Island the island

Iceland is amazing! We've only been here two days, but already things are different. Our ears are full of silt from the Hveragerdi Reykjadalur, a 40C river fed by hot springs and surrounded by billowing, fiercely bubbling steam vents. The water was so delicious that we just had to immerse ourselves, despite the sulfurous pebbles and strands of riverweed that now fill our belly buttons. Our skins are glowing from the Laugarvatm Fontana baths, another set of geothermal mineral pools overlooking a dark blue lake. The girls eagerly splashed into the freezing water(well, not eagerly, but they got extra dessert for full submersion so they did it) then ran, in that skittering way you quasi-run poolside, and sank gasping into the hot tub. When Aurora plunged into the hottest pool for the first time, her face melted into a look of pure rapture - she is not a girl who loves the cold, and this was the warmest smile I'd seen in a long time. 

Yesterday we went to Thingvellir, the Lawgiver's Forum since way back in 900 when they created a Parliament here. It was eerie to pass places like Galgaeyri and Silfra, the Scaffold Place and Drowning Pool; this is where hundreds of people have been maimed or killed for their misdeeds. Interestingly, it was up to the family who filed the grievance to carry out the sentence until the people asked the Norwegian King to govern. We also walked into the rift separating the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates; as these drift apart, they've left a wide network of fissure swarms: a landscape of black cracks edged by sharp walls that the Parliamentarians used as a windbreak more than a thousand years ago.  

Our faces are also toasted pink, since we've had bright sunshine both days. The beige-green tufted hills look lovely under a blue sky; the landscape here is pretty flat, with heavily snow-capped mountains jutting up to the north. People are cheerful, and we can catch a third of what they say, since Norwegian and Icelandic have the same bones. Something is wrong with our rental car, but at least it hasn't been stripped by a sandstorm or flipped by a giant gust of wind as the agent assured us would happen. Sidenote, did you know Iceland is the third windiest place on Earth, with winds up to 160mph? That's more than double hurricane force! So we will take a check engine light and count our blessings. Just like we will appreciate eating geothermally baked bread even if it's mushy and has a sulfuric aftertaste. 

Not too bad, living on a volcano!

This water is at a rolling boil!

Walking to her own beat

Outdoor soak

The girls eeked whenever they had to walk through these stinky wet clouds