[The main reason for me visiting Europe was to see some friends of mine who are currently living in Europe.  Another reason was to shoot some new travel videos for a website called Tripfilms.  As I've been using my printed itinerary as scratch paper these days, Tripfilms asked me to blog about my current experience for their site.  I figured I'd post it here, too.  So here goes:]

When I got on a flight from Los Angeles to Dublin April 12th, I wasn’t thinking I’d get stranded in Ireland because of an Icelandic volcano.  I was thinking about how I didn’t have enough legroom and how the lady next to me was hogging the armrest.  The last time I even thought of the word “volcano” was probably three years ago when I watched the Pierce Brosnan film Dante’s Peak.  Volcanoes were not a top priority for me last Monday.  Now my entire future rests in the hands of a volatile, geothermal pimple on the surface of the earth.

What are the odds? What are the odds 97,000 flights would be cancelled because of a volcano erupting?  The last time this volcano erupted was in 1821.  I’m no statistics major, but I think the odds weren’t great.

For me, this situation means more time in Ireland.  Not the worst problem to have.  I’ve seen more of Cork, the seaside town of Kinsale, and the western town of Galway.  I was intending to travel around Europe for a while.  What’s another six days in Ireland?  For tens of thousands of others, though, this means they’re missing work in foreign countries, they can’t deliver their perishible products, and they can’t attend important celebrations.

We may never fully understand the ripples caused by this volcano.  For every wedding missed, two strangers stuck in an airport might meet and get married.  For every rotting shipment of lamb, a delivery supervisor might smell the meat and follow his true calling as a vegan restauranteur.  I’ve met new friends during my delay that I will correspond with the rest of my life.  If I flew out as planned last Friday, I would never have had a wonderful afternoon with Pilar in Galway and learned about cutting edge Spanish film directors.

Humanity’s history has been one of technological innovations, of harnessing earth’s powers for human’s wants and needs.  But still, even in 2010, all of our advancements can’t battle something from prehistoric times.  Thoreau said something once about how we don’t ride the railroad, that the railroad rides us.  Now instead of trains riding us, it’s airplanes.  How far we have come.

So what does the world do now?  How can we prepare for another ash cloud?  It’s not like volcanoes fit through an airport X-Ray machine.  We can prevent guns from getting on a plane, but we can’t prevent ash from entering the atmosphere.  Does this mean we return to the days of sea travel?  More ferries departing from ports?  Do we build long bridges?  More chunnels?  With billions of dollars already lost by this ash cloud, how many billions more will governments be willing to spend to prevent more billions lost?  Or will they just play the odds?  The world was safe from this volcano for 189 years.  What are the chances it will happen again?

I don’t have any of the answers.  As a normal civilian, I don’t have much say in those decisions, especially since I don’t even live in Europe.  I do know I will continue to travel the world despite this volcano.  Like the threat of terrorism, I won’t let the threat of a volcanic eruption prevent me from experiencing the joys of traveling.  That’s not the way I want to live, voluntarily stranded in America.  I will approach my journeys a bit differently in the future, though.  On my next trip, I’m buying travel insurance.

Here’s a video update of my situation.

Since either way I’m not leaving Ireland until Thursday, I decided to take a bus up from Cork to Galway to visit my friend Lauren.  It’s a good country for me to be stranded in, given the amount of people I know here.

I’m on the Citylink bus right now, which has wifi.  That’s something I only thought those fancy Google buses in San Francisco had; I didn’t know it’s trickling down to normal buses.  The three hour ride has flown by, thanks to the internet access and to my new friend Pilar, who has her own, even more harrowing travel story.  She might show me around tonight.  Opportunities abound here.  I’ll keep you posted.

All I’ve been writing about on this thing is doom and gloom.  I’m sure that gets a little annoying reading too much of it.  Here I am, wanting to travel, getting more time to travel, getting to experience more culture with that extra time, and all I write about is that most European flights have been cancelled in the most severe flight crisis since 9/11.  Enough about that.  Let me share some of the joys I’ve experienced while having this extra time in this fair land of Ire.

Dublin has a great historical walking tour led by history majors from Trinity College.  Mine had her doctorate.  Very informative, gives you a good sense of the city.

Cork is a lovely town.  It’s very walkable with two very photogenic rivers bordering its downtown.  Quaint streets, a wonderful market.  They even have an opera house.

Murphy’s stout beer, Cork’s local equivalent to Guinness, tastes great.  I think it’s much better than Guinness, actually.  A little sweeter.  And talk about a foamy head!  Like a velvety cloud.

The people here are really are as polite as they say.  Especially at the Glencairn B&B.  I don’t know if I could ever endorse a place more sincerely.  They really do treat you like family.

Irish taxi drivers round down to the nearest Euro.  I had a fare of 15.45, and the guy asked me for 15.  Amazing.

That’s enough positivity for now.  I’m off to bed.  The plan tomorrow is make it to Blarney Castle, then cook up some fresh mussels bought from the market with my friend Alex.  When I write a sentence like that, it’s hard to be upset I have four more days here.

So much can happen in such little time, and then so little can happen, as well.  I have a bit of both right now.  My flight’s canceled again–the one for Monday morning–so I rescheduled to Thursday morning, since flights were sold out through Tuesday, and Wednesday flights probably will be cancelled, too.  Who am I kidding?  Thursday flights aren’t taking off, either.  All planes are grounded indefinitely.  The airlines are stringing everyone along with the idea of flights starting up, but that big ole volcano is still spewing ash into the air, so unless a monsoon washes it all away, the airs above Europe will remain empty for some time to come.

Finally coming to this realization, I decided to book a ferry.  I tried Saturday morning to book one for Sunday.  After countless attempts of trying to use both my American Express and Visa card, I was told the ferry on Sunday was sold out.  The site ran my credit card and charged my credit card, but it didn’t give me a confirmation page, so I had no proof that I bought the ticket.  Instead, they gave me an error page.  Multiple times.  In hindsight, I realize now I was on a ferry broker website instead of the official site for the company, so I might have had better luck on the official site.  But directferries.ie sounded pretty legit to me under the pressure of time and frantic mental state.  Their shoddy website should have been the warning sign.

Anywho, after that failed attempt, I tried booking the next available ferry, which leaves on THURSDAY.  Yes, I said Thursday, folks.  I was supposed to be in Amsterdam last Friday morning, and now I’m taking an 18 hour ferry from Rosslare, Ireland to Cherbourg, France the Thursday after.  So I get in Friday in France at 4:30pm, then get on a train to Paris at 7pm.  That puts me in Paris at about 10pm.  Now, originally, before St. Helen’s Icelandic sibling decided to get all uppity, I was supposed to fly back from Brussels to Chicago Saturday morning.  Ha!  That thinking is so April 14th.  To American Airline’s credit, I was able to reschedule my flight without a rescheduling charge to Thursday the 29th.  That will give me Saturday through Wednesday to see the sights I had wanted to see in the first place.  And who knows?  The way that volcano keeps spewing, I might be here longer than that.  I heard the last time this volcano erupted, it continued erupting for a full year.  I think I might apply for EU citizenship.