since the temporary shut down of most (if not to say all important) European airports due to the eruption of that great volcano in Iceland I had the joy this weekend of interacting with the friends of Thomas the tank engine…for those of you who don’t know him, here he is
where Thomas is a happy-go-lucky pile of rusted nails who makes a living out of amusing little children, the European rail services were more of a gloomy rain-on-your-head-only bunch of rusted nails this weekend. and what’s great is that they are making benefit by the bucket load since all flying birds have been grounded, you have no idea how much a simple 2 hour cross-country train ticket is costing the next 24 hours (price is currently going up an average $50 every 30 minutes, the longer you wait the more expensive it will be so go go go get that ticket to Euro Disney now now now)……i’ll stop ranting and complaining i have vented enough.
just because i am lazy ill stick a “volcano” post in here too…..a few things you might have not known about this volcano eruption (I had no idea about these facts)
– the volcano is actually situated under a huge Iceberg called Eyjafjallajökull (so no it’s not on solid land)
– Iceland is actually a country made out (mostly) of dried volcano lava and ice
– the eruption has been simmering for about 14 years (I think i have the number right)
– the eruption actually started waaaaay back in March (around the 20th) but nothing spectacular happened till last week
– what created the crazy smoke cloud that’s messed up Europe’s airspace is the meeting of lava with an Iceberg (the Iceberg collided with the volcano’s tip)….the 1100 Celsius (thats a little over 2000 F) temperature difference between ice and lava made the kaboooom effect
– just in case -although a lot might know this one already….and yes i knew this one too- Pompeii an ancient Roman town (near today’s Naples in Italy) was completely destroyed and buried under volcanic ashes when the Mount Vesuvius volcano erupted….so this already happened it can happen again. the people and animals had no time to run, everything was killed and made into a giant still life sculpture
and last but not least to make this post the ultimate chaotic mess it is set to be, here is a video of the mighty cloud (i think the cloud should have a name, we can’t just keep calling it the cloud…..it’s so un-personal)…..not a happy video it’s about what is dying in the volcanic ash cloud…..not rosey
melicieuse 
April 19th, 2010 at 12:13 am
Funny how a very effective way to stop air pollution (caused by jet engines) is to use an even bigger method of air pollution (volcanos). Hmmm.
April 19th, 2010 at 12:33 am
and since no one is charging anyone for the pollution (as opposed to airfare tickets) they decided to charge people 7 times the normal price for trains…..go figure, i wonder how much ferry crossing tickets is costing these days
April 19th, 2010 at 1:06 am
I used to live near there actually, at a boarding school to prepare for college at Skogar.
Please pray for the beautiful little ponies,they run around wild and free and are suffering so terribly.The sheep will be rounded up,they are marked in the ears with distinguished marking so each farmer knows exactly which is his, they are so valuable to the farmers,may none be lost.
And I’m with you about the price gouging.That will never do in the funeral business which I’ve decided to invest in,what a racket.Let’s pray for fair and just pricing of railroad tickets.