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29 March 2021 - Bergen

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Travel in the time of corona is not cheap or easy, but I've decided to hazard it to visit my ailing father in South Carolina. I spent a good deal of today working on the logistics of the impossible.

If you are worried you might have corona in Norway, you can go to one of the state run clinics around most towns in the country and get a test that will tell you in 1-3 days if you are, in fact, infected. Worry is a valid reason to the socialists, but international travel is not. Not under any circumstances. No mind that our tax dollars pay for those state run clinics. Their decisions about your life trump yours. Fortunately Norway is a mixed economy (they let just enough capitalism go on to fund the socialism), so there are private options. Like everything else in Norway, this does not come cheap. I also have to meet the requirements for the Netherlands and the USA since I have a connecting flight in Schiphol. This means I have to take two tests - PCR and antigen. The PCR has to be within 72 hours of my flight to Amsterdam boarding and within the 3 days prior to my flight to New York boarding. The antigen test is at the airport before my first flight.

At least this is the information I gleened from government websites and hours of phonecalls. Information was conflicting on some of them and I've also done my best to create a paper trail of the reasons for travel because there is a punitive enforced quarantine hotel waiting for me on my return journey if the government doesn't consider my trip necessary. The governemt website concerned with borders (regiering.no) saying visiting a seriously ill family member is necessary travel, but the government website concerned with health (fhi.no) does not. I'm hopeful agents of the former will be working the border that day.

While in the US I plan to get vaccinated, something the Norwegian government has recently estimated to be available next year for my age group. In many states in the US they are already vaccinating everyone age 16 and up. I have no idea what the cost will be, but I already have an appointment for the two rounds of the shot at the local pharmacy. 'Merica! While some countries like Iceland have taken a rational approach to the vaccinated, that is, letting those people travel there freely without quarantine, Norway is not so progressive. It's not fair that not everyone has the shot yet, so we can't give those who have special treatment. Janteloven they call it. Norway is closed to people who are citizens or residents. (Well, actually Swedes and Finns are okay too.)

It's going to be an adventure I guess. A really expensive adventure. I'm just hoping that I don't get trapped aomewhere along the way.