So, I really don’t blame the airline. Even when we had already taken off an hour and a half late, spent an hour and a half in sweltering conditions in the airplane, hours and hours of no food, no quiet place to sleep…ok. So I feel like I am bellyaching and there was a hilarious hippie who seemed to be a professional vagabond who cracked up each and every one of us at some point in the night who reminded us that being in the terminal was not such a bad life. Things could be worse…much worse. Although at the end of the night he contradicted himself by saying he had been in jail several times and in foreign countries and there you at least get cigarettes, food, and tv. Even the poor counter guys who were not Icelandic Express employees, but had already been working a 12 hour shift when 150 beleaguered and weary travelers asked them a barrage of questions that they probably did not know the answers to. We were not offered food, hotel rooms, etc. But this guy, Daniel suggested we all play hide and seek together, all 150 of us. Or that we build forts with the segmented benches at the airport that are 4 chairs wide and have armrests rendering them completely useless for sleeping. Most people just slept on the floor, until…..
You know how when you get to the airport and you are taking your bags out of the car and you hear a robotic voice tell you, “This is an important message. It is necessary to take your laptop of its case at the security checkpoint.” Then about five minutes later she says “May I have your attention please. Each passenger is allowed one carry-on bag and one personal item. No other bags will be allowed.” Then a few minutes later another message tells us all that unticketed passengers will not be allowed past the security checkpoint.” This makes it nearly impossible to sleep although some people obviously have better luck with these types of things.
All in all, it was quite interesting to see how a group of people act when they realize that they are at the mercy of the airline gods and there is nothing that can be done to get the plane off the ground any faster.
Max and I made the best of the situation by taking pictures of the beautiful sunrise over Manhattan and making friends with our fellow detainees. We followed each other all the way to Keflavik and continued our journey with them at Hotel Keilir.
Max and I made the best of the situation by taking pictures of the beautiful sunrise over Manhattan and making friends with our fellow detainees. We followed each other all the way to Keflavik and continued our journey with them at Hotel Keilir.
