Traveling abroad 2021

The most surprising part was that on the FB group I am checking regularly, some Argentinians are even bashing people for having travelled at all. The same angry social divide I see on Argentinian social media... It seems the old say 'you can take and Argentinian out of his country but you can't take Argentina out of an Argentinian" holds true even if replacing Argentina with Peronism/Peronia.

Quote from UK Man

Reading today Australians even doctors are having problems getting back to Oz due to the number of travellers allowed in being drastically cut.

Yeah, except that the comparison between Argentina and Australia, that has been heavily used to justify the measures, only stops there.

And Australia is doing far better than Argentina, so it hardly justifies it in Argentina, imho.

Another act in my travel during the pandemic.

I went to visit a friend and her family at the sea. I decided to take the train because it was safer than driving. The train ride is 4 hour long, and the car ride is 2:15 under normal traffic conditions, however in summer it could easily mean a 4 hour drive by car - so I gladly took the train to relax and let someone drive me there.

The first train was to Turin and it had a/c and we were seating alternating. It was not mandatory but just what everybody was trying to do. The second train to the Ligurian riviera was full of holiday makers and it was more crowded. It was no longer possible to seat alternating, but more or less it was a comfortable ride. Some youngsters (teenagers) were sitting with no mask on at all and chatting throughout the trip. The train conductor didn't bother to check tickets nor to make a remark to wear a mask. I think she was afraid of being assaulted and outnumbered. And the same scenario repeated along the cars, so she would have spent the entire trip trying to make passengers wear a mask. Not to mention adults wearing the mask under their nose.

I was expecting to see policemen on the train (as it is customary to do on some trains), but there were none in sight.

The return trip was far worse. The train from the riviera was so crowded that there were people standing for the whole ride (2:30) to Turin. The a/c was broken in my car, and I didn't mov to a different one because when I got on the train, there were barely any seats left. The guy next to me, about 17-18 years old, kept his mask down for the whole trip and wasn't even bothered to fake to wear it. It was under his chin for the whole time... which explains why the seat next to him was still empty. The lady to my left was wearing hers under her nose, the girl in front of her at a certain point took a maskless nap, the other two seats behind was taking her off to chat with someone else etc. I think the same would have happened in another car.

The second train, heading to Milan, was empty and with AC. Still, teenagers wore no mask and chatted during the whole trip. Again, the train conductor didn't say a thing except to keep it down a notch since they were screaming.

If this was a decent country, I would file a suit against the train company for not being able to ensure my health safety during both trips. Meanwhile, the other day people crowded the streets of many big cities to protest against the obligation to be vaccinated to enter some places from August 6 onward. Ignorance is never blissful... it is a plague!

And to finish the post in big style: my travel agent informed me that my flight to Argentina was cancelled. She offered two return options: 1600 euros for the next day and 800 euros for the next week. Thanks, but I'll pass.

KLM also offered to refund me for the return, but there is no way I can find a one-way ticket for the same price. I'll wait..

My travel agent just reprogrammed me for Sept 2, 2021.