I should start by saying this trip to Iceland started as a simple trip to Germany. And that my "trip" to Iceland was really only about 30 hours. But I'll get to that.
A few months ago, I bought tickets to fly to Frankfurt, Germany from Washington, D.C. where I live. I get extremely stir crazy when I have been in D.C. for too long (sometimes too long is two consecutive weeks), so I spontaneously buy plane tickets from time to time. My thought process is always if you buy the tickets, plans will fall into place. Everyone always overthinks plans. Now, I don't have a child or a significant other, and I travel by myself sometimes, so there are not too many strings attached to get in the way of this lifestyle. In fact, I was going to be traveling to and from Germany by myself for this trip and staying with a friend of mine who lives in rural af Germany, about an hour outside of Frankfurt.
So mistake number one, I was flying WOW Air. If you have not heard of WOW Air, first of all consider yourself lucky. They are a budget airline based in Iceland with insanely cheap flights. If you’ve ever seen the beautiful flight attendants decked out in purple from HEAD to TOE, like no joke there is not one item on their body that isn’t purple, then these are WOW Air flight attendants. This ticket was significantly cheaper than all of the other options, which is why I decided to choose it. Of course with all of the additional costs about to come my way, the ticket would cost me just as much as it would have to select a normal airline, but I had no way of knowing that yet.
While standing in line in the Keflavík Airport in Iceland, where I had a layover as is required for all WOW Air flights, I struck up a conversation with the lady in front of me. She told me that she had misspelled her name while filling out her travel information and that WOW had required $100 to correct it so that it would match her passport. My jaw was on the floor. Once we had been seated on the plane, I saw several people walk up to a woman just minding her own business, and they asked her to get off the plane. They explained (unsuccessfully, since she did not understand English or Icelandic) that she had arrived at the gate “too late” and they had already given her seat to someone on standyby………. we still had thirty five minutes until takeoff……. This poor woman tried explaining through tears that her kids were waiting for her in Frankfurt and that she couldn’t afford another ticket. She was met with stoic apologies and a complete lack of empathy. It was then that I realized we were dealing with some cold-hearted fellas here.
I arrive in Germany, and all goes well. I had a blast visiting my friend and traveling around via train by myself. I went to Heidelberg and Bad Kreuznach, both ADORABLE towns. Saw some castles. Overall, though, it was an extremely normal trip. Nothing bizarre happened. And it’s not the point of this story.
On my return trip to D.C., I was sitting in the Frankfurt Airport just boppin’ around on my phone, and my flight gets delayed. I didn’t think much of it even though I had a connecting flight. If you’ve read my other post, you know I am not one to stress about things I can’t control. Eventually we board and fly to Keflavík, where I have only thirty minutes to catch my connecting flight and a mile long passport control line to get through. Not only that, but the connecting gate was over one kilometer from the gate we landed at….. over HALF A MILE. The flight crew was very comforting, though, letting us all know that we would be taken care of.
I hustle to my gate, and see no gate attendants, the door to the ramp closed, and the place preparing to roll back. I sat there in shock for about one minute before running to customer service and yelling that I HAD to get on that plane. I had work the next day. I was alone in Iceland. No way could I be stuck here overnight.
Well, I was. That was the last flight to D.C., the agents told me. And they would not be getting me on another flight, because according to WOW Air policy they had given me enough time to get to my connection, even though my first flight was over an hour delayed. Sick.
I sat down next to a guy who seemed to be around my age who also had missed his connection to somewhere in the states. He had been watching me battle it out with the customer service desk while simultaneously speak with WOW Air representatives on the phone. When I had finally resigned to my fate, of being stuck in Iceland overnight all alone, I sat down next time him begging for companionship. I hate being alone. Adam, whose name I didn’t know at the time, was just staring at the ceiling, didn’t even look at me, and asked if I wanted to grab a beer. Of course I did.
On the way to find a drink, we found an additional straggler who had also been en route to D.C. and had been abandoned. We invited him along, and while it was clear he thought we were weird, he tagged along. We go to the front WOW desk once again, but this time we simply asked what there was to do in Iceland for 24 hours. The next flight wasn’t leaving until the next evening. We realized we needed a hotel, and Adam had already purchased a hotel room. So, we took out 10,000 Icelandic Kronas each ($82 USD), hopped in a taxi, and headed to the hotel.
Iceland is bizarre looking. The scattered buildings are very reminiscent of what I would imagine Soviet Union architecture looked like. There are no people. The landscape looks like the moon.
We get to the hotel and while Adam is checking in, Tim and I inquire about booking two more rooms. Even though Adam booked his less than half an hour ago, there are suddenly no available rooms left. Adam offers to let us sleep in his, and I think why not! He is a complete stranger I met less than an hour ago, but honestly what other choice did I have. Like I said, Iceland is barren. We did not pass one person and/or inhabited building on the twenty minutes drive to the hotel. And I hate being alone.
We go up to the room, I set my stuff down in between the two twin beds, and we lament over the fact that we should all be on the way to the U.S. at that time for about fifteen minutes. But, we decided right then and there to make the most of our trip and stop our whining.
We introduce ourselves further since at this point, we will all be having a slumber party. Adam is an enlisted soldier in the U.S. Army who had been stationed in Germany for several years. He was trying to go back to the U.S. on leave to visit his friends. Tim was an American PhD student getting his degree is biomedical engineering and had been in Poland doing research.
We go downstairs to rent a car, but they only have stick shift options. Thank GOD Tim knows how to drive a stick shift!!!! At that moment, we picked up another straggler, a Canadian girl who was also abandoned by the wonderful WOW Air. Danielle is a singer in a rock band who had met a girl on Bumble in Berlin just a few days prior and was so smitten with her it was adorable (UPDATE- they are still together after a full year. True love exists). We ask if she wants to come to dinner with us, and she says why not. We ask the concierge (I use that word lightly; this hotel was basically a Best Western) for a recommendation for authentic Icelandic food, and he pointed us to a restaurant about twenty minutes away right on the coast. We hop in our new rental, which you only need proof of a U.S. driver’s license to rent, and head on our way. This was when we really got to know each other, but I will introduce all of the characters a little later on.
We arrive, and we all immediately get drinks. The place is adorable and right on the water. Most of us order some combination of pasta and seafood based on recommendations by the waitress, and we are the only non-Icelandic people in the entire restaurant. We loved it. The waitress then asked us if we wanted to try an Icelandic delicacy: Hákarl, Icelandic for fermented shark. Sound good? It gets worse. Hákarl is prepared by gutting and beheading a Greenland or sleeper shark and placing it in a shallow hole dug in gravelly sand. The shark is then covered with sand and gravel, and stones are placed on top of the sand in order to press the shark and drain the fluids out of the body. The shark sits like this and ferments for 6–12 weeks. Then, it’s cut into strips and hung to dry for several months, during which time a brown crust develops. Yum. The late, great chef Anthony Bourdain, who is one of my favorite people, described kæstur hákarl as "the single worst, most disgusting and terrible tasting thing" he has ever eaten. It’s even served with a shot of pure vodka to get the horrid taste out of your mouth as quickly as possible.
It wasn’t great.
We hop back in the car (again, thank GOD Tim drove stick) and head back to the hotel, where we get a few more drinks at the hotel bar and then go to bed. I was starting to feel sick, and I was pretty emotionally drained.
The next day, we decide to go on shortened version of a route deemed the Golden Circle, a popular tourist trek in Southwest Iceland which hits several major attractions and takes about two hours. First, we go to the Blue Lagoon, which is about a twenty minute drive from our hotel, and is probably the most famous attraction in Iceland. We were notified that you had to book in advance, but because we had no idea we would be spending ANY time in Iceland, we didn’t do that of course. We hoped we could finesse a way in considering we got stranded. Alas, they would not less us in. The did, however, let us walk to the edge of the lagoon so long as we didn’t touch the water. How gracious. It was well worth it, though, just to see it. It is definitely a sight everyone should see. I will definitely be going back in the future not as a peasant so I can actually go into the water this time.
After the Blue Lagoon, we went to see a geyser called Geysir and the Þingvellir National Park where you can walk across the diverging Eurasian and North Atlantic tectonic plates. We get back to the hotel, and at this point I am beginning to feel deathly ill. We return our car, taxi back to the airport, and head to our gate. I was so nervous about missing our flight AGAIN, tired from barely sleeping the entire trip, AND at this point I had strep throat although I was unaware. The extremely eventful end to my otherwise unremarkable trip culminated in me leaving my entire suitcase on the security conveyor belt and only realizing when I got chosen randomly for what was basically a strip search. The airport employees told me I did not have enough time to go back without missing my flight, and I sure was not going to let that happen. My suitcase is still there to this day. Maybe one day when I go back to this beautiful country, intentionally this time, I’ll be able to grab it.
Moral of the story: always say yes to road trips in a foreign country with strangers. The chances you will have the time of your life and make lifelong new friends are way higher than the chances you will be ax-murdered.
JQ