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Collected Item: “Travel in the Age of Covid-19”

Give your story a title.

Travel in the Age of Covid-19

What sort of object is this: text story, photograph, video, audio interview, screenshot, drawing, meme, etc.?

Text and photographs

Tell us a story; share your experience. Describe what the object or story you've uploaded says about the pandemic, and/or why what you've submitted is important to you.

If you would like to know why I was travelling, please see this journal:

https://covid-19archive.org/s/archive/item/30217

Travelling at the best of times can induce stress and anxiety. In the times of Covid-19, it is a whole different experience.

I am dropped off at Melbourne Tullamarine Airport. The departure screen, usually filled with flight information, now only has a handful of flights on display.

Incoming flights into Melbourne have been suspended entirely.

My destination is Bahrain via Dubai International Airport.

Emirates Airlines EK409 is flying at about a third of its capacity (the Melbourne-Dubai route is, at normal times, a very popular one and flights are usually almost full).

The extra room is welcome, allowing many travellers to lay down and enjoy a little comfort in these uncomfortable times.

Masks as well as gloves are required throughout the flight. A hygiene kit is provided.

I sleep for most of the flight. When I arrive in Dubai, sitting in the terminal building waiting for my connection (which is in 10 hours because of reduced flights frequency), and as a way of passing the time, I join one of my online University classes.

Three months later, in October 2020, when this journal was written, travel is still a very complicated affair. This is the worst crisis to hit the industry since the attacks of September the 11th 2001.

I will not take travel for granted ever again.

This reflection was submitted as part of the HIST30060 Making History project at the University of Melbourne.

Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your story. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?

#Travel , #Dubai , #International_students , #education , #australia , #melbourne , #airport , #hist30060

Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)

Yusuf Abdulwahab

Give this story a date.

2020-07-15
Click here to view the corresponding item.