I mentioned that I was giggling to myself as I breezed past all the people waiting in line to check in.

Yeah. That was destined to end – unlike my trip home.

2:45 pm local time: arrived at Keflavik Airport.

I needed to eat because I refused to buy the overpriced food at the Blue Lagoon (keeping in mind that Iceland, in general, is very expensive, so I wasn’t about to add to that!). I went for the biggest bang for my buck, which sadly was….  Burger King. I got a few snacks for the road air, then waited for boarding.

The flight from Keflavik to Toronto was just over 6 hours. On my other two Icelandair flights, I had already watched everything I had really wanted to watch, so I was stuck with my second choices. I opted for two movies, to try and kill time. I pulled out my sock knitting, only to find that I hadn’t saved the pattern in an internet-not-needed format, so I just kept watching a few more TV shows.

5:50 pm local time: arrived in Toronto

For my trip home, I had to change airlines. I had no idea how long it would take to get through customs in Toronto, or if there would be any unforeseen circumstances, so I gave myself a buffer in between flights – 2.5 hrs. Thanks to the efficiency of Icelandair’s pilot, we arrived 30 min early. Time til flight: now 3 hrs. The Canadian Border guards were also super-efficient (and friendly! I was told “Welcome home” with a genuine smile!) so now I had 2.75 hours to kill. Luckily for me, my gate was near a Timmie’s. Due to the time difference and the direction I was travelling, it was still broad daylight out.

Enroute, I had changed my phone and watch times to Toronto’s local time. This is how I deal with jetlag. It’s not for the faint of heart, but it gets you turned around within a day or two. But that first day is hell. And I was in the middle of it. Drinking my cup of caffeine and eating a sugar-packed Canadian Maple helped to keep me alert (-ish). I checked on my ride home from Vancouver airport, but it wasn’t looking good. My back-up driver was also a little iffy, but luckily, just at that moment, another friend came on to skype and asked if I had a way home. SCORE! With plans firmed up just 20 min before hopping on board, I boarded the plane. I had been trying to download Season 3 of the IT Crowd to watch on the plane, but the free wifi was too slow (go figure – I guess you get what you pay for). Luckily, the plane had several Canadian TV channels to watch, so I filled my remaining 5 hrs of flight with TV. I managed to “sleep” a broken 2hrs (maybe?). The tiny woman next to me kept waking me up, as she managed to take up her space and part of mine while “getting comfortable.” It’s like she was able to self-inflate herself or something. It would’ve been a cool trick to see if it hadn’t been keeping me from much-needed sleep!

When I finally landed in Vancouver, I actually felt sick from being so tired. I quickly made my way through the familiar airport towards the baggage pickup in an attempt to beat the crowd. Ha. And then proceeded to wait another 25 min for my bag to show up. I thought I was going to topple over from exhaustion. FINALLY about midnight local time, backpacked front and back, I made my way to Tim’s van waiting outside. I know that we talked on the way home, about my trip and his trip, but it’s somewhat of a sleep-deprived blur. At my place, I thanked Tim for the ride (I think? I hope?), found my keys and arrived home.

At that point, I did the math on how long I’d been awake – 24.5hrs. Minus the quasi-sleep I had gotten on the plane. I somehow manage to get changed into pajamas before falling into my own bed and going to sleep.  Only five days until I have to return to work, and only 3 days until my big birthday (and the reason for my trip!)