Keflavik to London - Day 7

Date: August 25th, 2009
Distance: 33km
Country: England
Song of the Day: Half a Person - The Smiths

Woke up this morning around 3:00 because the tent was blowing down again. I had place the tent with the small end facing the wind the night before, but it had shifted. More correctly the wind was now coming from two different directions. Only in Iceland. Oh, and it was raining too. I really didn't want to get out of my nice warm sleeping bag, but I was more afraid of the tent coming down. So I went out (shirtless, because I didn't want to get my one clean sleeping shirt wet) and turned the tent 90 degrees. I actually felt really good about that. It probably doesn't seem like anything, but it made me feel like I could conquer the world.

After that I had to get up at 7:30 to ride (33 klicks) back to Reykjavik. I was going to talk to the custom's agent. Three hours. Three damn hours it took with a headwind and rain. When I got there, the customs person had been through already. He opened the box and decided it was all personal, so there were no taxes. The guy from FedEx, Hannes, was even going deliver it to me in Keflavik. Damn, I could have stayed in bed. At least they were nice enough to give me a ride back to Keflavik.

From there I did the mad dash, pack-bike-pull-down-tent-shower-pack-clothes-get-on-bus. Then I was at the airport and through security with time to spare. Whew. I actually like airports. I had a couple hours of calm there before my flight. Spent the last of my Icelandic money on a sandwich (not worth it) and got on the plane. Nice simple 2 1/2 hour flight.

Once we landed in London, I got a bit worried. I still didn't have a place to stay for the night. I didn't have a ticket out either. (I had looked up ferries, and will probably be taking one from Portsmouth to Cherbourg in a couple of weeks.) The guy at immigration was really nice though. He seemed to understand what was going on, and gave me tips for going through immigration in other countries (France).

After that, grabbed my bags. I tried to call the girl I was hoping to stay with here. She is a friend of Badger's. But the number wasn't working. I got online again and was looking for a place to stay. I found one, not too expensive near the airport. But the cab drivers wouldn't take my bike in the box. So I just put it together next to the cab stand. It was kind of funny because all the bored cabbies would come over and watch me put it together. I came together alright and I tossed the box.

My first experience with English roads was interesting. You can really tell that London has 2000 years of history because the roads don't make any sense. There is no real pattern. Things just change randomly. I got a bit to eat at the local McDonalds. (Lame I know, but they were open and I was hungry.) Then found the motel and went to bed. It was the first bed I slept in in a week.

-Dravis