Iceland Volcanic Ash FROM HELL
Airspace across Britain and much of northern Europe is closed. Thousands of flights around the world are delayed or canceled. GUESS WHERE BILL & I ARE! Guess where we aren’t supposed to be! aaaahhghhgdfj
We’re in Edinburgh, which objectively is not a terrible place to be trapped, but we were very ready to go home. We were supposed to leave this morning and land in Newark at noon. If that flight had left we’d either be dead or halfway through it by now. But we are alive and in a hotel instead.
Also, Pizza Hut and McDonald’s are vaguely fancy here. Or at least aren’t obvious death traps.
Comments
This is crazy. I’m surprised no one has brought this up here yet. Is the sky over there just hazy or is it darkened and intense?
I agree that non-American McDonalds just feel better. I heard that the McDonalds in Bolivia had to close because it was too fancy. Enjoy it but I hope you guys get home soon.
Oh we’re still not going in the McDonald’s – I haven’t been in one in like, eight years at this point – BUT BUT BUT they have a Cadbury Creme Egg McFlurries WHICH IS THE MOST ENTICING THING A MCDONALDS HAS EVER DONE. I want it. Oh my god.
We did buy a takeout personal size pizza from Pizza Hut because we thought it was funny. We planned to eat it for breakfast before we left to get on our plane that ended up not existing. We ate the pizza anyway.
And no, there’s no difference to the sky itself, we’ve mostly had clear, beautiful skies for the past couple of weeks. It seems a bit hazy on the horizons in a way but it’s not really a visible problem.
I just heard on NPR how they need special instruments to really be able to see if it’s safe to fly in. Apparently the “dust” is actually microscopic particles of glass — they get inside the plane engines, melt, and seriously fuck shit up.
They also said this shit could last for days even after the volcano stops erupting. There’s really no way of them knowing when they’ll be able to get planes up in the air.
You might start doing some serious planning for that ferry trip to Spain… Though, if I know you guys, you probably already know all of this and are acting accordingly.
I find it funny that Iceland (where the volcano erupted) can still fly but places like fucking Russia cannot.
Cadbury Creme Egg McFlurries? Get someone else to go into the McDonalds for you! I need to know that it really tastes like heaven and babies laughing!
We are going to Iceland on our honeymoon in June (also Amsterdam and Germany). I hope the volcanoes relax by then. When I say that to people they say, “oh yeah, I’m sure they will be done by then” LIKE THEY KNOW.
In any case, I hope you got home relatively unscathed and not bankrupt.
Suze, my father in law was just telling me that they expect the big one to blow at some point in the near future. Apparently the last time this guy blew, the big one went 6 months later. So here’s hoping your honeymoon falls during the in between window and it holds off till after you’re back.
John I heard that too! Our timing is impeccable.
We ended up getting back on the 22nd! They reopened all UK airspace and it was up to airlines to decide to fly on the 21st. We had a six-degrees contact at Continental airlines who got us on a flight leaving from Heathrow on the 22nd, so all we had to do was get up at 5am to take a train from Edinburgh to London to make sure we got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. It was a long day that ended in been-awake-for-24-hours giggle fits, but we made it back safely. Thanks!