Everybody is familiar with the expression, “Be careful what you wish for!”  In my case, that is exactly what had happened on my trip home from Heimtex. When I was booking my flight to Germany way back in October, I was put off by the high prices for flights to Frankfurt, in particular.  It seems there is some type of collusion to raise prices exactly on the dates I had to fly to get to the show. Not wanting to pay the exorbitant fares, I decided to take my chances with a new upstart airline called WOW, which is based in Iceland. Yes, that IS the name!  I should have known better!  But I decided to take a chance and book the flight, which had a stop in Reykjavik. Flying to Germany was no problem. The return, however, gave me an unexpected adventure.  Long story short, I and several other weary travelers had to stay in Iceland for a night. After missing all of our connecting flights, we were told to pick up our suitcases, proceed to the service counter at the Reykjavik airport and were handed a voucher for our “youth hostel” as well as one for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  That was a bit alarming! There wasn’t even an opportunity to put up a protest. It was evident that none of us were going anywhere anytime soon so we all looked at each other, resigned to our fate, and decided to make the most of it. Secretly, many of us had wished that we could have spent at least a little time in this strange and beautiful country.  Now our wishes were coming true! We immediately split up into groups. The young, seriously financially challenged travelers formed their own group.  They decided to hang out at the local pool hall for the evening and down some native brews. Those us of with “professions”, many of us show- goers, decided to rent a car and drive from our hotel to the nearby Blue Lagoon, labeled as one of the 25 wonders of the world. Heck, if we were going to be stuck in Iceland, we were going to see something, gosh darn it! It turned out to be an amazing experience and EXACTLY what the doctor ordered after a few, very busy and exhausting days at Heimtex! The Blue Lagoon was just as I had imagined, and was surprisingly mesmerizing at nighttime, with the cold air on my head, a sea of stars above and a foggy mist floating on the heated water.  It was also funny as well, with most people, from all over the world sporting the special mud masks dripping from their faces looking like Mrs. Doubtfire or an outback Aborigine! I met some amazing people who’s motto in life, like mine, is Carpe Diem. We definitely seized the moment and experienced what many people only dream about, albeit a little against our will initially! For those of us ‘stuck’ in Iceland, we went with the flow, literally, and have some great memories to show for it! Once in awhile, the universe gives us what we secretly wish for and then some! By Rachelle Tenace