Stranded researchers buy banger for 2,500km drive home

Date Published: 22-Apr-2010

by Darragh McDonagh

 A group of researchers and directors from a research institute at NUI Galway who were left stranded in Spain by the Icelandic ash, arrived home yesterday after buying a used car and driving 2,500km back to Galway.

Eight students and two teachers from Coláiste na Coiribe were also marked absent this week as they remained stuck in Atlanta, Georgia, where they represented Ireland in an international Lego competition.

The delegation from the Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) travelled to Valencia prior to the volcanic eruption last Tuesday and had been due to fly home last Friday.

However, with no end to travel restrictions in sight, and a thousand-strong queue for train tickets in the Spanish city, the quartet resorted to buying a 15-year-old hatchback and set off on the 37-hour journey home.

But surely there were worse places to be stranded for a week than sunny Spain?

“Actually, it was raining quite heavily while we were in Valencia,” said Prof Dr Manfred Hauswirth. “When we left Galway the weather was beautiful but as soon as we arrived in Spain it started to rain quite a bit.”

Prof Dr Hauswirth, along with DERI CEO Michael Turley, Prof Dr Stefan Decker and Dr Axel Polleres, were unable to book train tickets online, such was the demand, and found a thousand people waiting ahead of them in the queue at the station.

They looked into renting a car but heard that someone renting a car to travel from Valencia to Copenhagen had paid €3,000, and the four academics put their heads together to devise an alternative way home.

“When we heard how much it was going to cost to rent a car, we figured that we could buy a car for the same amount,” said Prof Dr Hauswirth

The old hatchback had more than 200,000 miles on the clock, but the four men coughed up €1,600, piled into the vehicle and headed for home.

“There are still some of the guys who were at the meeting in Valencia still stuck there. Some flew back today and some managed to get going yesterday,” he said.

For more on this story, see the Galway City |Tribune