You guys, I totally broke my "every-other-year-international-travel" schedule. Not only did I visit Puerto Rico this summer (yes, I realize it's a U.S. territory and therefore not international, but come on, it still counts), but I also went to Iceland.
ICELAND.
The land of fire and ice.
And generally all-around kickass place to visit.
I had been thinking about Iceland for quite awhile, and I couldn't shake this need to go there. I finally made my decision after returning from PR, and started doing more research on flights. Turns out flights from the U.S. are fairly reasonably priced, and take about as long as it would take me to drive to Ohio.
Unless you want to fly out of St. Louis, then you need to add about $400 to the flight price, and plan on having an 18 hour layover in Seattle first. Seriously, at the time I was looking, the best option I could find out of St. Louis was a 4-5 hour flight to Seattle, an 18 hour layover, followed by a 7 hour flight to Reykjavik. Does anyone else see a problem with this scenario?
I started to scrap the whole thing until I expanded my search for airports. One day I'd really love to fly to Europe through StL first without having to plan on heading somewhere else first. But not this day.
I should back up and explain that one of the reasons I chose Iceland was because it ranks very highly for safest countries for solo female travelers. The people are nice, tourism is booming, and their crime rate is virtually non-existent. These factors did nothing to dissuade my parents who suggested I find a buddy to travel with. In comes my cousin Angela. While I do still plan on taking a solo trip soon (sorry mom and dad), I don't regret having my cousin go with me. Having someone to share these priceless memories with is fantastic.
Fast forward back to today. Angela and I left St. Louis to drive to Chicago, where I found a steal for our flights through IcelandAir. Our aunt and uncle, Robert and Jan, moved back to Chicago earlier this year and are now less than an hour from the airport. They graciously allowed us to stay with them and be our chauffeurs to and from the airport. I cannot tell you how much we appreciated this.
 |
| Iceland, here we come! |
I had already come up with an elaborate transportation schedule that included planes, trains and automobiles to get us to the airport in the most economical fashion. This solution not only provided us with the best cost-saving option, but it also gave us the opportunity to connect with beloved family members.
I'm getting off topic. Despite the rainy weather and the traffic conditions, we made it to the airport in about an hour, and had plenty of time to check in for our flight 2.5 hours later (yeah, I like to be at the airport early!). There were zero people at the ticket counter in front of us, so we were able to immediately check in and leave our baggage. That was definitely a first for me. Unfortunately, they also told us that our flight was delayed by at least an hour. Our original plane was having some technical difficulties and they were waiting on a new airplane to arrive and be stocked.
I did start to worry a bit because we had some pretty tight timelines once we arrived in Iceland the following morning, and I didn't want to miss any of our excursions or transportation. But, there was nothing I could do, so we headed to security, and once again, we had no wait.
NO WAIT IN SECURITY.
This has never happened to me in the history of time. Ever.
So, what to do when you're 3.5 hours early for a delayed flight and you make it through check in and security in about 6 minutes flat? You drink. And eat. We were lucky that we had time for a leisurely dinner and a drink before we had to be at our gate. All of the boards kept saying our flight was on time, but we still wanted to be at our gate just in case the new plane arrived earlier than they expected.
It did not.
 |
| Celebratory drinks! |
We ended up meeting a nice girl named Jess who was flying to Iceland to spend the weekend with her boyfriend, who just so happened to be from London. This was their first vacation together, and actually the first time seeing each other since they had met and started dating in March. Romantic, no?
Eventually, we were able to start boarding about 45 minutes after our original flight was supposed to leave. Luckily, the gate attendants kept us informed every 15 minutes or so with the progress on getting the flight ready. I still had high hopes that we wouldn't miss our bus to the Blue Lagoon the following morning. Those hopes started diminishing after it seemed to take another 45 minutes just to taxi down the runway. Damn, how long does it take to get a plane from the terminal to the tarmac?
 |
| We finally made it on the plane!! |
It was just after 9:00 pm by the time we took off, which was over an hour and a half after when we should have left. Fortunately, I had padded our pick up time by nearly two hours from when were supposed to arrive to account for going through customs and getting our baggage. If we hurried when we got there, we might still be able to make it. If not, well, I didn't want to start coming up with alternative scenarios just yet.
The flight itself was nothing to write home about. While the plane was clean and the attendants nice, the seats were pretty uncomfortable, and not nearly enough leg room. I hoped to sleep for a majority of the 6 hour flight so I could be somewhat rested when we arrived, but sleep was intermittent and light at best. But, I knew sleep would be fairly elusive, so I just did what I could. Which was not much.
 |
| Reykjavik in the center left, and the lighted highway leading to the airport. |
Luckily, the flight took less time that originally scheduled, getting us in to Keflavik Airport with a little bit of time to make our bus. Passport control was quick and painless, but getting our luggage just about broke my last nerve. Angela's was one of the first ones off the conveyor belt. Knowing that we checked in together, I assumed mine would come out shortly thereafter.
Nope.
It was one of the last ones off.
Of course it was.
By now we were running out of time to make our bus, as instructions said that our bus would be right outside the terminal. I suppose Icelanders have a different definition of "right outside the terminal". The bus we came to first (right outside the terminal) that had the same name of the company that was to pick us up, apparently wasn't ours. We asked the driver if it was for Blue Lagoon, and he just pointed off into the horizon. We didn't see anything, but assumed his English wasn't great and he was pointing in the general direction of BL. After a frustrating couple of minutes, we asked someone else, and he again pointed us off in to the distance.
Taking a chance, we started hustling and eventually found another bus parking area and a few people standing in the brisk morning air. (Please note, this area was NOT "right outside the terminal".) After confirming with them they were waiting for BL transport, we started to relax, feeling confident we hadn't missed our bus. It came along shortly thereafter, and we enjoyed the quick relaxation of a 20 minute drive to BL.
I'm so thankful I booked the later transportation instead of the one right after our original arrival time. I can't even imagine missing the BL experience. It was a once in a lifetime day.
 |
| So thankful we made it on the bus! |
No comments:
Post a Comment