Travel Preparations

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 As mentioned in my previous post traveling these days is not particularly easy. After getting my Visa, the next challenge was booking flights. After the direct flight from SFO was cancelled twice, once in January once in February, I resigned myself to connecting. Lucky the direct flights from LAX were more reliable so I booked the SFO-> LAX -> MUC route. However connecting did make Covid Testing more of a challenge. Germany requires a negative covid test administered within 48 hours of scheduled arrival but you need the results before boarding the flight. There are places in the Bay area which offer test results by 2pm the next day which would have worked for my a flight. Unfortunately I did not get a straight answer on if I would need my test results before the SFO to LAX leg of my journey. Assuming I would need the negative test to board my first flight I had to find a same day Covid test location that was open on weekends. Thankfully I was able to book a test which guarantees results by 7pm the same day, though it does require driving up to Pittsburg (California). I'm still nervous about a false positive or a delay in the results but at this point there's not much I can do.

Once in Germany I will still need to isolate for 10 days though after 5 days if I recieve another negative test result I can actually leave my apartment. I'm renting in the Glockenbachviertel neighborhood which is quite central and has a reputation for vibrant nightlife. We'll see if that holds true during lockdown. I have a 6 month lease so if things to get too noisy I can always move. 

I plan to check 3 bags which are mostly packed at this point. Getting them to and from the airport may be a bit of a challenge but I'll cross that bridge when I get there. 



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