Iceland – We leave the Land of Fire & Ice for Home Day16

Last night was a nightmare. I was up all night and of course got no sleep. I’m sure Bruce didn’t sleep much either with me up and down and retching all night. (We had no idea what caused the ‘intestinal distress’ as we’d both eaten the exact same food – from the same plate – the night before! I know the wine tasted off … was that it? No idea!)

Bruce went down and had his ‘final big breakfast’ while I (of course) did not. I didn’t want to put any food in my stomach that could immediately be hurled back out again shortly.

We were out the door by 7:50 AM and headed off to fill up the car with gas in preparation to return it to the rental agency. From there we found a pharmacy that opened at 8:00 a.m. Bruce was able to score some Immodium which I gulped down quickly. Two tablets to start then more as needed. (A LOT more!)

We got to the airport to return the car which went well. At first there was a lot of discussion about a stone chip in the windshield, but they quickly figured out that we had taken out the max insurance so all was good.

Keflavik Airport

Once we were in the terminal, I turned in my VAT refund papers since I had spent over 6,000 ISK. That went smoothly, they didn’t even look at it! As a side note, they said the refund could take months, but I received my refund in only 2 weeks!

After that it was sitting around waiting for the plane. We boarded on time and were off to our (not) favourite airport – Chicago O’Hare. We were happy that we only had a 2 hour layover this time as opposed to the 6 hour layover on our way out. We should not have been happy, we should have been wary of the gods – who apparently don’t just stay/work in Iceland!

Chicago O’Hare Airport

Thunderstorms create delays in Chicago

Once we landed, we found out that we were required to go through customs and immigration even though we were booked on a connecting flight to Canada. We didn’t have to do this on our way to Iceland, but whatever.

Unfortunately we had to claim our baggage first. So down to the bowels of the airport, walking for what seemed like miles, to the baggage claim where we waited for our luggage. And waited. And waited. And waited. With no explanation. After about 2 hours a random passenger got the scuttlebutt. Apparently there was some kind of storm out on the tarmac (lightening?) and the ramp workers weren’t allowed to be out there.

So there went our 2 hour layover. It took THREE hours to get our luggage, then longer to go through customs. Of course the whole time I was feeling like a zombie with my intestinal issues still lingering!

We got through customs, which, by the way was a questionable exercise as they didn’t even look at anything or actually DO anything, they just passed us through.

Toronto Pearson Airport

Now however, we have to find out how we’re going to get home as our connecting flight left over an hour ago. Off to the Air Canada counter where they found us a flight to Toronto that night. Unfortunately the only connection to Victoria and home was THE NEXT MORNING. At least it was a direct flight.

That meant that after being up all nigh hurling, a 6 hour flight to Chicago, 3 hours in the bowels of O’hare, another couple of hours waiting for the flight to Toronto, then a 1 1/2 hour flight to Toronto then – oh joy –  we had a 6 hour wait in the Toronto airport for the final flight in the morning. The god’s were killing themselves laughing over this one, but they weren’t done with us yet!

Who doesn’t love ‘sleeping’ in the airport? Chicago is bad, but in this aspect Toronto was no better. Hardly any seats or places to relax if you’re waiting overnight. We found a couple of chairs in a fairly out-of-the-way place and settled in to wait it out.

We got to the gate the next morning (I was feeling still like crap!), boarded the plane and waited. And waited. And waited! What the hell!

After about an hour wait there was an announcement that there was a problem with Air Canada’s ‘IT’ (computer) system and they had to get it fixed before they could take off. How long? They couldn’t say. So we waited and waited some more. After about an 1 1/2 hours they offered to allow anyone wanting to get off the plane the opportunity to go and wait in the terminal. We opted to stay on the plane as we were thinking that since this was an all-encompassing IT problem, no Air Canada flights were leaving Toronto, and the terminal would likely be absolutely jammed.

Unfortunately about 15 minutes later they announced that everyone had to deplane. Drat. So off we trooped with all our carry-on stuff. Got into the terminal, and yes, it was absolutely NUTS with loads of people milling about, trying to get food and find a place to sit! We ended up sitting on the floor it was so crowded. Then, 30 minutes later they said the problem was fixed and we could now get BACK on the plane! So it took probably another 1/2 hour to get us all back on board. Another 30 minutes or so to get things under way and finally we were off, for another 5 1/2 hour flight.

Home in Victoria

We arrived in Victoria about 15 hours after our original arrival time. We were in transit for a total of 38 hours! The gods had their last laugh, maybe we should have been a little less cocky.

Talk about exhausted! We tried to stay awake as long as we could to help with the jet lag but we were both falling asleep on our recliners by about 7:30 so we finally decided to just go to bed. Even a week later we were both still feeling jet-lagged. Brain fog was rampant as well as general tiredness.

So, while Iceland was certainly an adventure and I’m glad (sort of) that we went, would I go again? That’s a big NO. It is just too far, the weather too unpredictable, everything is way too expensive, the Viking gods incredibly capricious and honestly, there’s so many beautiful things right in our own backyard.

Thus ends our Iceland Saga.