Roxane, You Just Might Have to Walk the Streets Tonight

A student from Paris tries frantically to record her upcoming travel information | Photo: David Reali

Yet another twisted tale of volcano madness. It was Wednesday, April 14th, 22:25 and my friend Roxane was arriving in Vienna from Paris. She was only staying until Sunday, but the trip was well worth it… we hadn’t seen each other in over seven months, even though we live only a two-hour flight apart. I’d been warned she was completely broke, so our four days together would have to be spent on activities that didn’t require a lot of cash. No problem. There were plenty of things to see in Vienna, and walking around in the sunshine is absolutely free.

The next day we heard of a volcano that had erupted in Iceland and was wreaking havoc on air travel all over Europe.

“Great!” I said, “Maybe your flight will be cancelled, and you’ll get to stay longer!” Of course I said this not actually expecting it to happen. Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut. You know, bad Karma and all that. As it was, I became a fortuneteller; for Roxane, unfortunately, it all came true.

By Saturday, the day before she was supposed to leave, the airport was still closed and her flight had been cancelled. Normally this wouldn’t have been such a big deal, but Roxane had a few pre-existing conditions that I haven’t yet mentioned. First, she had forgotten her credit card in Paris. Remember that one fact about her lack of monetary funds? Her credit card would have been a lifesaver; without it chaos ensued. Our lives turned into a frenzy of international phone calls and Western Union visits, so Roxane could actually afford to eat during her extended stay.

Her flight had been rescheduled to Monday, but as we soon discovered, that flight wasn’t going to take off either. So she decided on a train….

To shorten this epic tragedy, I’ll give you an overview of what happened next.

On Tuesday, Roxane’s payment date for her phone bill came and went and her telephone company shut off her service: No way to call home or to get in contact with her mother, and no way for the outside world to reach her. That was also happened to be the day that we found out all trains to Paris were completely booked. Plus, the tickets were upwards of €260. That evening, the airline company told Roxane that she was rescheduled for a flight for Wednesday evening, “sans exception!”.

Fast forward to Wednesday. I took Roxane to the CAT train and she was off to the airport. We communicated by text message while she was waiting at her gate. Everything was going according to plan. Her final text to me was “We’re boarding now! I’ll see you this summer when we’re back in the States!”

Relief.

Two hours later I got a call from an unfamiliar number. Roxane was on the other end and she sounded as if she’d just been shot.

“My plane was just cancelled,” she said. They had been already in their seats when they were asked to deplane once more. “Now I’m going to go to the train station,” she said decisively, “so I can try to get out tonight.” I highly doubted she would be successful, but I wished her luck and told her to call me as soon as she knew.

As it turned out she was able to get a ticket for Thursday, leaving Vienna at ten in the evening and arriving in Paris at five in the evening the next day, after a seven-hour layover in Zurich. After seeing her off a second time on Thursday night, it was hard to believe she was actually gone. I kept expecting another call from Vienna, or even from Zurich, saying something had gone wrong yet again and that she was on her way back. But it didn’t happen.

Four extra days, 500+ extra euros spent, and a lot of extra stress, all because of a volcano. Was it worth it? Of course. And it gave me a chance to hear the best ever advice from Roxane’s mother:

“Just have a beer, and enjoy your extended vacation!”