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Stranded. At home. Sort of.
Apr. 18th, 2010 08:40 pmHello lovely f-list!
As some of you know, I was due to fly to Berlin for a corporate event on Thursday and fly back to England today along with Tania, who had spent her Easter hols with my parents.
I had seen the news about the ash-cloud before going into work on Thursday. We were due to fly out in the evening and I had just turned my computer on when I was told to turn it off again and put my coat on - we were driving.
The distance we had to cover is about 1200 km. None of us had slept too much the night before and not all of us had their driving licences with us. We were extremely lucky that our reaction tiem was so short, the ferry to France was not too crowded. We had all dressed for comfort and made for a nice, noisy, colourful group amongst all those business men in ties in the executive lounge of the ferry. Very nice, indeed.
We left France very quickly and moved through Belgium into the Netherlands. And that´s where it hit us. We started getting tired. the highway seemed to go on and on forever without ever bringing us closer to the German border.
It was 4:30 am on Friday when we finally arrived at the conference centre/hotel.
All the plans for starting early and getting ready for the 1300 associates that were booked for the event were wiped out. The American company owners were joking about staying on after the event. I can tell you, they are not joking now but seriously considering booking a one week cruise to get home by ship.
The event itself was awesome, I translated a lot and got to wear cocktail dresses and my Slytherin evening gown. Fotos will follow once I get home. *snort*
All through the event, our event organiser and the UK office were frantically searching for a way to get us home. Our ferry reservation for the way back had been cancelled, as they go strictly by first come first serve basis. Hotlines and web sites of car rentals and ferry companies are inaccessable due to overload.
So when it was clear that we could not fly back today, it was decided that I would stay in Berlin, since we did not want to risk being stranded in the port with a seven-year-old and since my parents conveniently live 20 minutes from the hotel and 10 minutes from the airport I will have to fly from. If there are ever again going to be any flights :)
Another colleague, whose parents live an hour from Berlin also stayed behind.
As the Icelandic experts said: It could take a few days. Or a few years.
As some of you know, I was due to fly to Berlin for a corporate event on Thursday and fly back to England today along with Tania, who had spent her Easter hols with my parents.
I had seen the news about the ash-cloud before going into work on Thursday. We were due to fly out in the evening and I had just turned my computer on when I was told to turn it off again and put my coat on - we were driving.
The distance we had to cover is about 1200 km. None of us had slept too much the night before and not all of us had their driving licences with us. We were extremely lucky that our reaction tiem was so short, the ferry to France was not too crowded. We had all dressed for comfort and made for a nice, noisy, colourful group amongst all those business men in ties in the executive lounge of the ferry. Very nice, indeed.
We left France very quickly and moved through Belgium into the Netherlands. And that´s where it hit us. We started getting tired. the highway seemed to go on and on forever without ever bringing us closer to the German border.
It was 4:30 am on Friday when we finally arrived at the conference centre/hotel.
All the plans for starting early and getting ready for the 1300 associates that were booked for the event were wiped out. The American company owners were joking about staying on after the event. I can tell you, they are not joking now but seriously considering booking a one week cruise to get home by ship.
The event itself was awesome, I translated a lot and got to wear cocktail dresses and my Slytherin evening gown. Fotos will follow once I get home. *snort*
All through the event, our event organiser and the UK office were frantically searching for a way to get us home. Our ferry reservation for the way back had been cancelled, as they go strictly by first come first serve basis. Hotlines and web sites of car rentals and ferry companies are inaccessable due to overload.
So when it was clear that we could not fly back today, it was decided that I would stay in Berlin, since we did not want to risk being stranded in the port with a seven-year-old and since my parents conveniently live 20 minutes from the hotel and 10 minutes from the airport I will have to fly from. If there are ever again going to be any flights :)
Another colleague, whose parents live an hour from Berlin also stayed behind.
As the Icelandic experts said: It could take a few days. Or a few years.
