EU21: First international travel in times of COVID19

As I write this I'm waiting at the airport for a flight to Athens. Last time I travelled by plane was for a short trip to Cardiff in January 2020, 18 months ago. 

Travel is still limited, and fraught with extra hurdles. Aside from all the 'Distance, Hands and Mask' mantra, you need to produce one or more certificates from a range of PCR or antigen tests or vaccination certificates. I am fully vaccinated (Pfizer), but my second shot was exactly 14 days ago, and as some travel information specifies that you need *more than* 14 days since the full vaccination, yesterday I decided to get an antigen test as well (negative). I won't know if it was insufficient or redundant till I'm successfully out of the airport in Athens. 

On top of that, extra paperwork during the acquisition of your plane tickets, and specially new immigration-cum-vaccination forms, and even an app from the Greek authorities with all those features you would find suspicious if they came in any other app: geolocation, permission to make calls, connect to the internet, read your accounts...). Anywaaaayyyy...

(a few hours later...)

Finally the arrival to Athens was less stressful than expected. The plane has been vacated row by row, to avoid crowding. Unfortunately, on the way to baggage reclaim there was this bottleneck where travellers were asked for their vaccination certificates. Like in a TV comedy, the escalator just before that point was bringing in people faster than they were 'processed' by the airport officials, leading to a pile up of people just in front of an increasingly more stressed airport official.

People with vaccination certificates (or just claiming to have them, probably; no one has really looked much at mine) were directed to a corridor swiftly leading to baggage reclaim and the exit. People without certificates were directed to another corridor, never to be seen again (or simply to have a quick COVID test, may be).

After all that stress, I'm in Athens!

   

(yes, that's the view from my accommodation, and yes, this is a 'small' salad I was served as a light dinner. Food portions in Greece are out of this world).