On August 13th, I woke up at 4 am to make my 7:10 am flight to Nashville. My itinerary had me going from Detroit to Nashville to Boston to Reykjavik (when it comes to using frequent flier miles/traveling for free, I suppose beggars can't be choosers).
I met up with my good buddy (and fellow comic) Keith Lenart in Boston.
And I also ran into this guy.
Perhaps more awesome than hearing my favorite accents (Boston), I got a free soup (normally sold at the low, low airport price of $5.20) when I bought a salad. The woman who served me called me "honey," and remarked "no chahge" as she handed me my soup. Score.
Keith and I scored again when we got an exit row with so much room that I could pretty much lie down in my seat.
Wow Airways is like the Spirit Airlines of Iceland, so there were no free drinks (not even water). So instead, I slapped on my sleep mask and snoozed nearly the entire flight.
The flight to Iceland was quick (not even five hours) as was our trip through customs. We collected our bags, picked up our rental car, and found our way to Reykjavik.
But, first I perused the airport's food court. I was pleased to find this:
Since it was 7 am on a Sunday, nothing was open. So, we pulled over in a mall parking lot and caught up on some sleep. Who knew that a Nissan Micra (which was barely big enough to fit us and our luggage) could make for such comfortable sleeping? 3 hour nap = happy birthday to me!
After our nap, we stopped at the grocery store (where I found vegan yogurt, a pleasant surprise), and we set out for our first destination: Staðarflöt.
As we soon discovered, the street signs in Iceland are teeny tiny. Not only are they printed in seemingly 12-point font, but they are quite low to the ground as well.
I had no idea one could get lost in a country with a population of less than 400,000, but that's exactly what we did. In fact, we got so lost, and the area was so desolate that we had to drive half an hour just to ask for directions. Sadly, those directions ended up being incorrect, and we had to drive another half an hour to ask for directions again.
Finally, we reached our destination, the North Star Hotel. The hotel was really isolated (as is most of Iceland), but the lobby was pretty and the beds were comfortable. So comfortable, in fact, that Keith and I slept another 12 hours. I suppose we needed it, given our nearly 30 hours of straight travel the previous day.
I didn't formally celebrate my birthday, but exploring new places was the perfect way to mark another trip around the earth!
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