好英语网仿佛去往未知世界：疫情时代的跨大西洋旅行
FRANKFURT — Last week I stepped aboard the subway in Frankfurt for the first time since February, the start of a 4,000-mile trans-Atlantic journey to rejoin my wife after a three-month separation.
法兰克福——上周是我自2月以来第一次乘上法兰克福的地铁，开始长达4000英里的跨大西洋旅行，为的是和与我分离了三个月的妻子重聚。
The trip to the United States is one I’ve made dozens of times over the quarter-century I’ve lived and worked in Germany. But this time, in the midst of the pandemic, it felt like a voyage into the unknown.
我在德国生活和工作了25年，进行过数十次这样的美国之行。但是在疫情期间的这一次，感觉就像是去未知世界旅行。
Crossing borders is no longer routine. Europeans are still persona non grata in the United States. I would be flying from a country just coming out of lockdown to one where the virus is still flaring in some communities.
跨越国境不再是寻常的事情。欧洲人在美国仍然是不被欢迎的人。我将从一个刚刚解封的国家飞到一个病毒仍然在某些社区蔓延的国家。
上周在法兰克福机场。 穿越一个空无一人的机场让人感到一种莫名的愉悦。
By the end of a long day, I would be with my wife, Bettina. But the experience, sometimes frustrating, sometimes surreal, left me with the impression that flying would never be the same again.
在漫长的一天结束后，我将和我的妻子贝蒂娜重逢。但是这种时而沮丧时而超现实的经历，让我感到航空旅行再也不会像以前那样了。
It became clear that travel was more difficult these days as soon as I tried to book a flight. Lufthansa wouldn’t allow me to redeem a flight voucher from a canceled trip online. Instead I had to call the severely overloaded service center, which after a long wait took my reservation but then neglected to email me confirmation. I didn’t know whether I had a valid booking or not.
从我尝试预订机票的时候就明显感觉到，如今旅行变得越来越难。汉莎航空不允许我在网上兑换一个已取消行程的代金券。取而代之的是，我不得不打电话给严重超负荷的客服中心，经过漫长的等待后，客服接受了我的预订，但后来却没有向我发送确认邮件。我不知道我的预订是否有效。
After numerous failed attempts to get through again, including one instance when I waited on hold for an hour only to be disconnected, I managed to confirm my booking. By then there were less than 24 hours until departure.
在无数次重新连线失败后——包括有一次等了一个小时却被挂机——我终于确认了我的机票。那时，离起飞不到24小时。
The day I was to fly, Lufthansa reported a quarterly loss of 2.1 billion euros, or $2.4 billion, as passenger traffic evaporated amid the coronavirus outbreak. A question for Lufthansa management: If you need all the customers you can get, why make it so hard to book a ticket?
就在登机当天，由于疫情期间客流量流失，汉莎航空公司通告季度亏损21亿欧元（约合168亿元人民币）。我想问汉莎航空管理层一个问题：如果你需要尽可能多的乘客，为什么把机票预订搞得这么麻烦？
About two dozen people were in line at check-in when I arrived at Frankfurt Airport on the morning of my trip. Usually flights to the United States are full of German tourists. But everyone in this line was speaking English with American accents. From their talk of deployments and their camouflage backpacks, it was obvious that many were military personnel on the way home with their families.
上午抵达法兰克福机场时，大约有二十多人在排队办理登机手续。飞往美国的航班往常几乎全是德国游客。然而这一队中的每个人都在讲美国口音的英语。从他们有关部队调遣的谈话和随身的迷彩背包可以明显看出，他们中有许多是要回国与家人团聚的军人。
Then, to my alarm, an airline employee checking passports pulled me out of the line and told me to wait for immigration. After the hassles with Lufthansa, I was already nervous about what kind of administrative snafus I might run into on this trip.
这时，令我惊讶的是，一名检查护照的航空公司工作人员让我从队列里出来，要我等待移民检查。在经历了与汉莎航空的纠缠后，我对于这次旅行可能会遇到的行政麻烦已经感到不安。
To my relief, it turned out that immigration was looking for someone with a name vaguely similar to mine but half my age.
令我感到欣慰的是，移民官员是在寻找一个名字与我相似、但年龄只有我一半的人。
A few minutes later I had my boarding pass and was walking past rows of shuttered duty-free shops. I could hear my own footsteps echoing on the polished marble tile floor.
几分钟后，我拿到了登机牌，并走过一排排关闭的免税商店。我能听到自己的脚步声在抛光的大理石地砖上回荡。
And here’s the weird thing. There was something strangely enjoyable about traveling through a deserted airport. So much of the stress of air travel comes from standing in long lines and fighting through crowds, yet Frankfurt was peaceful. Even the guards wrangling plastic trays at security seemed cheerful.
而这是很奇怪的。穿越一个空无一人的机场，使人感到一种莫名的愉悦。航空旅行的相当一部分压力，来自排队等候和在人群中艰难前行，但法兰克福却是安静的。连摆弄着塑料托盘的安检人员都显得很欢快。
The feeling of odd contentment continued on the plane, a Boeing Dreamliner operated by United Airlines, a partner with Lufthansa in the Star Alliance. There was at least one empty seat between passengers, except for families. In other words, we weren’t packed in like sardines.
这种怪异的满足感延续到了飞机上，这架波音梦幻客机由美联航——汉莎航空在星空联盟的合作伙伴——运营。每个乘客之间至少留有一个空位，家庭除外。换句话说，我们并没有挤得像沙丁鱼罐头那样。
United offered assurances that the plane had been thoroughly disinfected. Still, I cleaned my armrests and seat tray with a disinfectant wipe. I also wore a mask the entire trip.
美联航向乘客保证飞机已经彻底消毒。尽管如此，我还是用消毒湿巾清洁了扶手和小桌板。我在整个旅程中都戴着口罩。
The only downer was lunch. No one expects much from in-flight cuisine, but in the name of sanitation the bland “spicy chicken” and fruit cup came in packages sealed with plastic film that had to be peeled off. Afterward there was no coffee or tea.
唯一令人失望的是午餐。没人会对飞机餐寄予厚望，但是，寡淡无味的“香辣鸡肉”和水果杯被以卫生的名义用塑料薄膜封起来，需要撕开来才能吃。餐后没有咖啡或茶。
Somehow I have the feeling that small privileges like coffee and fresh rolls are never coming back.
我有种感觉，像咖啡和新鲜面包这样的小恩小惠再也不会回来了。
About eight uneventful hours later we landed at Dulles International Airport near Washington, where I planned to get a connection to Burlington, Vt. That’s where I grew up and where my wife and our 24-year-old daughter were waiting out the pandemic.
大约八小时的平静飞行后，我们降落在华盛顿附近的杜勒斯国际机场，我计划从那里转机去弗吉尼亚州的伯灵顿。那是我长大的地方，也是我的妻子和我们24岁的女儿等待疫情结束的地方。
Arriving in the United States was the part of the trip that worried me the most. The official form that my fellow passengers and I had to fill out before touchdown made it clear that people from the European Union were not welcome. There was no mention of an exemption for U.S. citizens like me, though I knew there was supposed to be one.
在美国降落是这次旅行让我最担心的部分。我和同行的旅客必须在飞机落地前填写正式的表格，这个表格清楚地表明，来自欧盟的人是不受欢迎的。表格并没有提及对像我这样的美国公民有豁免，尽管我知道应该是有的。
But it was a breeze. At Dulles, a woman in a nurse’s smock checked my form, asked me if I felt sick and held a sensor to my head.
然而过程很轻松。在杜勒斯，一个穿着护士服的女士检查了我的表格，问我是否感到不适，并把体温计对准我的头。
It’s easy to imagine health checks like these becoming a permanent part of international travel, along with worse food. Travelers can only hope the pandemic will also bring some positive changes, like less crowded flights and more freedom to change flights without paying stiff fees.
不难想象，像这样的健康检查，和糟糕的食物一样，将永远成为国际旅行的一部分。旅客只能希望疫情也会带来一些积极的变化，例如没那么拥挤的航班，并在无需支付高额费用的情况下拥有更大的改签自由。
The sensor said my body temperature was 98.1 degrees Fahrenheit. Good to go.
体温计说我的体温是华氏98.1度（约36.7摄氏度）。可以通过。
Dulles seemed even sleepier than Frankfurt. Rows of United jets were parked on a side runway, evidently waiting for a vaccine to revive air travel. All but a few airport restaurants were closed. I was glad I had packed some energy bars.
杜勒斯机场似乎比法兰克福机场还冷清。成排的美联航喷气式飞机停在一条跑道上，显然正在等待疫苗的到来，让空中旅行恢复生机。机场餐厅几乎全部关闭，只有少数开放。我很庆幸随身带了一些能量棒。
The plane to Burlington, another United flight, was so empty that the pilot asked the flight attendants to move passengers to the front of the plane. “We’re a little tail heavy,” he said over the intercom.
飞往伯灵顿的飞机——又是美联航的航班——非常空，以至于飞行员要求空乘将乘客转移到飞机的前部。“我们的机尾有点偏重，”他在对讲机上说道。
Vermont requires people arriving from out of state to quarantine for 14 days. But there was no one taking names when I landed, just my wife’s friendly face. It seemed the only enforcement was a sign at the exit to the airport, like the kind highway crews use to warn of roadwork ahead. “Stay home,” it said.
佛蒙特州要求从外州入境的人隔离14天。但是当我到达时，没有记录我的名字的人，只有我妻子的微笑面孔。似乎唯一的强制措施是在机场出口处的标志，就像高速公路工作人员用来警告前方道路施工那样。它上面写的是：“待在家里。”
I underestimated Vermont state government. A few days later I got a telephone call from an amiable woman at the Department of Health asking if I felt all right, reminding me of the quarantine rules and offering information on where to get a coronavirus test if I wanted one. I’m fine, I said, but thanks for asking.
我还是低估了佛蒙特州政府。几天后，我接到了卫生部一位亲切和善的女士打来的电话，问我是否感觉良好，提醒我隔离的规定，并且告诉我如果我想要做一个检测的话可以到哪里做。我说，我很好，感谢你的问候。