Norway Day One (Frank's Version) June 17, 2010

As noted in the previous post, I did not make it onto the airplane with the rest of the group Tuesday morning due to an issue with my ticket. I ended up on the phone with the travel agency for a while after the rest of the group had left, trying to get another flight that day. In the end I got another ticket for the next day leaving SLO at the same time, 6:00 AM, and I had one extra layover in Houston but would take the same flight to Oslo and Trondheim only a day later than the rest of the group.
When I arrived in SLO on Wednesday morning there turned out to be more issues. I had a print out of my itinerary and an E-ticket number, but I was not on the list of people to get onto the plane in the computer. I called the travel agency again and they said they would sort it out while I was on the plane from SLO to LAX as long as I could get onto the plane in SLO. I think the woman at the front counter in the SLO airport felt sorry for me so she put me on the plane and said that I would need to pick up my bags and recheck in once I got into Los Angles. At that point I was off on my way to Norway. When I got into LA I picked my bag up within 10 minutes of arriving and headed to the terminal to check in for my other flights. As I was walking the travel agency called me and said that everything had been worked out while I was in the air and they should be able to check me in all the way through my final destination. When I got to the ticket counter the woman confirmed this with me and gave me all of my boarding passes and took my bag. After that moment it was pretty much smooth sailing the rest of the way to Trondheim aside from a slightly late plane in Houston making me worry that I might miss my connecting flight.

Here is a picture of me out by a large boat next to the Trondheim Biological Station (TBS) where we will be working part of the time.

Expedition to Norway delayed

The 2010 ICEX program team was scheduled to depart for Norway on April 16th. However, like millions of would-be travelers throughout the world, our travel plans have been thrown into chaos as a result of the volcanic eruption of Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland, which has sent a giant ash plume over Northern Europe, closed public air travel and grounded flights to and from four U.S. military bases. Even Norway's Prime Minister, Jens Stotlenberg, is stranded in New York city (NY Daily News story).

As of this morning, our transatlantic airline, Continental, has extended their travel advisory to Monday April 19th Thursday April 22. You can follow breaking developments related to the impact of the ash plume at The Guardian's volcanic ash blog. We will provide updates here as we learn more about our options for rescheduling our trip and participation in the third NORUS workshop.