Inside the Volcano

Ok Nisha,

Iceland was so one week ago, but I know I should talk about it.
It was kind of weird, first off. Nick was only hanging out with his girlfriend the entire first half, and all she wanted to do was "dick around in the city."

Well, whatever. The city was nice. It was small, that's for sure. But it had a church called Hallgrímskirkja that is supposedly taller than the Statue of Liberty. The organ inside was pretty fantastic, but nothing can compare to the humongous one at Temple Square, or the one in the egg-shaped church in temple square, or really any organ in Temple Square (Salt Lake City).

Steven was getting antsy to actually do something (as was I) so we scheduled a trip inside a volcano while Nick was dropping his gf off. The volcano is called Thrihnukagigur and was deeper than both Hallgrímskirkja and the Statue of Liberty. We took a window washing machine down inside with other tourists. Our tour guide's name was G***, oh wow. I forgot. I'll update this when I remember, but it's means Gift from the Gods.

The rock formations were amazing inside. There is this bed of sand rock that is formed when a nearby volcano exploded and it's lava cooled too quickly. Because of this sand rock, the lava erupted out of Thrihnukagigur was able to slowly exit out of the cave, causing the nice formation that we are able to explore.

We learned about the history of modern Iceland on that tour too. It wasn't until 40 or 50 years ago that Iceland was just a nation of herders and fishermen, and considered a undeveloped nation. Then suddenly there was a tech boom, and a tourism boom and they shot to a nation of haves. Iceland has one of the lowest socioeconomic disparities on the planet, and one of the highest happiness ratings as well. It's very telling.

Sidra loved the trip too, and was aksing all sorts of questions about what it's llke to be a geologist, for her Huqstuff charcter. The gentleame that I can't remember the name of described to her the many different jobs a geologist can have and it really opened her eyes. It was everyone's near favorite part of the trip. I'm also happy it was just Steven, Sidra, and I.


Well, that wraps up the first half of the trip to Iceland. I'll finish it up tomorrow. :)