Reykjavik

"We come from the land of the ice and snow, From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow."
--Led Zeppelin



Many of you will be surprised to see a post from this location showing up on my blog. Well let me tell you that nobody is more surprised by this than I am. When I booked my return flight with the travel office, I was primarily focused on two things: spending Christmas with my family and making it back in time for work on the 27th. So when they emailed me the itinerary, I compulsively checked both of these details several times. I verified the airport, the terminal, the time of departure, the airport of arrival (my car is actually near Dulles at the moment), the time of arrival…there was no question that this was going to be a smooth trip. So when I arrived for a layover in Reykjavik, I pulled out the email with my flight information to see how much time I had to make my connection. You can imagine my horror when I discovered that the answer to that question was somewhere in the neighborhood of 17 hours. I noticed that my 2 bags had also turned up on the conveyor belt (weighing approximately 75 kg), so I asked one of the Icelandair representatives for some advice on the best course of action. She explained that the last bus was leaving immediately for downtown Reykjavik and that there was a good chance I would be able to find a hotel down there somewhere once I got there. This might sound like a no brainer, but I honestly had to give it some thought. If I missed my flight, I would undoubtedly face serious consequences back home since so many people were depending on me being back to work by 6 am on the 27th. If I stayed at the airport, though, I would be heading back to work having already pulled an all-nighter in addition to the jet-lag which was about to ensue. I knew from past experience that I could only carry my bags about 100 yards without falling over. So here I was after midnight on Christmas in the middle of Iceland, and thinking that in the worst-case scenario I would be stranded in the middle of the tundra and get eaten by polar bears or something.

I got on the bus. When I arrived at the only hotel with any vacancies, I learned that the price would be about 8,000 IKR. That seems like a lot of money, and at this point I still have no idea how much I paid for a night’s sleep and a warm shower, but after getting a quick tour of Reykjavik I’m back at the airport where they have a very sketchy wireless service. So far it looks like my flight to Boston will be on time…