Apocalypse Now: Stuck in Athens

Do you ever wish when you are on vacation that it could last for only a few more days? How about another week? How about another possible two weeks? Welcome to my situation in Athens, even though it is not exactly an extended vacation by choice!

If you don't know by this point or have been living under a rock, the volcano in Iceland that erupted a few weeks ago is finally making its voice heard by spreading ash all over Europe. The ash has caused airports to be shut down all over Europe for days (and at this point, currently still shut down). And guess where I am? The day before we were supposed to leave to go back to England from Athens we saw that flights were being canceled left and right going back to the UK. This soon extended to all over Europe and we discovered that morning that our flight was canceled. The earliest we could book a return flight to England was on Thursday...NEXT Thursday.

We had already been here about 5 days and now we are all on day 7 of our extended time here. Alright alright I know all of you are thinking...WHAT? More days in Greece that sounds ideal! Well even though it may sound ideal to a certain extent, we will be missing class and it is more money to stay. Luckily we were able to stay in the same hostel we were staying in before and we know the area well enough. Food is relatively cheap which makes staying a bit more bearable. It is the uncertainty of the situation that makes it not as enjoyable as it could be, especially when there are many thoughts of being stuck here longer looming overhead.

If our flight on Thursday is canceled, we will have to look into either flights elsewhere to get closer to England or boats/trains. Traveling to England by ferries/boats/trains will take anywhere from 2-4 days, depending on how booked up things will be and I imagine they will be. Flights will be difficult because of what airports are available to us being in Greece and the airline we used, if there are any airports open. It is a tough call to make, especially since may of us are running out of funds and we are on our second to last week of classes. So although it may seem very ideal to be stuck in Greece, it is better than most places to get stuck, but it is still not ideal.

On a different note, I am here with 4 other fellow friends and classmates which make my time here more bearable. We have at least been able to find some hilarity in this situation. Last night we went out for McDonalds cause we were in need of some comfort food. We took the food to a nearby park and proceeded to eat and enjoy it. A Grecian elderly woman came up and started talking to us in Greek. Of course, none of us speak a word of Greek but apparently she thought I could understand her. What we could make out of the entire conversation is either that she thought we were Bulgarian or that there were Bulgarians stealing purses and asking for money. That just added to the fact that we are stuck here and gave us all a good laugh.

Today we decided to get out of the hostel for the day and go to the beach. It only costs 2 euros to get there and back, so it was something we all could afford. The beaches here aren't naturally sandy, but naturally rocky. There is some artificial sand that is pumped in, but when you go into the water it is all rocks. Four of us decided to go swimming in the Aegean today and despite it being a bit chilly, it was quite nice. I even ended up with some battlescars from the rocks!

The best part of our day though happened at dinner. We all decided to get some pizza to make for dinner since it is a cheap meal. Unfortunately, we never checked to make sure our hostel had an oven in their kitchen. We got back to the hostel to discover that there was no oven and no microwave. Soo we decided to make them over the stove in a pan and they ended up burning completely on the bottom and only slightly cooking on the top. A delicious meal indeed!

At this point, I am taking it one step at a time and trying to keep positive. I have freak outs a few times every day when I think about this situation and how long I might be here. I just know that other people have it worse off than me and I have to remember it when I am feeling low. I think after this whole ordeal I am done with traveling for a LONG time.