The Adventure of Surviving Eruption Disruption 2010

As I'm sure everyone has heard by now, there was a volcano that erupted on Iceland last Wednesday leaving thousands of travelers, including myself, stranded without planes for almost a week! While normally I would loooove to spend an extra week in Italy, it looked like we wouldn't be able to fly out for weeks if at all. So that began the craziest, most spontaneous adventure I'd ever had. Erin and I traveled by train through central and northern Italy up to Nice, France then to Paris and from Paris to Calais, then from there we ferried from there to Dover, England then finally to Canterbury.

Erin and I spent 4 amazing days in Italy (2 in Rome and 2 in Florence) and it was fantastic. We flew into Pisa then took a 3 hour train to Rome. We basically were tourists in Rome, seeing the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's Basilica one day then the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, and Palatine Hill the next. Just seeing the vastness of the city and its history was pretty incredible--places like the Roman Forum are shells of what they used to be but still breathtaking in their decaying states. It's awe-inspiring just imagining what these places looked like in their prime. After Rome, we made our way to Florence (or Firenze) which I have to say was my favorite place in Italy. It has a similar sense of immensity and history but we didn't have much of a plan so we got to wander the city and eat amazing food, and gelato of course, which is my favorite way to see a new city. I got in touch with my friend Sam from high school and UVM and we all went out to dinner, which was such a blast. Italy was definitely my favorite place I've visited thus far.

Erin and I were all set to fly home last Thursday...until the volcano hit. We honestly thought it was a practical joke. When we heard all flights were cancelled til Saturday we headed back to Florence and enjoyed more wine and good food. It was then we had the SECOND flight cancelled. We knew then we had to get out of Italy soon (not quite apocalyptic-like but still urgent). Panicked, we searched for trains or anything that would get us to France. Overhearing some other Americans who were getting a train to Nice, France we ran back to the train station and by the grace of God, got on that train. Arriving in Nice, we met up with 3 other American girls (Victoria, Lauren and Kathleen) who were trying to get back to Edinburgh for finals. There we also met Jake, a kid trying to get to London. Together we searched for trains to Paris, but we had to spend all of monday in Nice...which was a true gift. As freaked out and stressed and overtired as we were, we still managed to appreciate what a opportunity this was.  We sat on the beach and Lauren swam in the Mediterranean. The ocean was astonishingly tranquil and feeling the sun on my face I felt immediately calmed. Once we knew we had a train to Paris (on Monday people were trying to get them for Tuesday night so we were very nervous). We had a connection in Marseilles then onto Paris then from Paris we spent the night hoping to get the Eurostar in the chunnel or get to Calais for the ferry. When we got to Paris at 10 pm we headed right to the train station--no one was getting Eurostars until SATURDAY. The next morning, again, we were very lucky to get a train to Calais then to the ferry. Once we got there it was fairly simple to get a ferry (they had 2 ferries that ran every hour back and forth to Dover, England which is only 30 mins from Canterbury). Once we were all on the ferry, we all felt such a immense sense of relief I didn't know if I wanted to laugh or cry...or sleep.

Once we all finally got to Dover, we went our separate ways. It was awesome having met those girls, it always seems better to tackle problems like this in groups. Now that I'm back I can relax and see my friends here. But now that I have time to think about it, I feel so heartbroken that my mom couldn't fly over because of the ash cloud. She's my best friend and it's been 4 months since I've really seen her (skype so doesn't count) and I didn't realize how heavily I'd been resting my hopes on her visit. But I would have been so upset if she had come earlier and got stuck here and missed too much work. I keep reminding myself I'll be home in a month.

While it was unexpected and frustrating, I'm somewhat glad we were put in this. It was a challenge, but now I know I can do pretty much anything travel-wise. We all kept our heads and handled ourselves without breaking down...too often. I was able to see Nice and other parts of Italy and, really, isn't that what this whole experience is about?

x Megan