Iceland: LHR -> KEF

The flight from London Heathrow to Iceland's Keflavik International Airport takes about 3 hours. It didn't really feel that long though. 

Since I love taking pictures, I usually take the window seat, unless it's a night flight. The LHR -> KEF was a night flight, but I still chose the window seat anyway because of one reason -- the chance for auroras.

Typical flight route from London to Keflavik

It was a Thursday night flight, and the flight was only about 20% full. I managed to get the whole row to myself. As with most newer airline safety videos, Icelandair's was very well produced. It managed to capture the beauty of the Icelandic landscape and fuse it with otherwise boring instructions. (Not unlike the Lord of the Rings themed Air New Zealand safety video) Have you ever feel touched by watching an airline safety video? Well, I was with this one. Somehow the scenes, the music and the mood set by the video got me.

How cool is this!

So soothing and calming (the Icelandic accent helps too), sets the mood for Iceland perfectly

Remember I mentioned about choosing the window seat? Well, this was what I saw.

It was vibrant and dancing around very slowly

Then it got diffused and spread out. The plane kinda flew by it.

It was my first time seeing the auroras, and as you can imagine, I was going all batshit crazy in my mind. This was it. The #1 item in my bucket list. The #1 reason for visiting Iceland. And I saw it even before reaching Iceland. As I was trying hard not to wow out loud in excitement, I looked around, and no one else seems to be sharing my excitement unfortunately. Oh well. But yeah, WINDOW SEAT!!!

Yeap

For my first night there, I checked in at a nearby B&B in Keflavik that I booked via Hotels.com: A10 Delux B&B

The room was small but nice and cozy. Good enough for a night.

They sure know how to set the mood here too.

It was a pleasant layover at A10. It was actually super quiet the night I was there. I had no problem sleeping there. The staff was nice enough to drop me off back at the airport the next morning, where I met up with my other travel buddies to begin our Iceland adventure.