Iceland Day 1: the Iceland that didn't happen

Saturday afternoon (2/9/2012), Ben and I have safely arrived at our gate at SeaTac International Airport, having breezed through check in and security. We board the airplane, a Boeing 757, each seat has its own monitor, blanket, and travel pillow - What A Dream! Having never flown on an international (Bahamas doesn't count) flight, this was such a treat to experience. 

Icelandair Economy Class Seating

We cozied into our seats and, being total nerds, opted to watch the flight path and information in lieu of any actual movie or television show. About 2 hours into our flight, the in flight entertainment and all the lights went dark. It was alarming to say the least. We weren't in any turbulence... the power just went out, no oxygen masks were dropped and things just seemed quieter. Again, being total nerds, Ben and I raced through the reasons why the lighting system would fail - we came to two conclusions: 1) someone did a bad repair on the IFE wire or 2) an engine was sucking up too much power and in return, the lights and IFE system shut off. It turned out to be related to the latter (report found here). About 5 minutes later, the captains said they were working on the problem. About 10 minutes later the lights came back on -- we thought "Hallelujah! We're back on track!" 

Well, not so much. The IFE returned, and now, instead of going to Iceland, we were flying to Edmonton, Alberta - Canada. 15 minutes later, the captain gave a 5 minute spiel in Icelandic. Our Icelandic counterparts started to look defeated and I turned to Ben and remarked that the Captain's English version would be a sentence long. Luckily, that wasn't the case - we were going to spend the next 24hrs in Edmonton (hotel paid for by Icelandair) and would be contacted about the flight the next day. 

We spent the night/day watching hockey, Bolt, and otherwise indulging ourselves in cable television. I wasn't going to risk being outside to brave the 12F weather. Ick!

After a very chaotic re-check in the next day, we left Edmonton for a 6 or so hour flight to Iceland around 3pm, Sunday afternoon. We landed in Keflavik around 6am, Monday morning... and having paid for the previous night, we were thankfully able to quickly check into our hotel.


And that's how we lost a day in Iceland but gained a stamp in our passports.