On volcanic ashes and international travel

cover image for On volcanic ashes and international travel

The past two weeks have been pretty hectic for me - Midgard Gathering in Poland, some meetings in Berlin, and the Linux Collaboration Summit in San Francisco. And then, thanks to the Eyjafjallajökull eruption in Iceland and the resulting flight cancellations, the trip back became a little bit more complicated.

San Francisco bay

My original KLM flight on April 17th was cancelled, and as the best offer from the airline was to get me home on 27th I made some quick decisions while still on the San Francisco airport. As it was certain that there would be some days of delay, New York felt like the best place to wait for the dust to settle.

Cancelled flights on SFO

After a failed attempt to get across the Atlantic on an Indian airline, my current plan is to fly tonight to Moscow with Aeroflot, and then hopefully to continue to Helsinki from there, either by plane or train.

New York from the Intrepid

In the meanwhile, thanks to Gregor and Google for graciously providing me with office space while I'm stuck here!

Gregor in Meat Packing District

As an afterthought: if such disruptions in flying would continue, that would be a huge boost for high-speed rail, fast ocean liners and telepresence. And that might not be such a bad thing for the future of mankind.