We went to bed early because we had to wake up at 4 am to go
to the airport. We packed everything before going to bed to be as ready as
possible in the morning. We drove 54 minutes to the airport and when we got
there reality hit me like at no other time in my life.
I am amazed by what four days in Iceland can do to you. You
breathe with a different rhythm. You become one with nature. You forget about
how crazy real life is. You forget there are people around. Then you arrived at
the airport and the moment you set foot in the property you have to start
running and figuring things out. You must snap back to reality with no warning.
We were dropping off the car and the bus to the terminal arrived. My friend
asked the driver to wait for me while I dropped off the keys. The bus comes
every ten minutes, but I was very tight on time. Keflavík is not a very big
airport. It is rather small, but still you don’t expect to see it completely
full of people at 5:30 am. You couldn’t move or walk anywhere without hitting somebody
with one of your bags or saying “excuse me.” And of course you have to find
your way. You check in yourself and then have to drop off your bags. But they
have a line for “odd size” bags, meaning backpacks, and another one for regular
suitcases. The lines were ridiculously long. We were in one for about 15
minutes when I decided to ask one of the ladies from the airline if I was in
the right place. She told me that I had to go to the “odd bags” line and that I
could drop off both of my suitcases there. That was not the case. After I
dropped off my backpack, I had to go stand in the other line again. I wasn’t
going to make it to my flight. Another lady told us that the “self-drop off”
was faster, so we went there, but it wasn’t faster. Imagine a bunch of tourists trying to figure
out how to scan their bags… In desperation, I asked another lady if there was
anything I could do, and she was kind enough to take me to the front of the
line.
I wouldn’t normally do that, but I have a pretty tight
travel schedule for the next few days and couldn’t miss my flight.
I abandoned my friend, but her flight was later. I said
goodbye really quickly and headed to security. It was very interesting to see
this airport’s operation. You scan your boarding pass yourself to get to the
security line at a gate, metro-like. Then a machine distributes trays where you
put your things (brilliant idea!). You don’t have to deal with getting four
trays with two hands and delaying everybody, thus, there were no big lines in
security (everybody was trying to scan their luggage instead). I was able to
run to a restaurant and get something to eat (I had a three hour flight ahead),
and walked across the entire airport to get to my gate. I made it just in time.
I slept the entire flight. I was exhausted. I arrived in
Geneva, got my luggage and headed straight to the train station. I had to run
to catch my train (more running!), but I did. I think the speaker of that train
didn’t work, because at the first stop a guy started knocking on the window of
our car, yelling in French (which most of the passengers didn’t speak) that we
needed to get out of that train and go to track six. And of course, I had to
run there to. But I made it safe and sound to my destination.
Thank you for reading my blog and following me on my
travels. I hope that you have found it entertaining and perhaps educational
too. Until the next trip!
Takk Ísland!
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