Traveling during Covid-19 time is really harsh. Let me share our experience with you; We booked a direct flight with SAS airline and hoped to avoid any inconvenience. We paid a reasonable price for our flight tickets since we had booked them in advance. A few days after booking the tickets, our flight was rescheduled and now we had a transit in Sweden, at Stockholm airport. We checked the covid requirements prior to our flights, and according to that, we did our Covid test 72 hours before boarding – the results were negative. We booked a covid test appointment through the website. The test was done in 30 seconds and there were no lines. We had our test in Odense, Denmark. The test was done on the throat- It was not a bad experience as doing it through the nose (will be described later on).
We arrived at the Copenhagen airport on our departure date, the 6th of February 2021, 2 and a half hours ahead of time. This was when we found out that Sweden requires a 24 hours Covid test- also in a case of transit on its land. Apparently, SAS did send us emails about the covid test requirement for Sweden, which went to our email spam folder. This was when all the troubles started for us. The airport staff informed us that we could do a rapid covid test and get our results in 20 minutes. This would allow us to go onboard.
We agreed and went to do the Rapid Covid-19 test. The Rapid Covid-19 test at the Copenhagen airport costs around 250 Dkk each. It was not a pleasant test at all, since a long swap stick was put deep into the nose, in both sides! Anyway, we got the results in 20 minutes and we were allowed to onboard the plan. We arrived at the Stockholm airport where they checked our documents carefully and finally let us into the country. We told them that we had a connecting flight and we almost missed it! Due to the careful check of our documentations.
During the flight, we could only buy drinks. There was no food service available on the flight. We did see a few good food shops open in the Copenhagen airport where we took out some food and drinks.
Arrival in Faro airport in Portugal
On arrival, we went through border control where they checked our passport and our Covid tests. We also found out that only portagues citizens were allowed to enter and people who have resided in the country. It was the same regarding Sweden, btw. only Swedish passport holders and Swedish resident cardholders were allowed to enter the country. We were also told that a few days prior to our travel, no one could transit in Sweden. With all the stress we’ve been through, we did manage to arrive in Faro, Portugal. We got here to a strict lockdown, meaning, all the shops and restaurants were closes and only grocery shops were open.