The journey here was quite an adventure. First, I was talking with the driver taking me to the airport and it turns out he is an actor. So we talked a bit about the film business. But mostly we talked about the horrible traffic in LA.
Then I got on the plane and found out that Delta's business class is anything but. It was an old Boeing 767, with none of the amenities you get on other business class flights. Most business class plaes have the in seat monitor in back of the seat in front of you. But instead, they had a tiny flip up monitor. In addition, there was no under seat storage so everything had to go in the overhead compartments. On top of everything, we took off 30 minutes late due to "weather" in New York.
I was halfway through the flight to JFK when I look over and see that the woman next to me is working on something for My Little Pony. It turns out that she works for an advertising and marketing firm that does a lot of business with The Hub, who are in the same building where I work. So I told her that I work in international distribution and we started talking about foreign adaptations of American TV series.
Got to JFK, had an hour layover. So I went over to the business class lounge and grabbed a cup of coffee and a cookie before heading down to the gate.
The flight to Iceland was pretty uneventful. At least with this flight they gave you a glass of champagne upon boarding. It's a nice touch that airlines give to business class passengers. But it was still the old model airplane that hadn't been remodeled, so still the tiny monitor and no under seat storage. Got maybe an hour or two of sleep before we landed.
We got into Iceland around 10AM. A group of us coming off the plane made a wrong turn and somehow managed to get back into the boarding area. They escorted us back down to the immigration area. After a long line for immigration, I went and got my bus ticket to take me into Reykjavik proper. It wasn't nearly as cold as I thought it was going to be. The temperature was in the mid 50s. Cold enough to need a coat but that's about it.
The bus ride took about 90 minutes, even though it's only about 40 miles away, because the speed limit here in Iceland is 50 kph (30 mph). Got to the airport and it was close to noon. Unfortunately, my room wasn't ready so I had a couple of hours to kill.
Thoughts on Reykjavik:
So I walked around Reykjavik for a couple hours. I walked down Laugavegur, which is the main street here in town. The town itself is pretty small, population is 120,000 for the city proper, with approximately 200,000 people in the greater Reykjavik area. It has a weird, artsy vibe to it from what I saw. There were a lot of museums and craft stores. There was also a lot of graffiti and street art. It felt like a combimnation of Vail and Santa Cruz, with a touch of Helsinki. The architecture here is very minimalist and unpretentious. It's got a very Scandinavian feel to it. Scandinavians love their minimalism, as anyone who has been to Ikea can attest.
I did stop in at their equivalent to the 7-11, a small Video store/diner comination and had a hamburger and fries. I did some research by looking to see which distributor had which titles. Visiting other countries is not just about meeting the broadcasters, it's also about doing research, finding out what movies are in the theaters, who distributes the different DVD titles, and what's on the different TV channels.
Finally got back to the hotel and my room still wasn't ready, so I grabbed a coffee and sat down in the lobby, reading my book. Finally, the woman came over and gave me my room keycard. By that point I was so exhausted, I was glad to be in the room. I struggled to stay awake as long as possible. I watched some documentary on Joe Strummer that was on TV, took a shower, then went to bed around 3pm.
It's about 3AM now here in Reykjavik. It's still light out. I don't think the sun ever fully goes down at this time of the year. Today I'll probably dome some more touristy things like check out the Golden Circle, which includes waterfalls and other sights to see. There's also a geothermal blue lagoon that is supposed to be a must see.
There you have it. Tried and failed not to be too verbose. I'll keep you updated on my sales trip through Europe over the next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment