Toga
If you’ve followed my blog for the last few weeks, you may have read my friend and I almost missed our connecting flight to Iceland. Our first flight was delayed and thankfully, so was our connection. As we were running through the airport, I looked back and my friend’s bag was so heavy, she was dragging it behind her, as we sprinted to the gate (you’ll learn why in a later post).
We were only on the plane a few minutes before it pulled away from the gate. One thing we were pretty sure of, our checked luggage wasn’t on board with us. Hmmm…..we would have to worry about it upon arrival at our destination. Once we landed, we headed straight to baggage claim and as expected, our suitcases were nowhere in sight. We made our way to the lost luggage counter and waited in line with the other people from our connecting flight.
Once we learned the bags didn’t make the trip, we were informed they would arrive in two days. My friend became very upset and started arguing with the agent and because she was a priority customer, they agreed to deliver it to us in one day. As my friend continued to pitch a fit, I looked at her and told her this wasn’t going to ruin our trip. Even though neither one of us had a stitch of extra clothing of any kind in our carry-ons, there was nothing we could do about it and needed to make the most of it. After all…..we were in FREAKING ICELAND!
Once she realized it was just part of our adventure, the situation became comical on so many levels. Luckily for us, we were scheduled to stay at an Air B&B that had laundry facilities. It was a two-flat that was connected by an entryway that shared the washer and dryer in the basement. Once our day was over, we were thrilled to be able to finally wash our clothes. We just had to figure out what to wear while our clothing was being laundered………the first thing that came to mind was a sheet. Indeed…..a toga it was…haha.
In our make-shift sheet togas, we made our way down the spiral staircase through a connecting hall and down another set of stairs, through one dim room and then another. Thank goodness one of our group figured out how to use the washer, unfortunately we would soon learn, the dryer was broken…..ugh. Now what? Thankfully, I remembered the heated towel rack in the bathroom….and WA-LA, an instant dryer. Which I had to tend to throughout the night to reposition and rotate the garments.
My friend and I lounged around in our togas all night, laughing about the antics of the adventures so far. Thankfully, it would only be one more day until our luggage arrived. Not so fast…….the next morning we got word it wouldn’t be arriving. We had pre-planned destinations, so off we went on a 24 hour guided tour; at least we had clean clothes.
It was day four by the time we learned they would be delivering our luggage by 5PM…..WHAT? We had other places on our itinerary, hours away and couldn’t wait. We had to high-tail it to the airport to collect our bags. Once the airlines brought out our luggage it was like we won the lottery……..fresh undies for all….LOL!
Once we had the luggage in our possession, I must admit, it was a little bit of a disappointment. It sure was nice not having to lug a big suitcase around, and we didn’t have to make any decisions on what to wear. It taught us, we could get by on very little. Even though it was a huge blessing the luggage arrived when it did, just in time to hike over lava fields and into a volcano. Our hiking boots were a much safer option than slip-on tennis shoes, even though the toga was kinda fun. Enjoy the mishaps of life.
xoxox…..Sheryl