It is surprising to witness how tourists and visitors find and define new places in a country with a lot to offer regarding natural wonders and attractions. Places that quite unexpectedly become popular or even develop into landmarks. Places that Icelanders almost never visited before tourism started to explode some years ago and never thought of as exciting. The most extreme example is the Navy DC plane that crashed on Mýrdalssandur in November 1973. Even today, it would be hard to find an Icelander visiting this crash site or even admitting to ever coming near this crashed plane. Among Icelanders, the crash site is usually ranked as one of the most ridiculous tourist attractions in Iceland.
Other attractions that Icelanders just didn't discover but are quite interesting
Then there are a few places that visitors found and started to photograph and visit that are highly interesting, but Icelanders didn't really get or understand. One spot is the shoreline by the Jökulsárlón Iceberg Lagoon, where small and sometimes large icebergs accumulate as they float from the lagoon. The Icebergs are occasionally transparent and sometimes filled with black stripes from eruptions that occurred centuries ago. They often give the pebble beach a magnificent look as they float on the shore, only to melt down as they hit the ocean. Sometimes the shore develops into a magnificent site with icebergs ready for a perfect selfie or a photo from the trip. As the icebergs melt, they often seem like giant diamonds. After this shoreline by Jökulsárlón became popular one thing was missing, a name. At some point, visitors and tourists started to call this beach the Diamond beach on their social media websites. Contrary to the plane on Mýrdalssandur, many Icelanders enjoy visiting Diamond beach only to regret that they didn't discover it before the tourists.
Diamond beach is easy to find and easy to visit
If you are on the Ring Road Nr. 1 and driving the southeast region by Jökulsárlón Iceberg lagoon, you only cross the road by the bridge and walk to the beach. You need to be careful when passing, and you can also park on the south side of the road. Diamond beach is a magical place in that you can forget time as you wander among the many small icebergs by the shore and speculate about their forms. Diamond beach is also irresistibly photogenetic.
