It is quite unbelievable, but I am writing this at the Istanbul Atatürk airport, waiting for my connecting flight to Johannesburg for some concerts there. The volcano eruption in Iceland has managed to mess up a lot of things, and one of them is orchestra concerts. Suddenly guest soloists and conductors are stranded on the other side of the world and cannot come to Europe, or vice versa!

I myself was asked already twice to substitute for concerts back in Finland because someone else had been delayed, but I had my own worries. The Finnish airspace has been mostly closed entirely, and my original flight to Johannesburg via Frankfurt (which was scheduled for tomorrow actually) seemed very unlikely to succeed.

So, today I wrote to my contacts in SA that the Finnish airspace will be opened for five hours, and there are only a couple of departing flights to random destinations. I immediately received a phone call asking whether I think I could catch the flight to Istanbul departing in less than two hours, since the Turkish Airlines flies directly to Johannesburg from there.

It was some of the fastest decisions in my life. I caught my dad on the phone and he was free to give me a ride to the airport, and then I went home with my scores and just stuffed my suitcase with random clothes, and off we went to the airport! It was really a surreal feeling to come to almost empty airport and be one of the few people getting out of the country. And when I landed in Turkey, it was business as usual with huge lines to passport control and transfer desks (and the usual business of extremely rude people passing ahead of the line to save twenty minutes of their life!).

Now I just have to fly overnight to Johannesburg and then it will be work, work and work for two big concert programs... It still feels unreal that I beat the volcano which is holding back so many of my colleagues. But the trip isn't over yet. I will write more when I actually get in Africa.