Iceland is about as far from Melbourne as you can get.
Today/yesterday/a week last Tuesday started early, 5AM early. After getting the bags into the car we headed off to the airport. I was supposed to fly into Melbourne today, but the flight to Singapore had been bumped up by 3 hours so I came down a 12hrs earlier. At least it was a good run in to the airport, until we hit the airport exit. Took 15min to crawl the last 1km to the terminal.
We quickly checked in and head to the Qantas lounge – a perk of flying with Dad. Eggs for breakfast and a quick top up on my phone battery.
The flight to Singapore was uneventful, although dad managed to sit behind someone who put their seat all the way back as soon as they could, almost taking out his laptop screen in the process. He typed for a while with the screen almost closed before giving up and reading on his tablet.
In Singapore dad had booked a room in the transit hotel, he only got a boot off his fractured ankle a couple of days before and he needed to make sure it didn’t swell up too much. 6hrs of sleep was good. Really good.
The next flight was on Finnair. Not a huge A380, but an A340. The fight was incredibly smooth. I slept some of the way, but only realised when I woke up listening to an audio book (Speaker For The Dead) and someone had died and I had no idea what was going on. I went back to music after that.
We got into Helsinki fairly early, and it wasn’t yet busy. I went through an automatics biometric passport station, worked better (or worse, depending on your view) than the Australians ones in Melbourne I tried after India. Despite losing some weight, and growing a beard it decided I was who I was and let me in. Easiest passport control ever.
Despite being early, I think it was around 7AM local time, it wasn’t too early for a drink. A lot of travellers at the cafe were getting into some wine, or something stronger. Free wifi was fantastic. Better than Changi, and Changi Airport has good free wifi. I swapped out my SIM for the local prepaid one, activated unlimited data and spent 30min guessing APN settings.
The next hop to Copenhagen was fairly quick. A friendly Welsh by way of Scandinavia in our row told us we could easily get into the city from the airport for a short visit. After landing we walked through to the train station. Why doesn’t Melbourne Airport have a train yet?!
While we ate lunch at a cafe in Central station I realised no one had looked at my passport since entering Finland. I’d just taken an international flight as if it was Canberra to Sydney. I also realised that the only country this trip that actually used the Euro was Finland. Good thing magic (prepaid) credit cards seem to work most places, including cafes in Copenhagen train stations.
After eating we did a quick lap of the block before getting back on the train to the airport.
A quick swipe of a boarding pass and we were on the plane to Iceland. 4th and final flight today, or was it tomorrow.
I’ve decided I like the Icelandic, or at least their marketing department. They offered a roast beef sandwich sans bread on the flight, they also suggest a good way to pass the time with yogurt.
If you’re bored during your flight we recommend eating your yoghurt with a fork. That will take up some of your time.
We landed at Keflavik Airport which we found out was not Reykjavik Airport (which is much smaller and only does domestic travel). Passed through immigration control – a sliding door – and got our bags. While we waited for the bags I asked Google Maps to give me directions to the hotel, which it kindly cached. Customs was another sliding door, but this one was just left open. The car rental place confirmed for us again that this was not Reykjavik Airport, our booking was made for that airport, but they had a car a we were quickly on our way. A brand new Polo, 700km on the odometer.
After doing a couple of laps for the car park looking for an exit we got onto the main highway heading to Reykjavik. The national speed limit is only 90. Clearly the locals don’t seem to phased by this, and there was a fairly steady steam of traffic going past me. There were a couple of police cars, and I was happy to do an indicated 90kph (later confirmed to be 86 by ZP Dashboard Pro) on the WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD. I don’t care what anyone says, it is just wrong.
Between my phone and dad’s tablet we made it to the hotel. Checked in. Dropped bags. Found some soup in the bar for a very quick dinner and went straight to bed. At 4am, or 6PM local time. I have no idea what day it was.