Before returning home to the self-isolation that awaited me, I first had to drive my friend to Banjaluka airport.
Friend’s name is Ula and he is from Finland. Scattered across a huge territory, that is frequently buried under snow, Finns are generally introverted. Except of course when they drink.
Understandable.
On the whole this was an advantage when being on a trip with Ula. I could talk when I felt like talking, and when I felt like being silent, I could remain silent for really, really long periods of time. Ula didn’t mind.
We had been traveling together for about two weeks, but we’d only started to be epidemically cautious during the last week, as cautious as we could be that is. as much as we could that is. Of course, if one of us gets it, the other one is bound to catch it as well, but we felt a mutal commitment to at least try to prevent it.
When we arrived at the airport Ula carefully picked up his things. Everything apart from the food we so diligently prepared for the trip, as it would turn out later.
And now… we were suppose to say… goodbye…
Usually this would be an occasion for a handshake or a friendly hug, but now we had this pandemic situation on our hands…
We stood there in front of each other, in silence, not doing anything, like two tree stumps...
- Well, farewell Ula… I… wish you a good trip home. –
- Yeah… hope you have a good one as well… thanks for giving me a ride to the airport.
- Yeah…
…
A few moments passed…
It was terribly, terribly awkward and unnatural. How can you part company with a friend without at least shaking his hand?
For a moment I thought: - Maybe Ula doesn’t mind, he’s from Finland. Perhaps people there are not too fond of close greetings anyway. – Suddenly it occurred to me!
- Come on, we could do the elbow bump? – I suggested
- Ok, we could do that! – It seemed Ula was relived as well
We elbow-bumped and for a moment it seemed we did this departure greeting thing well after all. We wished each other a good trip home one more time and all of a sudden this felt much less awkward and… well it felt natural, the way it should be.
We departed each to his own quarantine, since emergency state had been declared just
a day earlier in Finland as well.
The only thing left for me to do now is to take my self home, with as little contact with anyone or anything through that journey.
In theory it did not sound that bad.