Right now many frustrated European travelers are stranded overseas and are struggling to find an alternative route home. These travelers are desperate for any news on flights into the continent’s few airports that remain open. Most airports in Europe have been closed down due to the dangerous cloud of ash from an Icelandic volcano.

Apparently flights into Rome, Madrid, and Athens have become the latest hot ticket for international people to get their hands on. However, due to the huge increase in demand, and a backlog of passengers, people could face waiting lists of days and even weeks before they can get a ticket.

One would be flier, Dirk Maertens, age 52, said that his family would take any flight into Europe that they could get. He said this while waiting at the Bangkok international airport alongside his wife and 16 year old son.

The Maertens family had slept on plastic seats at the airport last Saturday night after their flight home to Belgium was canceled. Clarie Maertens, age 49, said that when there is a flight people have to act quickly. This is why they had been staying at the airport waiting for a flight to open up.

Modern Europe has never seen this kind of travel disruption. Millions of passengers have had their plans foiled or delayed due to this event. Around the world many anxious passengers wait and tell their stories of how the ash cloud has affected them. Although more and more flights are opening up as the week pushes on, there are still some airports and airlines that are shut down.