Volcano Airport
Am one of the lucky thousands of people to be affected by the Icelandic volcano eruptions - Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport closed on the day we were supposed to fly - but it closed after we arrived. Kept waiting from about 16:00 until about 22:30 when they announced that the flight had been canceled.
All passengers for the flight were hoarded off to a hotel a few miles from Disney Land. ANA paid for the hotel for the first night and gave us 50 Euros for the taxi to the hotel - which cost 80 Euros ^^;
At the moment we have absolutely no idea when flights will resume - and even if they do, we don't know if we can get a flight and ANA are not answering their "hotline" number.
The problem with our tickets is that they depart from Paris Charles De Gaulle. As we cant speak to an ANA representative, we don't know if they will change our tickets to allow us to fly from London Heathrow. If they could then we can try our luck for the Eurostar and head back to London where we will be able to stay at mums and have a decent Internet connection - the connection here is flaky at best and the connection at the local shopping mall here blocks dannychoo.com with a filter and Twitter + Gmail are blocked too @.@
Want to be able to just dump our luggage and travel around France but given the situation, its kinda difficult to travel and relax at the same time. Have heard reports that the airport may open at later today and also reports on how these volcanic clouds could remain for another 8 months @.@
Well at least we have the relatives back in Tokyo feeding the daughters ^^;
Well at least we have the relatives back in Tokyo feeding the daughters ^^;
To add to the fun n games, there is some sort of rail strike in France with limited or no service - not exactly sure.
We check out of the hotel once a day in the hope that flights may resume and end up checking in again when the fax from ANA arrives at the hotel saying "no flights today muhaha."
Not sure whats going to happen from now but will update you when I get a connection. Sorry for the lack of updates over the past week. More regular updates going to my Twitter and Facebook.
Ah, more info just in - no flights today, tomorrow or the 19th. Will hope to get tickets for Eurostar later tonight and head back to Hackney. Will have to negotiate with ANA to get them to change our flights to head out from Heathrow LHR instead of Paris CDG.
Update you later. Ugh!
Update you later. Ugh!