Iceland Day 1 + 2
Where to start... As far as I can remember, since I started with photography I’ve wanted to visit Iceland.
Yeah, even while I still was in Canada.
So when, private circumstances in the middle of January left me some leftover money, I called my friend Marco and asked him to be my road-trip partner at the end of February.
We booked everything within two days of me calling him, so you could say it was a little last minute/over-active idea, but that's what usually works best for me.
The plan was to have 9 full days on the island plus 1 day going there and 1 day going back, a rental 4x4, and Airbnb's for every night.
So far so good.
Monday Morning: 26th of February:
I wake up to my alarm 8am, the flight is at about 1pm. Marco's still sleeping. I check my phone.
2 Emails.
ICELANDAIR.
Dear Customer, we are sorry to announce that your flight has been delayed 6 hours.
Great. I don’t really think you need this line? It’s funnier if you just say, “Great.”
I call the rental company to tell them we'll be there about 6 hours later. The friendly man on the other side of the phone tells me “That's not a problem!” - but stops in the middle of the sentence.
"I'm sorry," he says, "by the time of your arrival our location will be closed until 5am the next day."
Great.
What do you do you’re arriving at 9pm at an airport 50 minutes away from downtown, and can’t pick up your car until 5am the next day.
I make calls, check the web, and book the airport hotel for no less than 200€.
Great. Maybe insert another “Great.” Here? Just to kind of continue making it funny about how things are going wrong.
Leaving my place a little later than expected we arrive at the Munich airport at about 5pm, approximately an hour and 45 Minutes before takeoff. We look at the departures timetable –
Once, twice. Checking a third time my pocket rings. I check my phone.
2 Emails.
ICELANDAIR.
Dear Customer, we are sorry to announce that your flight has been canceled until the next day regular time due to bad weather.
Great.
I'm not sure if we can figure this out anymore. After a very nice conversation with the woman from the Airport hotel in Kevlavik our stay was canceled at no charge. Our first Airbnb unfortunately was not.
After about an hour at the Munich airport we knew we'd get a stay at the Airport Hotel with Dinner and Breakfast free of charge and would be compensated for the missing day. So much, it almost covered our flights there.
Great!
We are back at our starting high. :)
The night was spent well, eating a lot of food, drinking beers and playing football on the hotel hallway.
Tuesday Morning: 27th of February
The breakfast was overkill and really good. What a start to the day. On our first try catching the Airport bus it was so packed we just got a taxi.
Check in, security and boarding all went top notch and the flight crew was, as always, nice.
So far I've only been in Kevflavik Airport for transfers. Seeing it in total I have to say: It is really cute. haha.
It's tiny compared to almost every airport I've been to, but it’s very modern and organized. We pick up our rental car, where we get a free upgrade with the following words of the rental representative: "We'll give you a free upgrade. It's a seven seater, so you can go and pick up 5 Icelandic Chicks."
Thanks very much my friend, we'll try.
(Disclaimer: We didn't pick up Chicks in Iceland, nor was that the reason for our travels :D )
We went to Subway where we had our first culture shock. No, it was not that Icelanders put something weird on their sandwiches, even though they had an interesting choice of sauces. I'm talking about 12€ for a sandwich. Not a meal. Not for the both of us. One foot long sandwich.
1€ -> 1 inch.
(Our first near-death experience, because we almost had a heart attack.)
(It wouldn't be our last one.)
The rest of the day was spent driving in the dark to our first Airbnb. Which was 15km down a gravel road in the dark at 11pm. Not really how or where you want your first day to end.
The place was really nice though, new, very clean and comfy. We went pretty much straight to sleep because Sunrise was calling.
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