Travelers stranded by volcano creatively cope with lengthening delays

Some travelers built makeshift living rooms in airport halls with cots encircling cardboard boxes, while seniors got a taste of the long-forgotten college life in dorms in Florence, Italy, and others plunked down thousands of dollars on cab fare in desperation to get where they needed to be sometime before next week. Others ran out of cash and relied on the kindness of strangers for help.

Even as air traffic authorities cautiously allowed some flights into European air space today, thousands of travelers around the world were still coping with turbulence a volcanic eruption in Iceland wrought on their best-laid vacation plans.