So I'm sitting in Reykjavik (Yeah! Totally got that spelling right first time! Booyah!) airport, Iceland, waiting for my connecting flight to NYC & it's really rather cold, wet, miserable, & un-fun. I shouldn't judge really, I've only been in the country 15 minutes after all & will be outta here 60 minutes later so who knows, it's probably a very lovely country! First leg of the flight quick, only 3 hours up from London, & Icelandair is a considerable step up from Ryanair - yes, they still make you pay ridiculous prices for sub-average food & to buy their headphones (ha! I brought my own!), BUT they have new, fancy entertainment systems in the back of the seats, which allows you to choose from many movies, TV shows, & radio stations to keep you entertained on the flight. So bonus points for that! AND they only had to restart mine 2 or 3 times before it actually started working :P

Had a teeny tiny American immigration related scare this morning when I got to the airport. Apparently you now have to fill in an online ESTA form & pay $14 to enter the US - part of some new online visa waiver thing that Obama introduced about 18 months ago. And you can't even check in to a flight that's connecting you to a flight that's taking you to America without having one of these forms (presumably something really, really bad would happen otherwise). I was really glad Dad came out to drop me off at the airport because although I'm quite sure I would have sorted it all out just fine on my own, there probably would have been a whole lot more hyperventilation involved. Anyway, it would've been REALLY nice if my travel agent actually told me about this thing, it being a pretty big change affecting all travelers to the states, & hey, isn't that what travel agents are there for? (Given my past experiences with STA I should probably know better than to expect too much…) Anyway, I was lucky. It all went through OK & was issued immediately. I saw the look of relief on the staff member's face at the check in desk because only then did he tell me that often people aren't so lucky & that many of the people who haven't completed the forms until the day of travel have missed their flights. I gather they get yelled at quite a bit for that. And had I missed this flight it would have forfeited my whole round the world ticket…which would have meant bad, bad things…but it's aaaaaaaall good! :)

Fast forward a few hours & I arrive in the Big Apple!!! :D I race off the plane to beat the line at customs, which grows predictably enormous behind me & after a few momentary confusions about exactly which forms I'm supposed to be filling out (some are apparently rendered unnecessary by the online ESTA form but the fact they still actually have them here at the airport suggests that maybe there is a way around that…) I'm through customs with no dramas whatsoever. Interestingly I had no idea what my flight number was & seemed to have misplaced my boarding ticket which I assumed would cause problems, but nobody really even seemed to look over the form I'd filled in & said nothing about the blank spot…I've also traveled on most flights over the past few months with a serrated knife & a small pair of scissors in my bag & have never once been pulled up for it. Tight security eh ;)

The airport transfer desk was right beyond the exit gate, so no worries finding that, but although I'd landed at 7:00PM, my transfer wasn't coming til 8:15PM, so I slumped on the couches trying desperately to stay semi-conscious until then (8:00PM is 1:00AM London time & I'd been up since 6:00AM London time…). Unfortunately the transfer was late so we didn't leave until about 8:45PM, then we had several other stops at other terminals to pick up more passengers, then I was the very last person to be dropped off at my hostel at about 10:00PM (3:00AM London time). The hostel staff were (there is really no other way to put it) utterly incompetent, & it took about 20 minutes for the girls ahead of me to get checked in. I, on the other hand, was checked in in 2 minutes with no explanations or directions offered; they just flung a room key at me & ushered me off. So I stumbled through the giant hostel to my room & finally fell into bed around 11:00PM, which is yes, 4:00AM London time…awake & travelling for 22 hours!