A Return To Normality - Whatever that is for us??!!

 You might have noticed something of a gap in the saga over the past few months.... COVID did nothing to change my mood about life especially with lock downs and vaccination certificates to deal with, so like many I very much gave up on life and ring to do anything.

In August 2021, after several cancelled flights and abortive attempts to get back to the UK for a holiday, i finally succeeded but still had to go into quarantine, arriving back in the UK the day before the quarantine regulations I still had to stay isolated for 10 days with the necessary test in between time.

Don't ask me how but I managed to pick up a chest infection during my time in quarantine which steadily worsened and because the NHS was paralysed by COVID I was unable to get the necessary medications from my doctor so ended up in hospital after having a heart attack brought about by the infection.

Recovering from this took quite a while....In deed as I write I am still not as strong as I was before, and having lost a lot of weight during my stay in hospital I don't look the best either...

All things being equal I hope to get back into the travel mode again soon and am currently planning a trip back to Egypt early next year 2022.....

So watch this space....

And Just As Things Were Getting Underway...

 AS from August 11th all bars on Crete, gay or otherwise, must close at midnight, which for the LGBT community which traditionally does not go for a night out until 10 or even 11pm, means any idea of a good night out is out of the question.

It also causes something for bar owners as well, and we do have to consider them of course.

In addition, travellers from some countries, including The Netherlands, one of our biggest markets on Crete, must now present a negative pcr test taken not more than 72 hours before they arrive....

Just as a point to note .... Greece recently saw a record of 203 new coronavirus infections (29 cases were “imported” from travellers abroad), raising the total number to 5,623. The death toll in the country stands at 212.

Many have now given up on any ideas of travelling anywhere for the remainder of this year at least.

Another New Piece of Paperwork Before You Travel.....

As if life wasn't difficult enough....

Travellers arriving in Greece must complete an online form, a Passenger Locator Form, or PLF before arriving in Greece, initially you could do this 49 hours before arriving, but this has been reduced to 24 hours, a QR code will be emailed to the traveller and the QR code must be presented at the port of arrival. Random testing of arrivals will be carried out at the airport, and the tested passenger must then proceed to their final location and stay there in self isolation until they receiver their test result.

It their test is negative they are free to move about wherever they like, if it is positive they have to go to a specific quarantine hotel, paid for by the Greek Govt until the end of their stay, assuming they are tourists of course.

We knew this was never going to work because many hotels have not opened and so far two positive tested people have been ''lost'' because their declared hotel on the PLF was not open so they were put into different hotels. The authorities caught up with them 48 hours later when they had been happily wandering the streets for a day in the belief that their pcr test at the airport was negative.

We do wonder at the Greek Govt's decision to put at least one quarantine hotel in the middle of a high density population area, and also note that decision to open or close airports to different airports is down to the Greek Civil Aviation Authority not to the 'answerable' government.

Greece Planning To Re-open for Tourism mid June 2020

Sometimes it seems that the media know more than national governments do themselves....

Indications are at present that flights from many countries will resume on June 15th with some exceptions such as the UK and Sweden not being able to fly into Greece until mid July 2020.

There are also restrictions on which airports visitors are allowed to fly to and from with some regional airports in some countries not being able to provide flights.....

We are still mystified and confused by the differing reactions and regulations between different countries...... Perhaps nobody knows what they are doing because we would have thought that all the rules would have to be the same in every country? 

No Tourism Activity For Now!

The Cretan tourism season usually starts at the end of March and as prospective visitors have already found, flights and package holidays have been cancelled although tour companies and airlines are offering to change holiday dates at no extra charge.

Tryin to call a holiday company, at least in the UK, means a wait of hours on the end of the phone for many.

The Greek lockdown which started in March has been extended twice and it is expected that restrictions will start to ease at the beginning of May. 

At the Gay Crete Blog we are somewhat skeptical with some of the statistics being produced, especially in the UK, which seem to us to be rather inaccurate, indeed we have taken the ONS in the UK to task because the number of people that have died of specific causes exceeds the total number of people that have died.

Much of what is happening seems to be based on paranoia and fear rather then sound scientific facts, particularly we are concerned with the accuracy of the pcr tests being used because as any gay man who has had one of these to check for HIV will know, they are notoriously inaccurate and if you have one done you are actually told that!

(As far as we can work out the ban on all flights within the EU came from the European Air Safety Agency, an unelected body that is responsible for the safety of aircraft and airports. It seem they have now taken it upon themselves to be responsible for the health of passengers as well.... Creeping bureaucracy again?)

And Greece Goes Into 'Full' Lockdown.

The Greek Government has announced that as from 23rd March 2020 a full lockdown will be implemented in Greece.

By coincidence (?), the UK has also announced a lockdown starting the same day. 

The UK lockdown will probably be considerably more successful we feel as you have supermarkets offering delivery services which is something we do not have in Greece!

The nature of the Greek civil service and bureaucracy also means that much day to day business has to be carried on face to face.

Meanwhile in Greece we have to send an SMS (free of charge thankfully), to a central number to say why we are leaving our houses. We have a choice of 6 reasons to be leaving our homes, none of which includes such everyday events as walking to the rubbish bin on the corner to get rid of our rubbish!

Further updates as they become available!

Coronavirus and Bar Closures in Greece.

 As more information becomes available in the current situation concerning the novel coronavirus, the Greek government has announced that bars and cafes will be closed from 13th March for 10 days even though Greece has only had about 90 cases and so far no deaths.

The situation in northern Europe appears to be getting more serious with Germany notably affected which is a little worrying for you correspondent as he spent 6 hours in Frankfurt airport in transit on his way back to Crete.