– Reykjanesbær, Iceland to Denton, Texas –
I’m writing this one a few days late, so I can’t call it yesterday, because that just wouldn’t be true. I’d like to blame the jet lag, if that’s all right with everyone else. Yes. Jet lag made me postpone this one. I promise you didn’t miss a day that was too terribly exciting, although it was very long.
We got up in Iceland at 5am at our adorable little hotel just outside the airport area and had our showers almost immediately after getting out of bed. We dressed and packed pretty quickly, and we had everything in the car and were on the road, trying to stuff down our last skyr by 6am. I wasn’t terribly successful. It is very hard to get down breakfast that early in the morning, especially when you are in a rush. Still, I made a valiant effort, and I enjoyed what I could of my skyr and all of my juice. Mark was fine. He can face food at any time of say. Ripley can too. I’m the family wimp.
We dropped off our rental car and took a little shuttle around to the other side of the airport without any incident. I was freezing, since all we’d left out was my coat (no scarf or gloves), but since it was the last time I’d need it, it only made sense. I still cuddled Mark like my personal heating pad in the shuttle van. I’m not cut out for cold climates. It’s Icelandic “summer,” remember?
The Iceland airport is pretty small, which makes sense, although the walk to the gates from security is quite long. I bet if I knew more about it, I could see influences of a former military installation in its construction, but since I’m not too familiar with that sort of thing, the reason for the design escapes me. I know why they force you to walk through all of those duty free shops, though. You know, I don’t think I’ve ever purchased anything from any of those? The only thing I ever buy at the airport is food and drink, and even then I cringe at needing to do so. It’s all so ridiculously over-priced. Actually, maybe I bought a book once. I am not sure that counts, though.
Our plane took off on time, for the most part. They did have to de-ice the wings, which made me feel a little weird, but not too bad. Less than an hour into our flight (which left at around 8:30am, by the way), we were served breakfast salads. I guess it was meant to be breakfast. I’m not entirely sure. The salad was the vegetarian option, obviously, but the meat option looked like a ham and cheese hot pocket, so I am still unclear on what meal they were going for. We were landing in JFK in the morning, and we left Iceland in the morning, but it was a 6.5 hour flight, so they probably weren’t sure, either.
Our flight was pretty uneventful. I did finish my book, but I was a little disappointed in the way it ended. It doesn’t look like I mentioned it in the post about my flight to Iceland, but I was reading Lexicon, by Max Barry. It was a decent book, and without spoiling it, it made a pretty sharp turn towards the middle, but the end was a bit of a let down. I’ve liked some of his other books a lot better. I still haven’t read Machine Man, but I did get it for Christmas (just like Lexicon), so I will get there soon enough. If you suddenly decide to read a Max Barry book because I’ve mentioned him here, try Jennifer Government first. You’ll thank me later.
We landed at JFK in good time, but we were 8 hours early for our next flight. Funny thing about JFK… they won’t let you check a bag for a flight until 6 hours before the flight leaves. We spent an hour getting through customs and back through security, and then we still had to tool around trying to figure out what to do with our checked luggage, because the airport staff really could not have cared less that we needed assistance. I bet we asked 15 people. JFK is a terrible airport. I’ve only been treated worse in Sydney. The people working in JFK were quite rude, as well. It’s no wonder I hear people frequently say terrible things about traveling to New York. It’s funny how kind everyone was in Iceland by comparison, and it even makes DFW look like a beacon of friendly helpfulness. I hope I never need to go back there. What a bunch of uppity jerks.
In any event, we needed to spend 6 more hours at the airport before boarding our flight, so we went out and got some pizza and played on our phones. We talked about debugging some code Mark was working on, and finally fixed it. Curse you, floating point decimal values! I guess it gave us something to do, though. I tried to read the book I had on my iPad, The Gift of Fear, by Gavin de Becker, but ugh. Do yourself a favor and don’t even google that one. You’ll notice I chose not to link to it. It is basically a self-help book. I had no idea. Buying books because they are recommended to you right before you fly to another country is an impulse decision I plan not to make again in the future.
Before we left JFK, we had giant cupcakes from the airport. Much like other airport food, they were passable, but hardly the best we’d ever had. Still, we were dragging by that point, and sugar is sugar. Mark grabbed a sandwich and some chips right before we left, but I wasn’t too hungry. My pizza was giant. He did make me eat some of his chips, though. I think he does my mother proud, worrying about me not eating enough.
Our flight back to DFW was only 3 hours, which meant we turned up a tiny bit earlier than we’d expected at DFW. I’m still not entirely clear on what happened. Why would JFK print tickets that said the wrong time for the time zone we were landing in? Does New York just like to pretend that other places are only figments of our imagination, and everything runs on their time? But I digress. My parents, being the early birds that they are, were already waiting at the airport, so we didn’t run into any trouble there.
We were home by 10pm, and Ripley was practically ecstatic. I think she might’ve missed us. Even today, she won’t let me leave the room without her. Before the trip, she’d keep sleeping sometimes when I got up, but not now. Now I am not allowed out of her sight, lest I vanish into thin air. She’s suddenly scared of thunderstorms, too, when she wasn’t before. My poor, traumatized child. My parents’ dog, Django, is afraid of thunderstorms, and I’m sure he’s the cause of these new anxieties. We will have them worked back in a few weeks, I hope.
In the meantime, I’m going to have to see if I can find a reasonable skyr substitute here at home. I have to wean myself back off of it. Mark likes siggi’s, which is “Icelandic-style yogurt” that they sell around here, but I’m not sure it’s going to do it for me. Wish me luck. Iceland, I already miss you and your delicious dairy products!
– Trip Total : 9,511 miles –
[ Quickie total tally: 5,490 miles (from the previous days) + 3 miles (Reykjanesbær to KEF by car) + 2,590 miles (KEF to JFK by plane) + 1,391 miles (JFK to DFW by plane) + 37 miles (DFW to home by car)]
