The beginning of our trip was indicative, I think, of how this entire trip is going to go. Our flight didn't depart until 19:45 on December 26 so we had the entire day to pack and tie up lose ends before our departure. Despite that fact, we still found ourselves rushing out the door when the time came to leave. We arrived at Dulles a little less than two hours before our scheduled departure. Some had suggested we get there even earlier, but we desided to be brave and chance it. When we arrived at the customs checkpoint we discovered that IcelandAir does not participate in whatever systems allows passengers to pass through with an electronic ticket, which got me extremely disgruntled. We had to trudge all the way back to the main entrance, to the Iceland Air desk to obtain physical copies of our boarding pass. Upon doing so, we were informed that Iceland Air intentionally does this so that employees can check everyone's passports. That's all well and good, but we should have been notified when we checked-in online earlier in the day. Even with this delay and me getting so thoroughly groped by TSA that I demanded she buy me dinner, we were at our gate with nearly an hour and a half to spare.
We were pretty hungry and wanted to be full and sleepy for our overnight flight to Iceland, so we walked through the terminal until we found a cafe. Alex has been a strong opponent of tapas (he is philosophically opposed to small portions), but a Tapas restaurant was one of the only places around and they had wine, so he reluctantly agreed. I was thrilled. I never get to eat tapas! What can I say? The food was quite good. Alex had two glass of red wine. I had a champagne flight and a red wine flight (equivalent to two glasses of wine for me). To eat, we had pork tacos, some smoked salmon dish, a meat/cheese plate and some sort of salad dish with a fresh mozzarella type cheese and tomatoes (Burata...we will try and update with a better description of the last item). The thing that stood out most (apart from the fact that food was incredible and we were still at Dulles) was the large caper berries. They were basically giant delicious capers. Neither of us had seen these before.
As we were finishing our drinks, we realized that we only had a few minutes before the plane was scheduled to begin boarding. Because the terminals are long and sparse, we were about a seven minute walk from our gate and I wanted to pick up some Benedryl (which I was hoping to combine with the wine so that I would pass out on the plane). So again, we had gone from having plenty of time to suddenly rushing. We arrived at the gate with plenty of time to spare. As is often the case, the plane was late to begin boarding. Usually I like to get on the plane last so that I can stand for as long as possible before long stretches of sitting, but we wanted to board early to ensure overhead space for our bags. We were successful in this mission, though there was plenty of luggage space for all, and before we knew it we were underway.
The flight was uneventful. My Benedryl/wine cocktail worked pretty well as I was able to rest as well as could be expected on the flight. Alex also seemed to get a decent amount of sleep, though he shifted around quite a lot. I'm sure I did as well. No matter what you do, sleeping on a plane is not comfortable.
In what seemed like only moments, the plane was landing on time in Iceland. Unfortuantely, we had less than an hour before our connection to Paris. Alex was starving and I had to go to the bathroom, so we decided to divide and conquer. After several tries, I found a bathroom tucked away in a corner with no line. I met up with Alex to find a smoked salmon omelet and cappuccino. With about five minutes before boarding time, Alex and I devoured our breakfast and head off for the gate. Alex insisted that we take our time, but I demaned we be on time. After all the ticket said "Plane will board no later than 7:10 AM" and it was 7:10 AM. Of course the plane was delayed half an hour which was just enough time for Alex to say "I told you so"....a lot....
I would say I've learned my lesson, but I really haven't...more on that in a later post...
Standing in line, we met two other couples traveling to Europe from the U.S. One older couple, both teachers, were from Colorado. They planned to spend the week exploring Paris. The other couple was about our age and were taking a two week trek around Europe. their itinerary was similar to ours except they were visiting different countries (France, Switzerland and Germany). It is also worth noting that they are from Williamsburg, Virginia and are planning to move to the D.C. area. We didn't exchange information, but as I write this I realize that we probably should have. We were all incredibly groggy both from the overnight flight and our various strategies for trying to sleep.
The connection flight from Iceland to Paris was uneventful. Both Alex and I got about an hour and a half of sleep, which was much needed. We arrived in Paris with more energy than I was expecting. This was a good thing because Charles D'Galle airport is gross, smelly and a labyrinth. We needed to get cash, a ticket for the RER train to Paris, find a bathroom and, most importantly, find the train platform. All of these tasks proved challenging. When we finally found a bathroom it cost .70 euro to use it and I could smell from 200 feet away. I have used holes in the ground on camping trips that smelled better and were cleaner. I decided to hold it until we got to the flat.
I'll post some pictures now and follow up on our adventures after we arrived in Paris in another post. This one has already gotten too long!
Ciao!
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