Adventure is out there: Traveling hell and Iceland

Nothing is perfect and sometimes when you think you're all ready to go and study abroad to London, life happens. At least that's what happened to me, I had one hell of a first day traveling.

Let me back up a little, I'm studying abroad to London for a month through an art program at my school. This program is less formal and more unconventional than a traditional quarter exchange. I will be with a group of 20 other students. Though we are staying together in London, everyone had to make their own flight arrangements. I chose to fly out four days before my program started so I would have time to get acclimated to the time difference and could relax. This is where my trouble began. I booked an IcelandAir flight with a one-hour layover in Iceland. It was the cheapest deal I could find (I think I know why). I'm not going to rant about IcelandAir because everyone I dealt with was incredibly nice, and these complications could happen to any airline...but my travels still could have been smoother.

My flight leaving Seattle was delayed by four hours total. When I first arrived at my gate everything was fine, everyone boarded the plane no problem. When the plane first started to taxi the captain alerted us we needed to go back to the gate for "technical difficulties". After 40 mins or so back at the gate they thought they had fixed the issue, and we started to taxi again. To our dismay the same issue occurred, we had to go back to the gate and wait for mechanics to come. I'm still fuzzy on the details, but the computers which controlled the speed breaks were broken and needed to be replaced...something like that? Let's go with it. Probably two hours in to the delay at this point. The mechanics came, had the issue "fixed" and said the computers passed the tests. This ended up being false and the plane was still having issues. The captain then decided to send everyone off and switch everyone onto a different IcelandAir plane. We got off and were told we would board shortly. We ended up boarding 45 minutes later, but everyone was hopeful. Right as we were about to take off, the flight crew realized they forget to drain the toilets from the previous flight. So that was ANOTHER 20 minutes of delays. I don't think my math really adds up at this point, but regardless our delay was about four hours.

I already knew I missed my connecting flight to London. My layover in Iceland was only scheduled to be an hour, so I knew I'd have to take another flight. I wasn't too phased by this though, I figured there would be many other flights to London since it's such a popular city. WRONG! After I got through passport control I was told there was only one remaining flight to London, and it was already overbooked. Struggling to grasp that I had to stay in Iceland for the night, but they gave me a voucher for a bus, meals, and hotel, and I was on my way. Since I was traveling alone, I felt completely overwhelmed and panicked at this point. I tried my best to just stick through it, I just had to get my bags and get on a bus, doesn't seem too hard right? WRONG AGAIN! Many passengers from my flight, myself included, had to wait nearly two hours for our bags. Some bags were put out right away, but due to confusion with delays and connections, the rest of the baggage was sporadically put out over the course of nearly two hours. This was a true test of my patience,

I'm not sure if I passed the test, but I did eventually get my bag.

(Casual deterioration of my well being via Snapchat)

After all my flight's passengers finally had their bags, we all shuffled onto a bus and were dropped off at assigned hotels. I made a friend named Sharon on the bus, she was one of the only other passengers traveling alone so we clicked. She's also a total badass and has not only served in Iraq twice, but she also beat cancer. Kudos to you Sharon, you're the freakin' greatest.

I also made friends with a mid-twenty-something couple who were coincidentally both graduates from my school. The husband was even a design major, small world. I never got their names, but they were lovely people.

Checking into my hotel was easy, everyone was incredibly friendly. After a mini break down and a call to my parents, I started embracing the fact that I'm in Iceland. I could have eaten lunch a local burger place, but opted for a nap instead. A shower and a four hour nap lifted my spirits and helped me feel more refreshed. Speaking of refreshing; the tap water in Iceland is easily the BEST water I've ever had. Figi and Smart Water have nothing on it, I already miss it.

Then I wandered over to a nearby Thai restaurant called Thai Keflavik, my meal voucher from the airport worked there. I enjoyed a delicious buffet style meal of chicken curry, fried prawns and noodles.

After dinner, I took it easy in my room for half an hour and then went on a little adventure. My hotel is very close to the water, so I strolled over. Though sitting close to the coast was quite cold at night, it was stunning. I climbed over a bunch of rocks and sat on a ledge where I watched the sunset for about half an hour, indulging myself in tons of pictures and panoramas. Sitting near the water and watching the Icelandic sunset made me appreciate this whole experience. Beautiful things sometimes come in ugly packages, I truly believe everything happens for a reason. I enjoyed a great meal, watched a beautiful sunset, made some wonderful temporary friends, and can now say I've truly been to Iceland for more than just a layover. Plus, it helped me adjust more slowly to the time difference.

                                                                          ❁ Life is beautiful, cheers friends ❁

Adventure is out there.