Coming Home

As I type, I still can’t believe Im writing this.  After almost 5 months of traveling through Europe…we are coming home.  Well, by the time you read this we’ve already flow over the Atlantic and are back in Saint Pete.

As some of you may know, we had planned to go to the United Kingdom at the end of December and stay there for 2 months until our Schengen clocks reset and we were allowed to return to the EU.  The night before our departure was when news broke about the new Coronavirus strain and the UK locked down its boarders, in effect locking us out.  We immediately went to the US Embassy in Prague to explain our situation, that with our Schengen stay about to expire in days and no where to go we were stuck and didn’t know what to do.  They advised us to go to the Czech Republic National Police station and ask for permission to extend our stay, that it wasn’t a big deal given the current Covid situation and they were granting exceptions due to the hardships.

We arrived the next morning at 7am and waited in line for an hour in the cold rain until the station opened.  The situation was hectic and tense, people jockeying to cut the line, and given the fact that we don’t speak Czech it was difficult to understand what was going on.  Thankfully a really nice young woman spoke some English and was able to translate and help us get some documents filled out in order to be seen by the police.  We handed over our documents and passports and continued to wait outside until we were called.  Before we knew, one of the police officers shouted out or names and rushed us into the station.  We were met by 3-4 officers, all of whom were shouting at us in Czech and broken English wanting to know why we were in the country? Over the course of 20 minutes trying to explain our situation as best we could, they’d go back to their computers, return to us shouting, back to their telephones, then back to us shouting.  We sat there and as the rain water soaked through our clothes the realization that we were in trouble soaked in too. 

When they returned, the one officer that spoke some English said “Gather your things, you are being arrested!”.  You know in movies when you’re dealt a blow like that everything stops? The chaos around you continues but in slow motion as your brain tries to understand what was just said to you? That’s what it felt like.  He continued to explain to us that we were in the country illegally, they would formally arrest and process us, and after that we would be immediately driven to the airport by the police to be deported back to the United States. I was bawling trying to explain that Niya was in our apartment and we couldn’t leave her behind, I took out my phone and was trying to show them pictures to understand.  Dave was furiously trying to explain they had it all wrong.

As the fingerprinted and processed us, this is what we learned.  We arrived on December 11 and provided all of our information to our Airbnb hosts who would in turn provide that to the National Police to register us.  Unfortunately, that never happened.  On December 18 the Czech Republic changed their rules and were no longer allowing foreign citizens in the country.  So despite explaining to the officers that we had entered illegally before the rule change, they couldn’t verify it and to them it looked like we violated Covid rules and entered the county illegally.

I don’t know if it was our continued pleas, my tears, or sharing pictures of Niya, but the after being detained for 3.5 hours the officers took pity on us and stopped the arrest process.  But that was the extent of their consideration because they gave us 5 days to leave the EU to avoid arrest, and banned us from traveling to Europe again for 1 year.  After a long hug and deep breath as we walked out of the station and into freedom we immediately went straight to the US Embassy for help to coordinate our departure.  We were incredibly frustrated to hear they couldn’t help us, and the realization started settling in that not only was our year abroad cut short, but we had to some how get home over the Christmas holiday complicating things even more.  We scrambled but managed to hire a driver to drive us 5.5 hours from Prague to Frankfurt to then take a 10.5 hour flight to Atlanta and then drive 7 hours to St. Pete.

You know, some may say we got “2020’d” and they may be right.  And as disappointed as we are, we know that we had a good run.  Im a firm believer that even in the toughest times there is always something you can find to be thankful for.  I learned the hard way a little over 3 years ago when I lost the most beautiful human I’ve ever known, my grandmother, and then my stepmother only 6 months later, that life is cruel!  It’s terrible horrible and cruel and doesn’t give breaks to anyone.  But life can also be filled with love and joy and adventure if you choose to see it that way. 

I chose on New Years Eve to look back on 2020 with nothing but gratitude and thanks for the health and happiness of myself, my family, and my friends.  And I sit here today on the first day of 2021 excited for what the new year will bring which I hope involves lots of hugs, kisses, and quality time with those I love.

So I’ll leave this blog and you all with our favorite pictures of the 15 countries we visited: Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland, France, Spain, Portugal, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany.

Wishing you a Happy 2021 filled with positivity, health, love!

From Abroad With Love – AG