Iceland volcano: Tales from travellers stranded around the world

A fourth day of international flight restrictions heaped more chaos, misery and the odd flash of ingenuity as people around the world struggled to fulfil their personal and professional commitments despite the shutdown. Moira Hickson, a 21-year-old student from Norwich on her way back from visiting her aunt in Thailand, was last night contemplating yet another evening in the Moscow hotel which has been home since Thursday. Hickson and her fellow Aeroflot passengers became stranded in the Russian capital after the cloud descended and turned their three-hour transfer into a four-day ordeal. Without valid Russian visas, some of them were shepherded to a hotel while others remain stuck in the airport – all of them dependent on the help of the British embassy. Before her mobile phone died, Hickson managed to ring her boyfriend, Chris Thurmott, in Leicester to let him know what was going on. "The Russian authorities seem to be treating them like criminals," he said. "There's about 20 or 30 people at the hotel – most of them British – and they're not allowed to leave their rooms and they have to be escorted to the hotel restaurant by the people who are guarding them 24 hours a day." Thurmott said that many people at the hotel had packed their medication into their check-in luggage and were now in urgent need of it. A young girl at the hotel had already had an asthma attack, he said, while many women could not get sanitary towels. "Moira said tensions are starting to run high because they're all shut in the same place," he added. "People are going a bit crazy … And now the hotel say they're running out of food." James Barbour, press secretary at the British embassy in Moscow, said the ambassador and his team were doing their best to help: "We've made lists of what people need and are making shuttle runs to bring them toothpaste, clothes and medication. "We've also got a constant presence at the airport." In Dubai, a British couple who were due to get married in the UK over the weekend found themselves making their vows on Skype so that their friends and family could witness the wedding. Sean Murtagh, 24, and his new wife Natalie, a 30-year-old Australian, got married in Brisbane three weeks ago but had been due to hold a humanist ceremony for family and friends in the UK on Saturday. When they found themselves stranded after changing planes in Dubai on Thursday, they had to make other plans. Staff at the Millennium Airport Hotel in Dubai baked them a cake, decorated the lobby and set up a laptop with Skype and a projector so that the ceremony could take place via a link to London. "It's been an incredible day," said Murtagh. "We were never going to forget it anyway but we certainly won't forget it now." Humanist celebrant Caroline Black, who conducted the ceremony from Trailfinders Sports Club in Ealing, west London, said: "I've done lots of humanist weddings but not one like this at all. It was just like any other wedding except the bride and groom weren't there." Gary Lineker also found himself forced to improvise. The Match Of The Day presenter spent 24 hours travelling from Tenerife, where he was on a family holiday, to the UK to make sure that he was in his seat for Saturday night's show. Lineker flew from Tenerife to Madrid, then drove to Paris where he caught a Eurostar train to London, arriving in London just two hours before the show was due to start. "It's the first time I have done a show having missed watching all the games in the afternoon – but the important thing is I made it," he told the Mail on Sunday. "It was like one of those impossible challenges they have on Top Gear."