Iceland Day 1 ¾ - The Nearly Departed

I don't enjoy flying. It's not something I like doing. I don't like small spaces, and they quite often don't get smaller than the seats on airplanes. I always have this moment of anxiety right as the plane gets ready to take off, but by the time its in the air I'm over it. After all, what can I do about it at that point? The flight from Charlotte to JFK in New York was no different. That fear spiked as the engines revved up, and subsided while we were still gaining altitude. By the time the plane took off from JFK to fly to Reykjavik, worrying about being trapped, crashing, or my head suddenly exploding under unnatural pressures was the last thing on my mind. I just wanted to be done with it. The five hours between landing at JFK and taking off again had been less than enjoyable.

Things at JFK started out OK but all it took was one bit of bad luck to turn it all sour. That bit of bad luck was getting a sandwich that had apparently gone bad and given me a relatively mild case of food poisoning. Mild or not it didn't change that fact that I spent two hours sweating like I had run a marathon and hiding out in a bathroom stall for most of that time. I was worried that the trip was already in jeopardy. If I couldn't even leave the bathroom, I definitely couldn't spend a little over 5 hours on a plane, and the thought of having to stay in New York or figure out a way to get home wasn't making me feel any better. And then almost as suddenly as it had hit me I quickly began to feel better. Where I had been tired from lack of sleep before, I was tired and weak from sleep and the toll fighting off being sick. By the time I was on the plane, I was looking forward to taking off and getting away from JFK and that moment of panic I usually got seemed counterproductive even to my irrational subconscious. That little creature, panic, that occasionally gnaws at the walls of the delicate little bubble it lives in couldn't be bothered to stir.

That's not to say the flight to Reykjavik was great. The flight was completely full and I had thought I had gotten lucky when I scored the aisle seat, but that was a short lived win. It turned out the lady in the middle seat didn't fit and my aisle seat was the only one on that part of the plane where the arms raised up to allow for more room. I was shuffled into the very tight squeeze of the middle seat made tighter by the lady next to me. For the next 5 hours my back and ass hurt in shifts as I sat arms crossed like I was in a coffin and I never managed to doze off for more than 15 minutes. By the time we landed I had been awake for almost 36 hours, hadn't eaten since that tainted turkey sandwich, and all I wanted was to sleep.

Luckily things have gotten better since arriving in Iceland. Although I struggled to stay awake on the bus ride from the airport to the apartment where I'm staying it was a beautiful ride as the sun rose up over the jagged, snow covered volcanic hills. The weather was brisk and in the mid 20's and everything had a fresh coat of ice and snow on it from the last several days. It was clear today but the next few days could bring more snow here in Reykjavik, making it a little more wintery than I had anticipated, but not necessarily a bad thing. I fought the urge to just bury myself in covers and sleep all day, but couldn't avoid a nap of some sort. After a few hours sleep I got up and took a walk up and down the main street. Being the first clear day in a while and Saturday to boot, the streets were busy with people walking the sidewalks, deftly navigating the patches of ice and snow. I really wasn't up for much so I took the time to check out the nearby grocery store, Bonus, to grab some stuff to eat back at the room. I had expected to be able to identify more than I was able to, which I blame on the fact that Bonus is Iceland's ultra-budge grocery store, like Aldi's or Sav-A-Lot, where packaging is plain, signage is sparse, and the few pictures only gaped so much of the language barrier. I ended up with stuff for sandwiches with a really tasty lunch meat made of smoked leg of lamb called Hangiálegg and Icelandic yogurt-like food called skyr. Skyr is delicious. It's a little more tart than yogurt, with a slightly cheesy taste to it, but not as acidic as Greek yogurt. I may live off of skyr while I'm here.

Today, as long and confusing a day as it's been, has little bearing on my trip. Things could have gone bad, but they didn't. I knew the trip wasn't going to be the greatest simply because I knew I was going to be tired and the fact that I already dislike flying and now that it's out of the way I can concentrate on being on vacation. For now I'm just going to relax and try to get a good night sleep and start exploring in earnest tomorrow. I don't have anything I have to do, and I don't have anywhere I have to be, so I can take it easy and just enjoy my time here. So right now I'm going to eat some more skyr and watch some handball game that's a cross between soccer and basketball in a language I don't understand.