Trying to leave Mývatn: Iceland trip Day 27

An annoying day missing a bus.

Today's plan was to catch the 14:30 bus to Akureyri then a plane to Reykjavik. So I packed, read and lunched on Arctic char with crispy skin, kale and mashed potatoes beautifully set off with mustard grains, lemon and olive oil(?) at the Gamle restaurant. At 14:00 I was sitting at a picnic table near the bus stop waiting for the bus. Close to the time the bus was due a talkative Venezuelan, who was also waiting for the bus, engaged me in conversation complementing the British "stiff upper lip". This did not prevent me from looking at the bus stop for any sign of the bus, including carefully viewing any minibus that drove by. Previously the location of my buses showed up on the Strætó bus App, but today there was no sign of it. 15 minutes after it should have arrived I went into the adjacent visitor centre where the lady at the desk rang the bus company, then rang the company they had sub-contracted the route to. They claimed we had missed the bus. I was told we should have been standing next to, like within a foot of, the bus stop and not nearby, otherwise the driver may not stop. As the next bus was in three days time the lady suggested hitch hiking was our best bet. My Venezuelan fellow traveller walked a little way down the road to hitch and I tried by the visitor centre. After an hour a German couple stopped, unfortunately they we going to Húsavík, but very kindly dropped me at Laugar where I knew the bus from Húsavík to Akureyri stopped. There was no sign of the man from Venezuela, he must have hitched a lift from someone who had passed me, good for him. The Húsavík bus arrived at Laugar at 16:30, and I felt that this would not allow me time to catch my 17:45 flight from Akureyri so I struggled with my phone to change my flight to next day paying the requisite change fee and fortunately not losing the signal part way through. I also tried to change my hotel reservation in Reykjavik, although conscious that I would likely have to pay for tonight under the cancellation policy. Maybe if I had arranged a taxi at Akureyri I could have reached the airport in time but I thought of that too late. So to recover from my gloom I am now in a beer lounge in Akureyri, sampling a very pleasant Icelandic beer recommended by the barmaid and a shot of some Icelandic spirit called Brennivín, flavoured with caraway and cumin it tastes better than some.