Over the past month and a half, Israel has really started to open up, and we managed to fit in a lot before coming to Toronto. We have not written any posts for a while because we were enjoying doing stuff in our last bunch of weeks in Israel.
However, now cases are going up again in Israel, so it seems we left at a decent time, or as decent as times for leaving places go.
We decided that we would catch-up on all of our posts while in quarantine (yes, I know, this idea does sound a lot like procrastination). But, anyways, you should look out for a bunch of posts in the next few weeks.
On Sunday we flew from Ben-Gurion Airport to Toronto Pearson Airport. It was surreal how empty the airports were! I was impressed with how many precautions were taken to keep everyone healthy. Upon entering the airport, everyone’s temperature got taken, and only those actually flying could come in. When we were checking in, after anyone was finished at a counter, someone came to sanitize immediately.
Also, on our plane there were only about 40 passengers, and the plane could have held multiple hundreds. Alexandra and I shared a row, although we didn’t have to, and we were almost always at least six feet apart from anyone else. Air Canada has not been selling middle seats for international flights, so even though Alexandra, Ima, and I are in the same bubble/ household we couldn’t all sit in the same row, but that didn’t turn out to be a problem.
All three of us wore masks for almost the entirety of the flight (just not while we were eating), and all of the flight attendants wore goggles, gloves, masks, and disposable gowns over their clothes.
Although I do not recommend flying now, it felt much safer than some other things I have done in the past few months (including going to school).
I sure hope that flying can return to being a normal thing in the future.
-Naomi
It is extremely quick to check in when the airport is basically empty, but when you add in the time it takes to drop off/check in six duffles, it takes a little longer
The crazy emptiness of the airport
All of the flights leaving Ben-Gurion Airport on Sunday