Happiness is

Happiness is driving along the Icelandic countryside, having just seen a fascinating lava cave in a tour led by a recent Geology graduate with an Irish accent, while eating licorice with your friend. I needed to be friends with Kate, I have no other friends or family who like black licorice. Black licorice is all the rage in Iceland. Kate even made me some licorice tea. 

It was supposed to rain today, all day, every hour of the day. It did not. It did rain some. 

Today we got to see things that we would not have gotten to see if our plans had not been …. Blown away. We got to see them because we have unexpected extra time in the southwest. We got to see the Hraunfosser waterfalls, in the main, the Barnafoss waterfall (don’t look it up, it is sad), a LAVA CAVE!!!!!! (Raufarhólshellir), and the Kerid Crater. The main thing I read about Hraunfosser was that it is gorgeous in the autumn. It is gorgeous in the autumn. 

Oh, the red plant that I’ve come to love is not heath. It is related to the blueberry plant, it has many syllables, and Kate knows what it is. 

The lava cave tour was fascinating. We learned about lava caca. No, really, that is … actually, it is called lava shit, because it is lava and it looks like caca. That really is what geologists all around the world call it, except in Hawaii, where they call it lava rose. That is not what it looks like. 

They found one interesting archeological discovery. Remains of a fire, sheep bones that carbon dated to 900 AD, and …. Mediterranean glass beads. Glass beads were not made in Iceland. Trade is fascinating. The questions include how the guy got the beads and why on earth he was sleeping in the lava cave, and why he left the beads and didn’t spend any more nights there.

There were silver bacteria growing on the roof. When no one was looking I licked it and now I can fly.

Given how Iceland was formed, and that they only know about the lava caves they know about because there was a collapse of the roof, it is possible that the entire country is riddled with caves and you just shouldn’t jump up and down too much. 

We learned what lava rope is and it is formed. Essentially you see a pattern and it looks like ripples. To geologists it look like strands of rope, hence, lava rope, following the same convention of naming lava caca. 

The Kerid Crater was gorgeous. I have no experience with craters and I would have happily danced all around the entire circumference it but this was one of the moments it really was pouring rain. All of these colors are real. 

Neat thing - stands of trees where the trees in front have turned a bright yellow but the trees behind them are slightly taller and still green and so give a green outline to the bright yellow trees. 

We are hoping for one more shot at the aurora borealis tomorrow night.