering shops and when you sit down at a table at a restaurant. ...oh! And the fact they banned alcohol which did annoy my parents as it was one of the reasons for coming to one of the best wine countries in the world. The reason was apparently because 'Saffas' kiss and touch a lot more with alcohol, so they banned it to help try and prevent spread of the virus. (which turned out to be a stupid idea a couple of months on it's lead to incredible damage to their wine industry as well as domestic abuse, alcohol smuggling and a rise in gang activity.)
Otherwise the only other significant thing we did was go on a Zipwire tour in the Hottentots Holland Mountains with Cape Canopy Tour, which was really great fun for everyone in the family! Especially my mother and father who screamed like little girls afraid of heights :3
However after a week into the holiday we had confirmation that our flight from Cape Town to Nairobi (a 3hr wait in Nairobi before heading to London) was cancelled due to Kenya closing their boarders, so my father had to book us another pair of flights back, ended up being a large sum of money for the last four seats on the flight for the of us and they were from Cape Town (West coast of South Africa) to Durban (East coast of South Africa) and then onto London.
We continued our holiday as normal; having to eat in our self-catering accommodation due to restaurants deciding to close because they did not find it profitable to stay open with all the restrictions the government put in place up to the second-to-last full day where we found out that our new flight from Cape Town to Durban had also been cancelled. It turns out that all internal flights in the country had been banned to prevent the spread of the virus. We began to panic; knowing that we only had once choice and that was to drive all the way to Durban to get on our flight back home to London. We initially misjudged this as we were pulling out of the car-park, realising that we were going a day early and could stay in our accommodation that night and go the following morning, driving 19 hours during the day to get to our flight on time. However collectively we decided it would be best leaving that afternoon and driving 19 hours thought night along unlit roads in the pitch black wilderness of South Africa traveling the whole width of the country (We were passed by other cars filled with suitcases and saw that someone had hit an large animal in the road as well as a random tire and other things that you really don't want to see come at you from the pitch black void only 5 metres ahead of you). As dawn broke the following morning we received a text on our family holiday phone which told us that our flight home the following day was actually brought forward to today due to South Africa closing it's boarders to the rest of the world at midnight. It was at this point we realised we made the right decision in starting our drive when we did, otherwise we would of missed our flight and would of been stuck in South Africa for as long as the virus continued. Once we were at the airport, tired and weary, it was completely empty. We dropped our rental car and tried to check in, seeing that there were only a handful of illegal internal flights and our flight to London. We were the first there and ended up talking to other passengers who filtered in over the day who told their story and we told ours; all were quite amazed our of feat driving 19hrs non-stop through the pitch black night in a rental car to get this flight home. We also found out that all other international flights out of South Africa were cancelled, leaving ours as the last one, with people driving from all over South Africa to try and get on this flight on stand-by (as our family got the last 4 tickets), and with the fact that the flight was moved a day ahead meant that not that mean people who were due to be on the flight ended up getting on; so everyone who did managed to get to the airport got on. The airport was essentially closed and we had to fill out the same form again about our health before we could board. It was one tense wait, hoping we could take off before midnight otherwise we were stuck.
Once we landed back in London, we felt free. So incredibly tired, but free. The story of our journey across South Africa is not one we are ever going to forget, and will now think again about whether we should go or not during what eventually became a global pandemic - but no one knew it would get this bad.
However... one thing did shock us when we got back. When we got off our flight, we were fully expecting for our temperatures to be taken and medical forms to be filled out just like we did when we arrived and left South Africa. Nothing... There was no a single thing to stop us from walking straight though normally. This sickened us. They could at least have taken your temperature before or at boarder control to try and gleam some sort of information - and if the excuse is there is no staff available to do a simple temperature reading and then jot it down onto a piece of paper for record; BULLSHIT. There is a lack of flights at the moment meaning an abundance of staff at airports not doing anything! Just get them to point a temperature gun at someone's head to get something! It really does sicken me that the UK government has been so slow to do anything. (And don't tell me Labour, Liberal or the SNP would of done any better as they have all just sat there with fingers up their arse just complaining about one another! Forget party politics! We need to get through this to pull yourselves together!)
Otherwise, we do have plans to go back to Cape Town and South Africa when this all hopefully clears up to see what we missed as it was a beautiful country filled with beautiful people; and we have some family friends who would like to come with us!
Future plans
My July Italian holiday to Sardinia is cancelled, my September Southern France & Monoco holiday is still unknown, and my end of year holiday with friends to Canada with
PhoenixRage16 and Ukraine with 
FoxHound1710 are now is very unlikely.The world will be a different place when this pandemic ends. Let's hope it will eventually be a better one for all.
