Deanna has leapt all the hurdles and has actually made it through to join me for the next 3 months! See the big toothy grins?
COVID-19 has closed all the borders. This is not just sad for us who travel, it's very sad for grandparents, grandkids, and adult children who are separated. On 21 October, Norway decided they would let other relatives than young children in to visit Norwegian relatives! Instantly, I called Deanna to see if she wanted to take advantage of this crack in the border. She was excited. Off we went to make it happen!
Deanna did all the usual stuff like find someone to take care of her kitty, plus made sure she had special stuff. She dug out her birth certificate saying I was her mother. I watched the rule changes like a hawk. They kept changing things, making them tighter. And tighter! Wouldn't it be awful if we got her all the way to Bergen, and they turned her away?
The Friday before her Monday flight, Norway said that you had to have a negative COVID test within 72 hours of arrival. Deanna had to find a test that weekend! And hope against hope that when she got off all the airplanes, the result would be ready, and negative. She found one they called a "fast test" on Sunday, which said the results would be ready in 72 hours. That could be too late, but she could definitely show the border police evidence that she had taken the test. Her negative result came into her e-mail while she was on the last hop flight from Amsterdam to Bergen. Whew!
Now for airport hurdles... SFO made her have me send a picture of my Norwegian passport to prove she was visiting a Norwegian resident. She got to the gate.
Amsterdam took her in a back office and grilled her. "The EU doesn't allow US citizens in", they said. She said, "Norway isn't IN the EU." "It isn't?!" they responded. I had to send the link to the UDI government document that said adult children were allowed in. The officer checked all that he could find. Finally, he stamped her passport! She made it to that gate.
Bergen. Would she get through that final border? Yes... and no. She had gotten the negative result by the skin of her teeth, but then they said that she had to quarantine with all other foreign arrivals in a quarantine hotel near the airport. The National Guard was there to make sure both of the scary foreign women got on the bus to the quarantine hotel. The other lady met her significant other in the lobby at the same time that Deanna and I were virtually hugging. And passing the "Live Long and Prosper" sign! Neither of the foreigners knew that they would be kept away from the public, with food delivered outside their room in a special hotel. But, the guardsmen told us the phone number of the hotel, and the man and I called and asked questions. Yes, Deanna and I can walk with each other, 2 meters apart, outside, while she's quarantined!
I had filled her apartment with things she'd need for 10 days. Luckily, I had brought her new phone with me to the airport. And I gave her my phone's external battery. Tomorrow, I will make a goodie bag with her phone charger, a Norwegian textbook, and my home-made welcome cookies. The light rail gets me down there in 40 minutes or so, and I will carefully lay the goodie bag on the ground between us and back away, slowly. That way, nobody gets hurt! (Thanks for that line, Debbie)
Hooray for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and my birthday with Deanna!
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