Stranded in Europe because of the volcano in Iceland? Twitter, Facebook and a new website may be able to help you get home.
If you’re in Europe right now, chances are, you haven’t wandered too far in the past few days. Since the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajoekull Volcano last Wednesday, most of Europe’s airports have been forced to close off their airspace because of the risk of volcanic ash, stranding travelers everywhere from Northern Ireland to Austria.
For people on business or holiday travel, efforts to get home have been even more taxing than Steve Martin’s Planes, Trains, and Automobiles journey (and not nearly as hilarious, we’d wager). Actor John Cleese, of Monty Python fame, took a taxi from Oslo to Brussels, paying more than $5,000 in cab fare. Presidents and prime ministers are stuck working from their laptops while struggling to get back to their homelands. And millions of ordinary people are unable to return to their families and homes.
But even though the planes are still grounded, instead of getting frustrated, stranded travelers are working together to solve their problem. Thousands of people have taken to social media services like Twitter and Facebook to organize car pool groups and to request and offer rides between countries.
A Facebook group based in Sweden called “Carpool Europe” has nearly 3,000 members, and provides a space for members to post where they are and where they’re headed to organize carpools with fellow travelers.
Meanwhile, Twitter users can include the hashtags #getmehome and #putmeup to let others know if they need transportation or a place to spend the night, and many kind strangers have stepped in to help them out with the offer of a bed and a home-cooked meal, or, if they’re lucky, a door-to-door car ride.
And a brand-new website, Volcanohelp.eu, has popped up as a resource to share information about volcano-affected travel, offer or request rides, and to find and provide housing. The service is completely free, and was created by two young Swedish web designers. Within five hours of the site’s launch, it was receiving over 1,400 visitors an hour.
Airports are slowly regaining permission to open airspace again, but in the meantime, if you find yourself stranded hundreds of miles from your family and don’t want to shell out five grand for a cab, just check out one of these services, and you’re sure to find someone who can help you get back home.