Not all Greeks were lucky on Christmas trips; for some, the trip turned into a real nightmare

Buses carrying 100 travelers from Thessaloniki were caught in a snowstorm and stranded between Prague and Vienna, while Greek tourists were inconvenienced at Brussels airport by a spontaneous strike by air traffic controllers on Saturday.

The road leading from Prague to Vienna turned into a snow trap due to a blizzard. On the bus on which travelers from Thessaloniki were traveling, there were children, elderly people, and people belonging to a vulnerable category who need constant medical support.

For more than 17 (!) hours the bus stood two hundred kilometers from the Austrian capital. Its passengers took off on Saturday morning from Thessaloniki and landed in Prague. Then we boarded two tourist buses and headed to Vienna. But… extreme weather events have paralyzed the country’s national network, reports CNN Greece.

Serious accidents occurred in some places, mostly involving rollovers of heavy vehicles. One hundred Greek passengers were trapped in the snow for several hours, without water or food. One of the passengers reported to ThessToday.gr:

“We really need dry food and water. We’ve run out of water. We have eight-year-old children on the bus, someone needs to help us, because as time goes on the situation becomes more and more dramatic. Older people need to take medications.”

The man says the embassy was informed, but they said their hands were tied because they were in a foreign country. He calls for help on behalf of all passengers:

“We don’t care about holidays now, we forgot about holidays after living all these hours. We are interested in someone helping us and taking us, finding us shelter at least for the night. We can’t stay here like this. The snowfall continues and not only do we risk being completely blocked, but there is also a huge queue of vehicles that has formed on the national road network.”

This story has a happy ending – on Sunday morning they finally managed to get to Vienna… And travelers at Brussels airport, including many Greeks, faced inconvenience due to an unexpected two-hour strike by air traffic controllers on Saturday 23 December in the afternoon. The work stoppage affected daytime flights between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. In a statement, the Belgian airport said:

“A sudden strike will result in delays and possible cancellations. We regret the consequences of this action. More detailed information and updates on our website.”

This action affected air traffic to and from Zaventem airport: some flights were canceled and others were diverted to other airports, including Frankfurt.

The reason why the strike was called in the middle of the Christmas holidays is that one of the air traffic controllers… was unable to take a scheduled day off, explains CNN Greece.

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