Its 8pm in the evening, still a few hours for our Taxi to the airport. The scene is familiar.
Two large suitcases, supposed to be 23kgs each bursting at the seams.
The problem is that they are 25kgs each.
Food is heavy. Very heavy. But stuff like Atta, Rice, Sugar, Tea Leaves etc., etc., etc., is what is going to save us a lot of dough.
The aim is to stay below 25. Airlines in India often allow you 1-1.5kgs extra per suitcase.
Then there is the problem of hand baggage. We have 2 each. Yes. Not one but two. And ready to burst.
So familiar, and not so pleasant. But what gotta go, gotta go.
We arrive at the airport, with the annual food production of a small farm in our suitcases, and proceed to the Airline counter.
The friendly gentleman's eyes pop at 2*25kg.
They pop even more when he looks at our hand baggage
"That is a laptop bag" I say sheepishly
"Is there a laptop in there" He asks.
I mutter a no, while looking here and there. Anywhere but at him. He looks at me sternly, and then says "Yay".
As we fill our immigration forms, he comes again, and tells us we have been selected for random screening by customs. As if we are smuggling the entire GDP of India out.
Well, I don't really care. Customs is a must stop when you carry two cameras and a gazzilion lenses.
The "Random screening" guy is annoyed.
There is another software engineer off to Germany in the same room with us. Not really the Fish they wanted.
"Inko Kyun Le aaye" Translated "Why did you bring them"???
Annoyed he waives us off, and I get the "exit" electronics endorsed on the ticket.
An hour later, we settle down into cattle class, with our fellow buffaloes..err passengers.
Thankfully, its a twin seat, so No grappling for the arm rest with a co passenger.
Flight is not too full, and finally I manage to stuff my Lowepro bag(supposedly for airlines) into the overhead bin.
Its an eight hour flight to Amsterdam. Time is passed watching a German movie about kidnapping and murder and what not.
Nothing to pass time like some old fashioned uncensored gore. The torture on the screen also puts things in perspective. Sure, cattle class is torture, but being kidnapped and beaten is worse, so I am happy.
Thankfully, food is decent(quite surprising) and the dessert is actually delicious. The leg room does suck though, and at the end of eight hours I can barely feel my legs.
At Amsterdam, its a relaxed changeover, and today, we are going to be flying Katla.
Yup. The Airplane is named Katla. Its a volcano which exploded a couple of years back and killed a lot of people. And today, we will fly in Katla. There is a mild jam at the airport, but eventually everyone gives way to an angry volcano
Katla has no food for cattle class, but 2.5 hours of legroom. Yes. The seats are well spaced, and I can finally sleep for an hour or so.
But you know what, when I think about it, it does not matter. The cramped seats, the cattle class, the long flight. We are going to Iceland!! yay.
Goodbye mainland Europe, hello sleep
The flight lands dot on time. Unfortunately its cloudy, and there is no Volcano flyby. I was hoping to see the Holahraun lava field from the air.
On the ground, it takes some time to sink in that we are in Iceland. We are in Iceland!!. The land of Ice and Fire. In real.
The airport is thankfully small, and we first head to duty free.
You see, in Iceland, you can buy a prepaid 5GB data card for around 2000 Krona.
Which is about 1050 INR.
And as expected the duty free shop does not have it.
So I can buy normal sim, fill in data later.
Or I can try the 7-11 after crossing customs.
But its a gamble. The sim is cheaper inside.
So if I get 5GB data card outside, it will be great. If I don't will be paying equivalent of 250 INR for the same sim card as its cheaper before customs(no VAT you see).
We decide to take the gamble, and proceed unmolested with a years GDP through the customs.
As Murphy would have it, there is no 5GB data card. So I buy normal sim.
It has 300MB. I cheap out, buying Vodafone. Should have bought the slightly more expensive Simmin. Then I would have had 3G everywhere instead of 2G I got mostly.
But at that time I did not know that. Hindsight is always a genius you know!
On the IVR system, I dial in the CC number, and soon I am told 1GB = 1000 Krona, 5GB is 2000Krona.
I need about 2GB max, so its 5GB for the card.
The Euro change counter also gives a nice rate(surprise surprise), and we get our required Krona. Now technically, we were to use credit card everywhere. But two places on our itinerary insisted on cash. So we got the small amount for those guys.
Anyways, I digress.
Next step is to call our nice hotel in Keflavik itself, for the free shuttle.
Its a lovely evening in Keflavik.
Weather in Iceland is unexpected.
But I am wondering you expect the weather to be unexpected, so when its unexpected, its what you were expecting, so isn't is expected?
Again I digress. It starts raining as I load the first big suitcase. Second suitcase and its sunny.
As we load ourselves into the van, the winds start howling. Talk about unpredictable weather.
Our stay is at the cheap(5000/night with breakfast) Keflavik Bed and Breakfast
We are expecting a dump. Seriously. The cheapest hotel in town, and with breakfast for 64 Euros?
It turns out to be "luxury".
Big rooms, huge bed, sofa, TV and a big Bathroom too.
Running hot water is anyways expected. When the country sits on a huge bigass pile of Magma, hot water literally flows out of every nook and cranny.
At this time, every bone in our bodies says Go to sleep. But guess what, it starts raining, and its sunny too, and beautiful rainbows form outside.
Sleep? Nah. Lets go for a jog eh?