Semester at Sea | Day One: Minneapolis, Minnesota to Reykjavik, Iceland to London, England

We made it to London! It’s been a long and exciting couple of days as Nathan and I made our way across the ocean. We left my house at 5:30 AM Tuesday in route to Minneapolis. The drive went quickly, we had little trouble in traffic, and security didn’t take long at the airport!

I successfully fit everything I wanted to bring into two suitcases – but it wasn’t easy! As you can see from the photos I had quite a lot of stuff to pack. I tried myself to pack on Sunday and I just couldn’t figure out what to piece of luggage to use as my second checked bag and what to put where to even out the weight, so I called in the master packer: my Grandpa Roy. He helped me get everything packed up and underweight (we hoped) and when we arrived in Minneapolis to check our luggage I was, indeed, underweight so that was great!

Our time at the MPLS airport was fairly short. We found our gate, played a few games, and I edited a few sessions while we waited to eat supper. We ate at a Mexican restaurant at the airport and the food was delicious! It was really the only restaurant in Terminal 2 so it was pretty packed. All was going well until our food came. I ordered chicken tortilla soup and Nathan got steak tacos. When my soup came I wanted to squeeze some lime juice in it so I picked up my lime and no sooner was it in my hands than it was in my bowl, sending soup flying everywhere. Including onto my boyfriend who was wearing a stark white shirt that he loves. So we hadn’t even left the country yet and I made a big mess! He was a great sport and told me it was okay, but I went and bought some Shout wipes anyways to try to help lift the stain. I will let you know if it comes out once we can wash it 😉

Nathan and I both swore we were going to and could sleep on the plane to Iceland; we were so tired on the drive to the cities and sitting at the airport. But once we boarded the plane I wasn’t all that tired and they had TVs for us and since I still had not seen American Sniper, I opted to stay awake and watch it. Nathan tried to sleep but said he hardly slept at all because it was so uncomfortable. I concur: I tried to sleep the last few hours of our flight and it was awful!

As we started to get closer to Iceland my window in the plane started getting frosty and you could tell it was going to be quite chilly! When we started descending I could see the trees bending in the wind and it was raining quite a bit. It reminded me of North Dakota in few months!

We arrived in Iceland around 7 AM their time or 2 AM at home. Both of us had woken up before 5 to get going from home so we had been up nearly 24 hours with only a couple of minutes of sleep here and there so when we got to Iceland we were pretty sleepy! We found a spot at the airport to settle in and we waited. I tried to sleep, but I think they forgot to turn off the AC because it was FREEEZING in the airport! Eventually we gave up on sleep and decided we should get something to eat so we each grabbed a sandwich and a drink and resumed our waiting game.

About four hours before our plane was to arrive, one of the airport employees told us we need to vacate the lower level so they could clean and we would have to wait upstairs until 3 o’clock when they were done. We made our way up the stairs and got our passports stamped (first one – yay!) and then looked around for a new camp. *Tangent: Those of you who know me personally and who have been to my house know about my Lovesac. It’s a giant “beanbag” but instead of beans it’s filled with bits of memory foam! It is my favorite thing and I hardly ever sleep in my bed because the Lovesac is just so comfortable! If you need a new piece of furniture in your house I highly recommend one!* Okay, tangent over. That was relevant information because when we were exploring the second level of the airport we found an area that was filled with Lovesac-esque pieces of furniture and it was lovely! We snatched one (and a footrest) and within a few minutes both of us were sleeping. It was hands down the best nap of my life.

After we took our nap we decided to move back downstairs to our gate so we were in the right place when it was time to board the plane. We had about thirty minutes or so before we began boarding so we once again found a spot to sit and people watched. Lucky for me there was as adorable little girl who was only a year old waiting to board our plane! She and I played peek-a-boo, waved at each other, and said hi. She had a blast running around and greeting everyone. At one point she even put on her mom’s coat, which was far too big, but she was bound and determined to get that thing on and she ran around in it for at least ten minutes – she was too cute! And Nathan got to sit next to her on the plane! Not fair.

I can’t complain too much about my seat though. I am currently sitting with my legs out in the aisle, snuggled up in a blanket, and there’s another cute baby girl behind me making lots of giggly noises and talking her parents’ ears off. 😉 She reminds me of all of my little cousins that I miss so much already!

Enjoy these few snapshots of our time in Iceland! We have safely landed in London and we were having a heck of a time. Turns out the train we were looking for is the same as the train we thought it was not so we spent a solid hour looking it, dressed in our clothes from Iceland (so sweating profusely), and my luggage got lost! So it’s a great start 😉 We did find our hostel and are absolutely exhausted so I will post again tomorrow about our first full day here in London. It can only get better, right?

PS: The Internet connection in our hostel is less than ideal and I was too tired to stay up and wait for my photos to upload last night so here’s the update at 4 AM at home!