DENVER TO COPENHAGEN

This is another contribution from our guest blogger, Kadin Tucker. In June he wrote about his journey from Copenhagen to Denver. Now he has returned to the University in Lund, Sweden, to continue his studies. 

First was the flight from Denver to Boston, which was fairly full. I'd gotten a notice from United that it was going to be full, and they suggested for public health reasons, that I rebook if possible. Due to my onward connections this wasn't really an option. The flight was indeed quite full, but I was very fortunate to have the middle seat empty in my row. (I was seated at the window). 

I arrived in Boston at terminal B and tried to get to terminal E, where they handle international airlines. The airport maps indicated that I could just walk there, but the way through turned out to be blocked off. I don't know if this is a public health precaution or if they're doing construction there, but I had to exit the airport and go back through. The security at terminal E was practically empty, such that I wasn't sure where the line was. In fact, there was no line at all. 

I then waited for a long time at the gate in Boston. It seems that the Icelandair flight is a regular one during the pandemic, always going from the same gate. It makes sense to me now that they would choose Boston as the only American airport they serve, since it is probably the closest major airport to Iceland. 

About half an hour before boarding, a group of border police showed up and started setting up some equipment at the gate. As we boarded, we all had our pictures taken via this equipment. I'm not sure why they did this and I didn't ask, but I wish I had. It seemed like a strange thing to do. 

The flight was nearly empty. As I waited during the layover in Boston it seemed like the number of people waiting at the gate didn't increase much. Indeed, the flight was very empty, with each family having an entire row to themselves, including across the aisle. Icelandair provided a meal, which isn't usual for them. It was a ham sandwich, however, so I didn't eat it. 

Arriving in Keflavik, I soon discovered that there was going to be some difficulties with the bureaucracy. There was an initial passport control, which seemed to go according to the usual regulations. I got through that with no problem. Then they have this special registration specifically for COVID19, which requires you to choose either a 14 day quarantine or a testing schedule and a 6 day quarantine. Neither of these options really applied to me, given that I had a connecting flight in two hours, so I asked for help. They told me to list my address as 1 Keflavik Airport, Keflavik, so I did that, and I continued to the second passport control. Here I needed to show that I was indeed on a connecting flight. 

Looking at the billboards was quite discouraging at first. There were about 10 flights scheduled for the day, and all but about 3 were cancelled. Most worrying to me was that there were three flights to Copenhagen listed, two of which were cancelled. Mine flight was one not cancelled fortunately, but they weren't going to announce the gate for another 45 minutes. I waited in the very empty, very silent airport as the sun rose. When the gate announcement came I was very much encouraged, since it didn't seem like there were many flights that were not cancelled. However, upon trying to find my gate it seemed that it wasn't the usual situation and the gate was actually blocked off. Myself and another arrival from Boston decided to just wait nearby until something changed. A lot of people showed up, which was also encouraging. It meant that if the flight were to be cancelled last minute, I would have plenty of equally angry passengers around me. Eventually the gate opened up, and we boarded and took off to Copenhagen.

This flight was shorter and had no food service on it. I slept through part of it, having not had much sleep through the rest of the journey. Then we arrived, and I prepared to present my documents to the Danish authorities... only to find that there was no border control at all. I would have expected border control even coming from Iceland on a normal trip, but perhaps they are just doing spot-checks. At any rate, I bought a train ticket and waited for the Øresundståg to take me to Lund. 

I made it back home shortly after that. It was pretty much a normal train ride, and I didn't have my passport or ID checked across this border either. Normally they spot-check the trains anyway. It's nice to be back, and it almost feels like I never left at all. I'm not required to self-quarantine, but I will for the sake of public health and I will regularly take my temperature.