Travel day commences with a long drive to Newark, yet there was no traffic so I arrived super early and could hang out in the priority pass lounge before heading through security to board my slightly delayed Wow Airlines flight to Reykjavik. The low fare airline touts their low fares to Europe and they are low because they charge for every thing separately. Checked bag, carry on bags, seats, even water! They gave us absolutely nothing on the flight for free. The flight was good though and about an hour before we landed, we were greeted with Aurora outside the plane window for about ten minutes! So beautiful as usual and dancing through the sky. Of course my camera was above and I had a window seat, so I just sat back and enjoyed the view.
It started really snowing a few days ago in Iceland...before that there was still grass and mud everywhere. When we landed, all I could see was snow and wind. I was meeting Aaron and Andy at the airport and they arrived about twenty minutes before me so they got their bags and went to rent our car. My bag however decided not to come out or even arrive and so I was left dealing with incompetent people who had no idea where my bag was! (Luckily, my mom is terrific and after I bought a SIM card at the Dunkin' Donuts!! I was able to text her to call the American wow offices and figure out what went wrong.) They were much more helpful, or so we thought and said that my bag was still in Newark. However, less than five minutes later, the airport here called me and said they have my bag! Seriously?! But they road was closed and they couldn't deliver it to me today and tomorrow is a weekend and they do not deliver on weekends unless wow authorizes it. I'm jumping ahead of myself... when we got the rental car, there was a sever warning for a hurricane, as they call a blizzard with gale force winds, forecasted for today starting at 10 am and most roads would be closed. Fun! We got out of the airport as quickly as we could and were on the road by 6.
Well, the storm started early and as soon as we left the airport it was dark, whiteout conditions and very windy. We pushed through, stopping when we couldn't see anything and not enjoying the white knuckle, stressful driving. After about four hours of this, we made it to Vik, where we quickly stopped, filled up and bought snacks. We also discovered that the road was now closed from the airport to where we just arrived to and so we are very lucky that we made it through. We experienced a huge bus off the road, a flipped car and more cops than I have ever seen here in Iceland.
We decided to continue on and try to stay ahead of the storm a bit, though its super windy, snowy, and icy. Back to the duffel saga. I asked mom to call wow back and see if they could authorize them to send my bag out tomorrow to vik where we are staying tomorrow night only. They said they would get it out after the road opens; however I'm not in vik tonight. We are staying close to the ice lagoon and when mom told them this, they said it was too far for them to deliver. Wow is all I can say! I bought some socks, gloves, hat, the only pair of underwear I could find, a hot pink pair that says Iceland on the butt, and a toothbrush. Who knows what will happen with my duffel but for now, I will pick it up at the airport when we get back there on Sunday. What a pita! You would think that a direct flight from one location to another, baggage would not be lost!
I am currently sitting in the backseat of the car while Aaron drives through the storm. It will probably be my turn soon. Tomorrow we are doing what we came here for, a private ice cave hike! And my snow boots are in my duffel! Whoopie! Forecast is calling for 50-60 meter per second winds today... equates to over 100 mph sustained winds. Gotta love Iceland.We finally made it to our hotel for the evening after 9 hours of driving in the blizzard! If you follow me on instagram, I put a story up! @Photographybyrs
