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Day 3: Spoiler Alert, We're Still in Boston

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So it's last night. It's 30 minutes before our plane to Iceland is supposed to depart, and we're still sitting in the terminal. The guy behind the desk says we'll probably start boarding in 5 to 10 minutes. 15 minutes go by, and he announces that there's a problem with a sensor. The flight is delayed from 8:50 to 10, and they plan to start boarding at 9. We overhear someone say "We can't find the part." As if there's a box of parts sitting somewhere that they can't find. We're starting to get nervous. 

9 o'clock comes and goes, and we're still sitting in the terminal. The guy behind the desk won't look away from his phone. He's trying to avoid eye contact with the 120 people staring him down. He's starting to sweat. A few Icelandair employees join him from the jetway. They're either updating him, or backing him up in case the angry mob revolts. At around 9:10, they announce "We're still planning on departing at 10pm, we're just waiting on a maintenance update."

5 to 10 minutes later, the sweaty guy puts down his phone, picks up the mic, and calmly says "Unfortunately, our maintenance team was unable to locate the part." We brace ourselves for him to tell us that our flight is going to be delayed another hour. For us, that's no good. We already missed our first hotel. As soon as we land, we have to book it 2 hours to make it to our first tour. We were looking at a long day, so another hour delay was going to be cutting it pretty close. 

"This flight is cancelled." Kaylea involuntarily yelled "WHAT!?!" "You're all getting hotels. Please go to the service counter, and we'll get everyone taken care of. You all have seats on the next flight out to Iceland, which leaves tomorrow at 8:50pm"

You guys. It was rough. 

While standing in line, Kaylea frantically got on the phone with Expedia. At this point, we were going to miss our first tour, and our first 2 hotels. IF we got to Iceland, we would have to drive 8 hours to make it to our first hotel, and we were going to miss half the country. Kaylea had the idea to push back our departure date by 2 days. If we did that, we might be able to salvage some of the trip. Unfortunately, since we booked with Expedia, they were going to have to do that. So we sat on hold, and emailed our travel agent in Iceland to give him a heads up. 

The poor people at the Hilton hotel were hit with 120 tired, angry travelers 20 minutes before their restaurant closed. Waiters were yelling at customers, including Kaylea. The hold music for Expedia was slowly starting to drive us insane. To top it all off, the wifi was $6! After 2 hours on hold, we finally gave up with Expedia, and decided to get some sleep around 12:30.

Kaylea woke up at 6 and got somebody from Expedia on the phone. They actually managed to move our return flight back by 2 days. So, we sent all the info to our travel agent, and he magically reschedule everything for the next 9 days! Our original trip is back on! We just got 2 bonus days in Boston.

While we were eating a light breakfast in the lobby of the hotel, we saw Mark (the same Mark from the last blogpost, who also happens to live down the street from us), and decided to invite him to explore the city a bit more. He had spent the previous day in the hotel and airport, and we felt like he missed out. We strolled around a pretty nice park. Aaron had a nice little allergic reaction to something in the air. We tried to go in to Boston public library, but entry was by reservation only. We spent a few hours at the Museum of Science. We ate some Boston hamburgers with one of Mark's friends who just happened to be in Boston. It was a pretty solid second day.




At around 4pm, we made our way back to the hotel. We packed our stuff and crossed the sky bridge into the airport. It was a relatively painless check-in process, but nerves were high. 

So it's now. We're 3 days into our trip, and we have yet to arrive. We're sitting in the terminal, writing this blog again. We've been assured this plane has all its parts. 

I would say wish us luck, but I'm pretty sure one of you guys jinxed us. 

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