The volcano eruption heard 'round the world...

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While I am not directly affected by the volcanic ash spewing from the Icelandic volcano that has been erupting for the past week, I feel that it's necessary for me to document this event for posterity, especially considering the fact that my parents have been stuck in England for the past week...

Essentially, here's what happened: A volcano in Iceland erupted. Due to the large amounts of ash in the air & the direction of the wind, the entire continent of Europe has been "covered" by the residue. The thing is, it can't be seen. It's too high in the stratosphere, but it's still affecting life in Europe because literally the entire air space covering the continent has been shut down. I had read in a report on the BBC that when the ash combines with a plane's engines, they will stall & toxic fumes will be released into the cockpit. Needless to say, the airlines aren't taking any chances for liability so all flights to, from, & within the continent have been cancelled. For instance, my parents were supposed to fly from Manchester, England to Philadelphia on Thursday (4/15). Their flight was cancelled & rescheduled at least 5 times. It's now April 20 & they still haven't left Manchester. Apparently, however, some airlines have sent up "test flights" to see what the consequences of flying in the ash would be, & there weren't any serious problems. In the next few days, air space will probably be reopened. My parents are now scheduled for a flight for Friday (4/23), so hopefully things will start clearing out by then!

The impact of the closing of the air space has been detrimental, not only for those who are flying trans-Atlantic, but also for those who are flying within the continent. Since intra-continental flights are so cheap, they're really the means of transportation to get from say Spain to England. With the closure of the primary means of transportation, that means that there have been backlogs on trains, buses, ferries, & rental cars. People are literally so desperate to get to their destinations that public transportation is a complete mess right now. I looked on RailEurope.com for train tickets thinking that since my parents are only about 7 hours away, I could hop on a train & spend their downtime with them. There are literally NO tickets to be had. So while the airlines are taking a huge hit from not being able to provide their services, the other forms of transportation are making a ton of money!

It's crazy that something like this would have such a huge impact for such far-reaching places. A friend of mine has a boyfriend studying in Iceland. She went to visit him over our break & got back to Maastricht the day before the volcano erupted. When she called to see how he was being affected by it, he said they weren't having any issues because the direction of the wind was carrying the ash toward Europe. Whereas another friend of mine has a boyfriend in southern Sweden. She called him to see what it was like there, & the Swedes were told not to leave the house if they didn't have to due to the possible health effects of the ash. Crazy. Maastricht itself hasn't really seen any effects. The crazy part about it is that it literally has been sunny, warm, & beautiful the entire time this mess has been occurring. When you think about natural disasters that shut down air transport, you think of hurricanes, severe storms, tornadoes, etc. You never expect clear blue skies (that are visible) to be the cause of such an oddity!

Hopefully the volcano will stop erupting, & travel will return to normal before Friday. Once travel does resume, I pray that everything goes smoothly & safely, especially for my parents' sake since they're tired, jaded, & ready for normalcy in the US!

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