Sunday 18 April 2010

Background

Everything was going normal until a text on Thursday night from Lenka saying that there was a problem with a volcano in Britain and there were no flights to or from the country.
Thinking that Edinburgh must have blown up as that was the only volcano I could think of in the UK, I thought everything would blow over (quite literally) and all would be okay by the time my flight was due out at 4pm the next day.
How wrong was I?
In a word, very.
The full extent of the situation unraveled itself after the train journey from Kharkiv to Kiev. Uk airspace closed until Saturday, no flights in  or out, people panicking.
I went through my options, get to Prague, after all it is a home from home, sit tight and wait for the dust to settle, (thanks Naomi for that pun) , try to get to Lisbon (I am due there next week.)
I must admit I felt alone, scared, vulnerable. It was the uncertainty that was the killer.
BA were saying they could not get me on a flight till Monday, Oxford were silent,  because of a two hour time difference not because of indifference.
We decided that Prague was the best option so ran to the airport, booked the tickets and waited, waited, and waited for them to close Czech Airspace and Ruzyne airport and leave me stranded in Kiev.
Emotions? difficult to say really, I suppose frustration was the biggest one, my stress headache was growing growing.
So it was back to the shitty hotel and more uncertainty.
I found out I was on a flight on Tuesday, that was 4 more days in this place. A place so strange, so different. When the alphabet is different you feel  lost, confused. WHen your ankle is painful you feel limited.
I put together tired plans for the evening, involving buying vodka and wine and going to a pizza place I knew and started to resigning myself to my fate.
What follows here is a few of my musings, status updates, annoyances etc. just so I have a record.

No comments:

Post a Comment