Harry Potter in Reykjavik?
Residual memories of a midnight premier screening with my children come back to haunt me. This occurs when I rest on a bench or cushion my head on the backrest of a bus, or plump my pillow on a plane. I should have been sleeping the night before leaving, but no, I joined Harry Potter’s latest big screen adventure in the earliest morning hours before a 25 hour sojourn across the northern hemisphere. I was not too tired, however, to become concerned with flight delays and thunderstorms which might impact my Icelandic arrival plans.
Words of wisdom heard in the past now have greater meaning; "don’t schedule plane connections too close together.”
In San Francisco, our flight crew seated us, allowed us to sit for two hours on the tarmac, before the pilot carefully whispered to us, "due to mechanical problems, you all must disembark for a while…” Luckily a seasoned representative found those of us with international connections and placed us on alternative flights to reach New York. That astute person, did not, however, predict the thunderstorms that would keep our 757 circling JFK airport just outside of my connection to Iceland. "Is it possible to let me get off quickly, Ms. Stewardess, so that I can make my very tight connection??” "I’ll see if I can find someone closer to the exit to trade with you, but there are no guarantees.” Three minutes later, that efficient woman appeared with a pleasant older gentleman, who agreed to take my far away seat. "Sometimes, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, and I offered this hungry passenger a meal”, she explained. An additional drawback to a holding pattern due to weather is that planes build up and face a traffic jam coming in to land. Hopefully, they would also face a backup going out, I selfishly reasoned. Scurrying off ASAP, at 8:25 to find the Air Iceland terminal for my 8:30 flight, I was thankful the Chico airport checked my bags through to Reykjavik. The original itinerary called for four hours in JFK, not 10 minutes. The plane had just closed its doors when I waved my passport and ticket at the attendants. With shocked looks they checked and recorded baggage numbers and let me run down the corridor to my seat. It was a smooth flight. I do want to thank my husband for reminding me to always carry a toothbrush in my carry-on bags. My luggage did not make it on as I did, so I would not see it until the next day. In the interim, I was able to enjoy quite a bit of this far northern city of thermal energy. It is very walkable, and with significant landmarks atop the hills, was difficult to get lost.
A neighbor on one of the flights was reading the same book as the film we had seen, and on a bus today I met a woman who worked in New York for Warner Brothers and wondered how well received the opening night was. She was pleasantly surprised at my report of three sold out shows. By that time, my face no longer carried a look of exhaustion, so there was no sign that I now had wished I had foregone my decision to visit Hogwarts before my flight instead of going for a good night’s rest.