wiseheart | Some things are just too depressingly familiar (Reply)

So, we've both have our jabs, like more than two million other Hungarians. Unfortunately, in our case we both got the Russian vaccine, while thousands of our landspeople had the Chinese one. We even have our plastic card - valid together with our ID - to prove it.

So far so good, right? The world is now open for us, right?

Wrong.

Many European countries don't accept the Russian and the Chinese vaccine. Because it is, obviously, Russian or Chinese and doesn't work, or whatnot. Now, I could go to the Croatian seaside if I wanted, but I couldn't make a day trip, say, to Vienna or St.Pölten or Graz. I'm afraid I won't be able to visit

noadvertising any time, soon.

It reminds me vividly the 1970s. Back then, with the Iron Curtain still intact, we weren't allowed to travel to Western countries at will. I could have gone to the Croatian seaside at a whim, whenever I wanted (never did), but for a trip to Vienna, I had to wait three years in-between.

Doesn't it sound depressingly familiar? The Iron Curtain is still working fine, the only difference is that the lock is on the other side now. So, despite having had both my jabs five weeks ago, I still count as a second-grade European citizen. All I got from the vaccination was a sore arm and the outrageous sum we paid for the private ambulance to get Mum to her jabs.

It isn't so that I could go anywhere as long as Mum is alive - which, hopefully, will be a very long time yet. It's the principle of things. I thought the times when I was persona non grata were over. Obviously, I was wrong.

To end this depressing entry on a somewhat more positive note, here is the (almost) finished quiet book for Little Emma's birthday. I only have to actually fasten the buckles, but my fingers refused to suffer any more for one day: