First Impression: Riga, Latvia
I joke that navigating travel/crossing land borders in the times of Covid has me constantly thinking about Tom Hanks in the movie The Terminal.
If you haven't seen the movie, it's about an Eastern European man who is stuck in the international transfer area of Kennedy Airport when he’s denied entry into the United States. He can’t to return to his native country because of a military coup. The movie based on a true story. My thoughts turn to this movie everytime we go through border control at an airport.
Will they see my US passport and deny me entry due to a surge in cases? (Even if I haven't been in the US for months?) Will they decide I've been in a country with a surge of cases recently and deny me entry? Will they accept my hand written (lame) CDC vaccination card? Will they accept my covid test? Will they keep me from entering because I had a layover in a country with a surge in cases?
This last one almost landed me in what I feared would be a “The Terminal” type situation on our way into Latvia.
Side note, as annoying as most US airlines can be, at least they are usually pretty good at informing you of a flight delay, when you might expect the flight to actually leave, why the flight is delayed, etc. Turkish Airlines didn't make a single announcement about the flights being delayed or why each of the flights was delayed by more than an hour. This right here is one reason why we love having Priority Pass lounge access!
After two delayed flights on Turkish Airlines we arrived at the Riga Airport at 7:45pm. We had done the research, we had our Covid tests, we had our CDC vaccination card in hand as a bit of backup. Further, we had verified through the Latvian Ministry of Health website that we could enter from Bulgaria with simply an antigen test taken within 48 hours of our departure time and that a transfer through another country didn’t matter. The thing is, it doesn’t matter what the rules and policies say… when it comes down to it, it's up to the passport control officer you get to decide if you will be allowed into the country.
Our first attempt at entering the country was stopped because the agent told Jim he needed a Covid test because we came in through Turkey. Our simple transfer from one flight to the next was not so simple after all. Easy enough to walk fifty meters back to the Covid testing area, pay €25 each and spit in a vial. (Even though based on all our research, we should have been fine with our test from Bulgaria… and nevermind that a rapid test isn’t going to detect Covid that you contracted just two hours ago when you were in Turkey!)
So back to passport control we go. And this is where it gets interesting… They took Jim's passport, stamped it, and told him he would need to self-isolate since he was coming from Turkey. Um, again, according to the Latvian Ministry of Health website, we aren’t even allowed into the country from Turkey unless it's “essential business” which clearly our tourism stay is not. So strange. But Jim got through while I was still waiting for my agent to finish up quizzing me. That did not go well at all. I guess she didn’t like my answers because I had to go wait at the visa office for her to do I-have-no-idea-what. Forty-five minutes later: after looking at my Covid test once more, disappearing for a while, coming back, then asking how long I was staying (again), disappearing for a while (again), she finally led me back over to the passport control area, stamped my passport, and said I could go. Not a word about any kind of quarantine or self-isolation.
This. This is why I would suggest anyone looking to travel anytime soon might want to rethink it. We are really lucky that our longer stays allow some flexibility. If we did in fact have to self-isolate for ten days, we would still have more than four weeks to explore the area. Or if they actually wouldn’t let us in the country, we would be able to head somewhere else. (Back to Turkey maybe?!) I know many traveling in Europe right now that have had no problems at all—I guess it comes down to risk tolerance. You just have to be ready for things to not go smoothly!
So, that was our first taste of Latvia. Not horrible, but not really great either.
Don’t worry, it gets worse! We’re fully vaccinated and have our CDC cards to prove it. Unfortunately, right now Latvia doesn’t recognize the CDC card as proof of vaccination. Unlike France (and a couple of other European countries), Latvia doesn’t have a way for us to register in their system with our vaccine card to get the EU Digital Certificate. Without the EU Digital Certificate, we wouldn’t be allowed to go to the gym, eat inside restaurants (not that we want to do that anyway), go to the movies (even the outdoor movies!), or museums.
After 2.5 weeks in the city, we finally finangeled a way to get the EU Digital Certificate! If you’re planning a trip to Europe and are vaccinated, hit us up for details on how we did it all online.
First up on the list of to do items: join a gym! Followed by a trip to the Chocolate Museum 🤤
