After flying from Heathrow to Keflavik, Iceland, I prepared for an overnight stay in the terminal, as my next flight was at 10:30am. I sat down near a power outlet with my laptop, but though I could get my laptop on the airport wi-fi, I could not connect to the Internet. For some reason, it would not pop up the little “login, accept our terms” page, and without completing that I think it would not let me through. So I had to content myself with connecting on my phone (fine for e-mail, not so much for web browsing).
After a little while, an airport worker came by and informed me, and the couple of other people sitting nearby, that we could not be in that section of the terminal overnight. We would have to go up to the main level for the night. This involved going through passport control, which seemed odd to do given that I would not be leaving the airport. Doing so was complicated, though, by the fact that passport control was already shut down for the night when we got up there, so we could not go through. Another trip or two back downstairs was made before we were finally told that someone was on their way to open up a booth and scan our passports to let us through. In total we waited around for more than 30 minutes.
Finally in the main portion of the terminal, I made a another attempt at the wi-fi with the laptop, then gave up and lay down on gate area seating to try and get some sleep. Though not very comfortable, I did manage to sleep – about 4 hours or so. By that time some of the food places were opening, so I went to get some breakfast.
I got some bland eggs, toast, and potatoes around 6:30am, and then shortly after 7:00, passport control and the downstairs section opened again. I was able to go down and find my departure gate, where I sat and read for a while (still couldn’t get my computer online). The flight was my longest of the whole trip, 5.5 hours, and I spent a bunch of time watching The Sound of Music, which I had never gotten around to seeing before. (It seems kind of like 2 different films trying to be one story)
We got into Boston shortly after noon, and getting through customs was not too bad (it was no hassle, but did involve somewhat of a wait). Some bus and car rides later I was home, in time for dinner, and with one more day off from work to recover from any jet lag.