03/23/2020, अच्छी खबर (लेकिन इतनी जल्दी खुश मत होइए)

This morning we had to fill out a document for the police and provide all possible data so they know that we are "stuck" here, so to speak.

After breakfast, I went shopping quickly with the two French guys because we had 'parole' until 2 p.m. The streets were very busy and everyone was going out to buy the essentials. And here I keep asking myself if this isn't counterproductive, to close everything for 2 days and then reopen supermarkets for 8 hours.
Because then more people go out on the streets.
To get into the supermarket, we had to wait for 20 minutes because they only let someone in when someone else left the store. And the supermarket was crowded too.

When we got back home, I called the German embassy here and explained my problem to them. Unfortunately, the very nice lady couldn't really help me either. The only thing she emphasized was 'the air is getting thinner, find a return flight as soon as possible'. The information we received yesterday was not quite correct, because there are still some return flights available and not all of them were canceled. The problem is that the prices are skyrocketing and sometimes it takes 50 hours of travel and 3 transfers. For example, there was a flight from here to Moscow, then to London, Dublin, and finally to Hamburg for 1000€.

She also told me that the police have a lot of understanding if a flight is canceled and you are staying in a hostel in Colombo despite the curfew.
They can't let you sleep on the street!

Well, at some point we managed to book a flight for me. After we had problems with the payment on the first travel website and it didn't work, we tried another one. It took a really long time for the booking confirmation to arrive, but at least it came!
Now I really hope that everything will work out and that the flight won't be canceled again...
If everything goes smoothly, I will fly in 2 days on March 25th at around 9 p.m. to Doha, then to London and finally arrive in Hamburg.

All of this is really exhausting and nerve-wracking, and I am very happy if everything works out and I arrive home safely!

After everything was done and I was just waiting for the confirmation email, I went to the beach quickly around 12 o'clock to at least have a little bit of freedom. The streets were already completely empty and there were hardly any people at the beach either. There I briefly talked to a younger man. He had a small house right there on the beach and cleaned the beach out of boredom. But he proudly told me that since the strict measures hardly any plastic has been washed up and he even saw a turtle there yesterday, although they should not appear there normally.

Later, a police officer came by and took all our data again (travel route, etc.) and we arranged the airport transfer with him.