Iceland and aftermath

I'd say I'm 60% recovered from travel to Iceland -- or rather the return travel. Flying west is hard on me physically, it was a brutal week of calibration for managers at work, and there was some emotional unpacking of the trip that was... well, human and mostly predictable. First time for this group all traveling together, so that's what we get. This weekend was also weird with my sister-in-law visiting, but at least I'm home, in what I call "my box" when talking to Norwood: as in, I'm a fancy toy and this is my box where I'm safely stored away when not in use. An amusing and comforting turn of phrase, for me.

Anyway, Iceland last weekend. It was in fact cold and rainy, but we found a good bakery, and had the foresight (OK, the good luck) to get a hotel right next to a landmark that was visible from far away; that made navigation easy. I bought a hat and mittens, and later gloves. Climbed on a statue or two. Some things I learned or experienced:

• Fermented shark is not really food, it is something they serve to troll tourists. Hint: if they serve it in a stoppered glass bottle, it is trouble.


• Lava tunnel: beautiful, rock-scrambly, constantly wet and raining inside because it had rained the day before on the surface and Iceland is 100% porous. I was glad for the water-resistant hiking pants I bought, and glad to have acrobat-balance, and I basically just liked the cave very much. Our group was fast. We got all the way to the end, and explored all three tributory-endings and two side caves on the way back, which is as much as any group ever does, and we got back faster than scheduled too! Oh, somewhere in there I made a hero of myself by worming down between some rocks and recovering a really visible piece of trash that our guide said people had been trying to get out of there for months. Lion had tried already, and he has longer arms, but I am skinnier, and fearless about headfirst wiggles.


• Ruby chocolate is an interesting, vaguely raspberry-flavored fourth variety of chocolate made from reddish cacao beans. It's not for sale in the US yet, but it is in Iceland, and I like it.


• I got to see the ground ejaculate! Three times! There is no better way to describe what happens at Geysir... from whence our word "geyser" comes, btw. It was neat visually, if also like a sulfurous mud puddle stenchwise. Also saw a waterfall, and Thingvellir national park, which is of geological interest and at which there are... rocks. It was rainy, and the paths are mostly of black volcanic rock that gets wet without really getting muddy. Mud requires some clay content in the ground, it seems.


• Blue Lagoon: I had worried that this might be super cheesy, but it was actually fabulous. Only cheesy if by that you mean "civilized", and it was a lovely break after so much cold! Being in warm, sometimes hot water while cold rain nibbled on our heads was great, with lava rocks all around, and the whole thing steaming. The water, a mix of fresh and ocean, was just slightly bouyant. We walked slowly over to the in-water face mask bar for face masks, puttered about, rinsed off the mask, puttered more. After we visited the in-water actual bar for our included free drink, and they had cider, I commented that I was about at max decadence. Which was true. (We all laughed at an obvious Instagrammer, who went halfway in the water with dry hair and heavy makeup and spent a long time trying to take selfies with the wind blowing her hair just right.)