Sunday night
The flight to KL was uneventful.
Arrival into KL was late at night and the atmosphere was tense and tired. In my little bubble in Sydney, I had seen the news of course and seen the interviews with tense people in airport lounges around the World looking desperate and agitated or miserable and resigned. I hadn’t seen any real desperation first hand and it was at KL that the scale and reach of Europe’s airspace trauma began to sink in.
I wasn’t the only person stranded and I wasn’t the only person trying to get home. There were others. Lots and lots of others.
A flight to Rome was announced as departing just after midnight and as I wondered whether I could wangle a free transfer from my Istanbul flight to the Rome flight, 80 other people looking to get to Europe had already acted on the thought and were mobbing the information desk by the time I thought I would give it a try. By the time I got to the front I was told it would cost me £800 for the transfer. I was also told that Rome had not officially reopened and the flight may have to be diverted in mid-air. I stuck with my Istanbul option.
But was Istanbul an option I worried? The flight was still good to go, but I had learned that Malaysian Airlines was happy to send flights in the general direction of Europe and ground them en route if there was a problem.
So I did what any sensible person would do. I bought a chai latte from the KL Airport branch of Starbucks and logged onto their wifi using my iPhone.
The news was interesting. BBC had an ‘interactive’ ash cloud map showing coverage and projecting coverage into the future. According to them Rome was covered and closed and would remain so. The cloud was spreading across the Black Sea and by 6am tomorrow morning the edge was projected to be touching the North Turkish coast. Oh no… could it be that Istanbul would be closed to air traffic as I was due to arrive? How close would I get? Delhi? Tehran? Ankara?
So I did what any sensible person would do… I contacted my druid boyfriend and asked him to start making offerings to the Gods of Istanbul Airport. And he did. And they worked and at 6am on Monday I landed at Istanbul Ataturk Airport.
I had my toehold in Europe. Plan E: Overland to the Channel was go.
The flight to KL was uneventful.
Arrival into KL was late at night and the atmosphere was tense and tired. In my little bubble in Sydney, I had seen the news of course and seen the interviews with tense people in airport lounges around the World looking desperate and agitated or miserable and resigned. I hadn’t seen any real desperation first hand and it was at KL that the scale and reach of Europe’s airspace trauma began to sink in.
I wasn’t the only person stranded and I wasn’t the only person trying to get home. There were others. Lots and lots of others.
A flight to Rome was announced as departing just after midnight and as I wondered whether I could wangle a free transfer from my Istanbul flight to the Rome flight, 80 other people looking to get to Europe had already acted on the thought and were mobbing the information desk by the time I thought I would give it a try. By the time I got to the front I was told it would cost me £800 for the transfer. I was also told that Rome had not officially reopened and the flight may have to be diverted in mid-air. I stuck with my Istanbul option.
But was Istanbul an option I worried? The flight was still good to go, but I had learned that Malaysian Airlines was happy to send flights in the general direction of Europe and ground them en route if there was a problem.
So I did what any sensible person would do. I bought a chai latte from the KL Airport branch of Starbucks and logged onto their wifi using my iPhone.
The news was interesting. BBC had an ‘interactive’ ash cloud map showing coverage and projecting coverage into the future. According to them Rome was covered and closed and would remain so. The cloud was spreading across the Black Sea and by 6am tomorrow morning the edge was projected to be touching the North Turkish coast. Oh no… could it be that Istanbul would be closed to air traffic as I was due to arrive? How close would I get? Delhi? Tehran? Ankara?
So I did what any sensible person would do… I contacted my druid boyfriend and asked him to start making offerings to the Gods of Istanbul Airport. And he did. And they worked and at 6am on Monday I landed at Istanbul Ataturk Airport.
I had my toehold in Europe. Plan E: Overland to the Channel was go.
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