How bad is the ash cloud from the volcano in Iceland? I heard on the news the eruptions were getting stronger yesterday and the ash cloud is costing US airlines 20 million dollars in losses a day(!) Is the ash cloud affecting temperatures drastically in the UK or Ireland or anywhere on mainland Europe? Is the ash landing on the ground? Anything like that? I'm just curious because of the limited news I get about it, its just pictures of the volcano and dollars lost by US airlines. Any anecdotal news about it? phil
No evidence on the ground, in fact it's a beautiful clear day! The cloud is way high at cruising altitude making Europe a no-fly zone, and it's starting to get old . . . everyone knows someone that's stranded or having to stay in the UK because of the problem. Was supposed to be cleared today but an increase in volcanic activity brought that to an abrupt halt. Royal Navy ships have started ferrying travellers home from mainland Europe . . . more than 150,000 Brits stranded worldwide. And of more importance . . . my incoming toys are stranded too!
Weather is lovely....blue skies and no contrails. The bigger problem is many of us have loved ones stranded all over the world. My brother so far has managed to get out of Brazil to Lisbon. Then train from Lisbon to Madrid. Then car from Madrid to Santander. Now he's waiting on a Ferry back to the UK Loads of people at work are stuck in Europe or the far east, and people stuck here who should be back in Singapore. My flight back from Tokyo was the last from Japan to make it - the ANA flight after hours turned back to Narita 5 hours in!!
Second that! the best weather we have had its boiling down here im sweating my nads off. Enjoy it why we can lads haha. Oh and my friend from uni is stuck in china and is running out of money pretty fucked up situation if you ask me.
No ashes on the ground, none of the promised spectacular sunsets, no anecdotes over here. But I just read that the cloud is headed for the East Coast & Canada in the next couple of days and that an eruption of the Eyjafjalla usually has been a precursor to an eruption of the Katla, which apparently is bigger and badder. I also tried to find some decent volcano porn on youtube, but found nothing even remotely as spectacular as the pic Dean posted in the other thread. Someone should post an FU to the Eyjafjalla in the "Fuck You"-thread to put it in its place... Stupid volcanoes.
yup,,no visible signs of ash... i have a couple friends stuck in italy & ireland... my friend who is stuck in ireland was suppose to fly home on thursday...he is making his way back by bus and ferry,,,a 20hour journey compared to a 45minute flight!! more importantly,,this shit better be cleared up by next week,,i NEED to get to amsterdam next thursday...
Yup, gorgeous glorious weather, clear blue skies and a wonderful silence. It's weird how the buzz that the planes make manages to drift down to the ground in such a noticeable way. I'm positively loving this. A few friends caught overseas or what have you, but my main gripe is toy delays A couple people I know both in North London and out west in Berkshire have said that they have woken up to proper ash dustings on their cars. But again, aside from the bluest skies I think I have ever seen, let alone in London, no complaints here
I just came back from Lisbon and it was such a long trip. My flight was cancelled for sure yesterday so we took a flight to Barcelona. We arrived there around 11.25pm, then we drove to Sète (south of France) to my friends'place. And this morning, we just jumped in the first TGV (fast train) we found, we didn't even pay for it... All in all, it was just long but back in Lisbon, we had to wait for 6 hours to get absolutely no usefull informations...
So is anyone in the news, economics nerds, etc. making jokes about Iceland holding Europe hostage so they don't have to pay back all their bad debts from the banking collapse?
train? i know it takes forever, but i wouldn't mind doing that at all. train to paris and then on to amsterdam....sounds good to me!
We once caught the overnight from London to Paris then onto Andorra (between Spain and France) . . . apart from the crap ferry crossing it was an awesome experience. Enough daylight travelling to check out the scenery but long enough to grab some shut eye! Most European rail networks are pretty well organised and run to timetable.
One of the things I lament about modern transport is how we are so removed from the actual travel element of our trips. How it has become both a conveyor belt to get us from point a to point b with complete disregard and appreciation for what's involved, the distance or the actual experience and how it has actually become an annoyance, something we must suffer in order to enjoy our holiday. So one of the things I like about the whole being thrust into a flightless world is people being forced to re-evaluate and examine exactly what they have and where they are coming from/going to. Also, I quite like the whole "we are really only humans inhabiting a living, changing ecosystem that we cannot control" thing. My boss asked me the other day why they couldn't just make the volcano stop, like nuke it or something... He's not retarded, but it does show how much some people take things for granted and how divorced from our planet they are. I live on the A10, which is an old Roman road and runs straight from London to York, I have been considering just starting to walk north on a Friday night and see where I end up on Sunday afternoon. I'd also visit a load of pubs
Make a slight diversion left at Wakefield and I'll meet you at The Oak! I hear ya about being disconnected though . . . old fella my wife works with has never travelled abroad until last year and was absolutely amazed at being able to have morning breakfast in Britain and be sat sipping a nice Chianti in a French vineyard by the afternoon. Similar deal with driving a car . . . it totally detaches you from the journey. Riding a cycle/motorcycle exposes you to sights, smells, sounds you totally miss in a car and you have to think and observe road surfaces, climate conditions and factors that may have a bearing on staying shiny side up!
the train is great!! in actuality,,to amsterdam,,it is only about 40mins-1hr longer than flying when you factor in door-to-door BUT it is generally much more expensive... the train gets you to amsterdam in 4.5hours...(only 2.2hours to brussels & 2.5hours to paris,,in this case it is easier/faster/cheaper to train)...no taxis to the airport,,waiting at the gate,,etc etc...centre city to centre city...niiiice!! flying only takes about 50min to amsterdam but you have to factor in getting to the airport,,which generally takes atleast an hour no matter where you are in london to one of the five airports (or as long as 2-3hrs if you are traversing the city) i think the train is not even an option at this point for me,,they are probably booked to the gills...also,,,two weekends from now (when i go) is a holiday weekend in both the UK & holland..so things are pretty much booked regardless.. the ferry to holland is definitely out of the question,,i did it twice as a young whippersnapper,,12hours total,,8hrs of which is on the boat,,,no thanks!!
I heard a story the other day that you could really relate to, the author being interviewed made some of your exact statements http://www.amazon.com/Grounded-Earth-Jo ... 743&sr=8-1 and this is the story http://www.onpointradio.org/2010/04/an- ... ld-journey they went around the world in 6 months without taking a plane.
Planes are now landing in the uk that means my boogie men have not been delayed how sad is that i have a freind stuck in china and i care about figures
That sounds like a lot of fun! Back in college when I'd get frustrated I'd just start riding my bike down the train tracks (I liked the physical pounding of riding over the ties) for a couple hours and then try to find my way back to school on the country roads.
The group show I was part of in Bristol just got pushed back two weeks, due to being unable to ship all the art over! it's arriving by sea instead.
The Volcano, an American's experience. Yesterday I caught the first flight that flew between Amsterdam and SF since last Thursday. My scheduled flight. It was a 3rd full. Where were all the people who had been camping out since last Thursday? I kind of felt guilty since I knew people we're stuck and I was sitting in a row to myself all spread out. My friends and I got lucky. If flights would have been delayed til Wed. we would have been screwed. All we kept hearing were reports that it might take days before any flights would leave. And then news that this volcano could cause another one to blow. We walked around Monday dreading the worst with ideas of taking trains to Spain and finding any flight to get to an America. From what we could tell all the trains were full and we couldn't even be certain if we could get on a flight out of Madrid. Not to mention it probably costing us over $2000 to make it happen. What a bummer of a last day. Luckily things worked out. We were hanging with a bunch of Finnish guys at the Roadburn fest, and they knew of other Finns that rented a cab, for 1500 Euros, to take them from Tilburg NL to Estonia so they could catch the ferry from Estonia to Finland. Which is similar to the John Cleese story. Other Finns wanted to go Amsterdam after Tilburg but everything was sold out. We planned on going to Utrecht on Monday but there were no rooms there either. So as of Monday there were a lot of people in black wandering Tilburg not knowing what to do. A bunch of bands didn't make the fest, Shrinebuilder, Candlemass, Black Math Horseman, Jesu...etc And other bands were stuck in Tilburg, Pete Stahl from Goatsnake was supposed to get back to Cochella since he manages a band. And Greg Rogers, also from Goatsnake, was supposed to leave last Sat. and wound up getting on a standby list for ship going to NY that would leave this coming Thursday and take 6 days to get there. Other people were just walking around wondering what they were going to do. It was a mess. The fest was awesome. 300 people didn't claim tickets as of Friday and the extra elbow room ruled. If a band canceled another played an extra set, which allowed me to see Eagle Twin twice, and Karma To Burn and Church of Misery after missing their first sets. Blatant plug. If you like hard rock, stoner rock, post rock, doom, interesting weird heavy music. Roadburn is the fest you must attempt to go to. So organized, so perfect, so awesome.
