Well , been sometime since leaving Peru . Have spent the time in Norway mostly inside in the cold weather , played Golf once , good, 79 shots I may add . Had a few good in fact very good meals in a new restaurant , got my new drivers license , made an agreement with the tenant that don`t pay and learnt a lot about volcanic ash and how to book and change flights trains hotels etc .
I was supposed to go to Spain last Saturday but of course the Country of Island sent Ash and not Cash as most Europeans asked from them . It`s quite incredible how this cloud have disrupted our lives , also only based on theoretical computer models.
I think everybody understand that flying straight into a cloud of Ash like the BA flight back 28 (yes 28) years ago did , but some particles thinned out miles away ?????
In Stavanger we did not see even one grain of "ash" falling down , not even with the rain over the weekend . When in Spain we often get cars etc covered in sand dust from Sahara when it rains , but this Volcanic ash does not fall down ??? How can that be is it lighter or as light as Air ???? Quite frankly I think this is/was over dramatized .
Anyway I have felt like running an travel agency for the last week . First my flight to Spain was cancelled , even before that I saw the picture so I booked a new flight the week after (only once a week directly from Stavanger ) . Then I started looking into getting a car because I missed Spain and the warm weather Stavanger was freezing cold , also there was / is plans to have a long weekend in Bilbao with the Poker boys .
The car I was getting was an old transport car from Marnburg , this car had been standing idle since December in the snow and cold , I did not look forward to drive almost 4000 km in it although I would have had company by Pogo so I told myself it was a Boys trip or a Father /son trip or whatever I missed warm weather .
The prices of ferries from Stavanger SKY ROCKETED from a few €`s to hundreds . In the end the car was beyond repair (thank god) . Then I looked at some other cars for sale I was going to buy a BMW 5 series 20 year old , but it was sold just ahead of me , maybe to another Ash victim ???? Then the clouds started to look a little better and EU got together and looked into the silliness of their models so some flights started flying .
I booked one from Oslo to Spain without knowing how to get to Oslo ..... Then I booked a train to Oslo (got the last seat incl. Dog space ). But the sheer thought of dragging 2 suitcases , 1 big cage for Pogo and Pogo on line dragging all directions to smell the piss of other dogs , plus hand luggage into a train with a seat the size of the cheapest airline seat on the cheapest airline and NO space for the luggage plus 7 hours in a small uncomfortable seat was just too much and I cancelled it . The plan was to await a few days and either fly the Saturday or if everything looked still ashgrim get another car .
Speaking about car I went to the local BMW/Porsche dealer they had some nice cars , it was between a Porsche Panamera or a BMW 318d Touring , but luckily they could not get the Licence plates for export within a day or 2 . The Porsche by the way was not really an option not with the dog :-) ...
Then they started very suddenly to fly out of Stavanger , I jumped and booked a flight to Oslo with Norwegian . As I was watching the flight "screens" on internet later the flight got cancelled ...grrrrrr. The SAS flight 3 hours later was ok so I booked this one .... My god friend Johan got again to my rescue and drove me to the airport with the 2 suitcases , the cage , the hand luggage and the dog. By that time I had managed to reserve a hotel at Oslo airport with the Dog . This is not always possible in Spain it`s almost impossible to bring a dog . On the way to the airport we heard on the radio with 4 minutes difference that the airport (all in Norway) was open and 4 min later that Stavanger was closed .... getting closer we saw a Norwegian plane taxing and taking off ! Strange .... it was 7:20 pm . 30 minutes after the flight that said cancelled . Getting into the airport the flight on the screen said : LAST CALL . and then disappeared of the screen. Then Sas said they would not fly ( they had found a grain of ash on a plane) , in fact they said the airport was closed , Norwegian said the airport was open .....Avinor the airport authorities said the airport was Open. Are Sas pussies ? They claimed Norwegian flew "on your own responsbility ? Don`t we always ? .. So we waited and waited (even drove around the area , sightseeing things I did not even existed in Stavanger ) . Back to the airport Sas still did not know if the wanted to fly , so I did not check in ... BUT all of a sudden it said GO TO GATE and I hurried to check in , got the bags in , the Cage with the dog and ran to the gate , my named being called out to hurry by the staff .... Asked the purser to confirm the dog was on the plane , confirmed ..... should have asked about the suitcases ! ....
Arriving Oslo of course the suitcases where not there , the Dog was but no suitcases . How could this be ? The people who "packs" the planes must have been sitting on their asses the whole day and when suddenly a plane (it was at least 3 hours since the last one took off) was to leave they could not get all suitcases into the plane ????? They got some , maybe 50 % of them but of course mine was not among those. So now they say they will be delivered manana . And I`m supposed to be in Bilbao .... well I said monday is fine , the good thing is that I get 375 € to spend on clothes . So Bilbao next ..... Dream on
This morning they called me from Stavanger Ashes have been spotted again and planes cancelled ..... what the ....So should I stay or should I go ... alone . Decided to change the flight until tomorrow by then at least my friend Per traveling from Oslo will come , or so we hope .... Untill then ....... ( by the way Cinderella is called Askepott in Norwegian , Askepott directly translated Pot of Ash ....)
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