My mandatory two-week quarantine on returning from Belgium is ends, in compliance with the Budapest police watched only the first two days - a day when I landed at the airport and the next day, when doctors came to me with documents for signature. At the time when the situation in the world of stable cannot be called in any way, the usual trips straighten their format. However, about everything in order - in this material I will tell you why after 4 days in another country I had to spend 7 hours at the airport, but I do not regret them.
Trust but verify
As a responsible tourist, or rather, to say a person overlooking a residence permit, I called the Belgian Embassy in advance to learn about the restrictions on the entry and departure from the country. The girl who worked on that day convinced me that "One Hundred Percenta", which translated "One hundred percent" - exactly the chance with which I should not have problems with the goal of a tourist trip. At the request to provide official confirmation of her words The Embassy worker said that they were not doing the documents for such purposes, but she was sure that my trip would pass without problems, and wished a great journey. (Spoiler: To trust she was not worth it) Just in case, I decided to call the local Hungarian police department and the airport border service: I did not wait for the first answer, but on the second to the question "do you speak english?" I was transferred to an English-speaking specialist, who at the first attempt to leave in a conversation further than this phrase just threw the phone. It happens!
Only bread crumbs
If in February it was possible to take a direct bus from Astoria Hotel and quickly get to the airport, now the trip is a challenge - from home on the tram, then by bus and only then on the shuttle - and this is the condition that I live in Center Budapest. Suspicious signs were hanging at the bus stop that the bus stop was shifted due to repair work, but it's good that at 5 am I got a great companion - Hungarian, who perfectly spoke English, so I helped me figure out strange schemes. Arriving to the airport, I passed the control in 5 minutes, and then ran to Fudcourt in the hope of having to have something delicious and helpful. From a huge number of restaurants and cafes, only one institution in Take-Away format worked, where, despite the low load, I managed to calculate, adding two beverages instead of one. Returning the money, I took my breakfast from the sandwich and ice coffee, pulled the mask on the nose and went to Gaita. There I checked the documents, wished a pleasant way - and that's it! (Another spoiler: Fly from the country is easier than returning) On the aircraft, the stewardess gave alcohol napkins, asked everyone to remove the mask during the flight, except for the time when we would eat and drink, and seized people at a safe distance from each other.
Tourists in Brussels are now small
Photo: Ksenia Parfenova
Charleroi is no longer that
Sharlerua arrives at the airport of Charleroi, where Loocosters are traditionally based, I went out with control and went to seek a direct bus to Brussels - a friend, living in Belgium, has risen more than once. As it turned out, during the epidemic, the buses were canceled. Now only private minibuses go, where instead of 20 euros you must pay 40. "Yeah, now!" - I said, deciding to find a way out of the situation through Google Maps. The route of the card turned out to be incorrect, but here the girlfriend was connected, remembered that the Charleroi Station can be reached by public transport. So I did, explaining with the bus driver on the mixture of English and French, where to buy a ticket. Then I got on the train and quickly reached Brussels, where we met and went to a sightseeing tour.
If you go down, many local parks rest in the park on benches
Photo: Ksenia Parfenova
I got two lives
Miley Cyrus, who played in his childhood in the series, sang such lines: "I got two lives, and from every take what I am in the Nutra." It was such an impression that I had it at first: in the city everyone lived, as if in Belgium a pair of weeks before anyone, under the fear of a huge fine, was not forced to sit at home. There were few people for the weekend, but everyone behaved as usual: the children played on the venues, the youth rode bikes, and the old people slowly walked in the parks. From the obvious advantages, I highlighted the fact that all major objects of people were at times less - there are few tourists, so photos on the background of attractions can be made easier. Moreover, it is noticeable everywhere - both in Brussels, and in Brugge, and in Ghent, and in Ostend - all cities where we were over these days. Europeans are calmly walking through the streets without masks, no one observes the distance, and we were probably the only ones with the sanitizers.
On the North Sea, you can also relax while the resorts are closed for foreigners.
Photo: Ksenia Parfenova
"Not that delicious, but tasty"
Young people now caught a quote from the Meme, which exactly described quarantine tourism. Walk, as usual, but periodically encounter restrictions. In one restaurant you are asked not to be located next to the other on the sofas, but to sit opposite and with a distance from other tables. In the bar, they warn that they are closed at the hour of the night - it is impossible to work in the place longer in the law. So either sit on the barbell bar, or go home to sleep. Clubs are also closed - to dance with friends succeeded except for walking along the embankment with headphones in the ears. To go to the neighboring Netherlands on the day, as everyone did before, it also can't turn out - flights are available only from the capital, and those in an inconvenient time or at an inflated price. It remains only to go ashore of the North Sea, where people usually do not bathe, but I, as a Russian person, were not understood. Waters are warm, clean and breast depth - the most for an excellent swim. So the next time I'm flying to the beach holiday not to Spain, but in Belgium - why not?
Party these days ends quickly
Photo: Ksenia Parfenova
Long path home
The train, another train, the bus - all this long way with transfers I had to do, because the direct buses from Ghent to Charleroy were canceled due to quarantine measures. But even I did not upset this: in Belgium, go through picturesque places - a pleasant occupation. Renting to the airport 40 minutes before the departure, by tradition, quickly passed the control and sat down in anticipation when they decide to land. I was embarrassed that an airport officer came to Gayta, who explained to two young people, why they could not sit on the flight with a residence permit. As far as far away I caught their essence of the conversation, the gathering of the guys was Italian, so it is logical why they were offered to fly directly. However, just in case, a man of this I bypassed, as soon as the document was checking - by that time he found a new "sacrifice", he presented to whose permission to complaint. Excellent delometheus, I am joyful, I go out to the border control zone, thinking about where friends who have come on in Budapest, let's go to dinner today. Yeah! On the control I was stopped by a policeman, saying that I can't cross the border, since I had a residence permit, and not citizenship of the country. But I, being a common man, explained to him how I called the embassy, for what purpose I am in Hungary, and he agreed to help me. As it turned out, the procedure for entry from the residence into the country is standard: fill in the questionnaire on Hungarian, you send a photocopy of documents and wait for the police response. "From a pair of hours to a couple of days," the employee answered me to the question of how much I have to spend at the airport. In fact, I had to stay at 7 o'clock, although I had all official documents in my arms. At the same time, on the bus and cars of people with a residence permit, they are quietly allowed - no one friends checked it, moving between countries with which Hungary has a convention.
During the airport, I met other people who were in such a situation. Some flew to pick things left due to the urgent need to return from the exchange program to their country to the closure of the borders. Others decided to enter into Hungary for 3 days to enter Hungary for 3 days: they booked a luxurious hotel, the cultural program and all in this way. Third sitting and waited, although the man had a residence permit on marriage with a citizen of the country and official work. But it is worth noting that all this time the police officers were most polite as much as possible and tried to help everyone: provided power, removed smoking in a special zone, learned whether the signed permission did not come by email. I called the Russian Embassy, the number of which did not work traditionally - the endless beeps went, the other was completely disabled. Then, the University, the Police, the Department of Health - and everywhere, no one could say how long it takes a check of documents. Having received them, I signed on control of paper on mandatory quarantine, got a sticker on the door and went home on the same bus. The day of arrival is considered zero, so you can safely move around the city, see friends and so on. But after almost two weeks, I say exactly: now it makes sense to move only on buses or personal cars, where the boundaries are actually canceled again.