I'm writing this Thursday morning, but I'm probably posting it around...mm...Tuesday? Wednesday? After all, I had a series of five Cauldron posts to get up on Ye Old Blog.
But right now, Dear Reader, you are time traveling with me, back to the past. The day is Thursday, October 15th. Where you are now, in the present, I've already had a full weekend back in Seattle, already coached another soccer game, attended church (I hope!), had my kids back in school, back at the grind, etc. Life 'round these parts are, as they say, "back to normal"...as you are reading this.
But for me, in YOUR past. Well, I just got back to town yesterday.
Iceland is a beautiful country...but I can see how it might not be everyone's cup o tea (at least, not in mid-October). For me, it was lovely...kind of a sepia-colored version of Hawaii's "Big Island," but with high winds and glaciers instead of daily sprinkles and lush greenery. The prices are about the same.
Haha! No disrespect intended! I'm not a big "beach person," but my wife is and she LOVED Iceland, and was talking about making it an annual trip. Right up until we learned that its hundreds of active volcanoes could blow up half the place at any time and the 60mph winds had shut down the highways we needed to travel to get back to the airport (and, man, did they shake our little bungalow Tuesday night! Glad we decided against the "glamping" igloos!).
No, but it was wonderful. Great people, great food, great scenery ("majestic" would be a better word), great hiking. And lovely, lovely relaxing hot springs and spas. Oh, man. My family got there on Friday...I met them Monday afternoon after four solid days of rough riding in Germany (truly, it felt like Germany and ridden over me...). But after entering the warm embrace of my family...and then entering the warm embrace of the Blue Lagoon...all the physical and mental stress of the past week slipped away. Not even the icy rain pelting my mineral facial mask could diminish the comfort of the soak, or the steam of the "volcano" room. Hell, I haven't had a good cold plunge since I was in Kyoto (Japan) circa age of 17...I forgot how refreshing it can be to overload the nerve endings on occasion.
[a rather large selection of gins, as well, but I only sampled one as I was "drying out my liver" after Cauldron]
Yeah, I'm spoiled. But I'm not going to allow the guilt from my privilege to detract from what was a really nice (and very much needed) micro-vacation. It was good, I am blessed, and the credit card will be paid off eventually.
The viking culture stuff was great, too, of course, though I wasn't there long enough to check out the museums (or Reykjavik at all, really). Mostly we just hiked waterfalls and glaciers for a couple days. Saw "the world's only live lava show" that was pretty good. Wish I'd seen that BEFORE writing my Horn of the Eye adventure, as it would have had some impact on how the magma fields worked (SPOILER: pretty much the same as they did, but humans don't sink when they fall into a lake of lava, the lava being far more dense than the buoyant human body. ALSO: while steel DOES heat up, like a heat metal spell...faster, in fact...it has a higher melting point than lava, so should really just turn red-hot, depending on the heat keeping the molten rock in its liquid state). Really good, interesting info there...probably something for a future adventure.
No, the worst thing I can say about Iceland (the winds didn't bother me a whit) was the DRIVING, because of the absolutely draconian speeding laws and radar cameras stationed all about the island. I am a lead-foot driver and I fully expect to receive several thousand krona worth of fines and tickets in my mailbox in the next few weeks. I was white-knuckling it most of the time...the only stress I had in Iceland...trying to maintain their 90 and 70 and 50 kmph speed limits at all times. And it's not like there's any traffic...it's about Montana level out there. Ah, well. I know the Europeans are diligent in tracking down malefactors like myself (I've received speeding tix from Spain in the past). The amount we end up paying their Transpo department will directly affect how soon we make it back, I'm sure.
[yet another reason I prefer Germany, really]
But OTHER than that...a stupendous time and a welcome relief, making the journey home to Seattle quite relaxing. I wasn't even stressed/worried about the extraordinary long lines at customs to exit the country: having already experienced them on the journey east, I knew that Icelandair would hold the plane for us and still, somehow, land us at SeaTac on schedule.
And they did.
: )
The last and only other thing I have to say about Iceland (other than it was great and everyone should check it out once in their lifetimes), is that climbing the cliffs, being with my family (Diego and I had a LOT of discussions about the events at Cauldron...he was especially intrigued by all the Chainmail battles), it put my mind in the peaceful, joyful state that conjured up a new, fiendish idea for next year's Blackrazor Cup Tournament adventure. No, it has nothing to do with Vikings, trolls, glaciers, or volcanoes...nothing at all to do with Iceland, in fact. But the calm serenity of the place gave my mind the space it needed to percolate. And when that percolation happens, well, good things (good ideas, that is) can arise out of it. "Spontaneous creativity" in a way that doesn't happen when chatting with an AI chatbot.
[the latter, I find, actually stunts the creative process. But maybe that's just me]
Okay, that's enough...just a short one for today. Next post, I'll discuss the tournament adventure, somewhat in depth. Hope everyone is having a restful, relaxing week.
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