President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves who is on an official visit in Turkey with his wife and a delegation has been unable to take a plane home and is returning to Estonia by bus and car, according to newspaper reports.
The president was scheduled to fly from Turkey to Poland on Sunday for the funeral of Poland's late president Lech Kaczynski.
The bus carrying Ilves will be travelling through Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. According to rules, the president's bus is being escorted by local police.
At present Ilves is in Poland where he plans to visit the grave of Kaczynski.
The president should arrive in Estonia on Thursday morning.
Other officials who have been unable to return home are finance minister Jürgen Ligi and president of Estonian central bank Andres Lipstok who were on an official trip to Spain. Both are returning to Estonia by car and on the way have picked up a couple of Estonian officials.
Also Edgar Savisaar, mayor of Tallinn, was abroad when airlines stopped flying. He returned from Brussels to Tallinn by train and car together with deputy mayor Deniss Boroditch and Tallinn city council chairman Toomas Vitsut. Savisaar told journalists that when he fell asleep during the trip he had a dream that he met with German chancellor Angela Merkel who suggested that instead of adopting the euro Estonia should switch to the old D-mark. By the way, Merkel herself was forced to take a bus to Germany from Italy.
Toomas Hõbemägi
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