Five days in Iceland: black beaches and baby geysers!

Sophia: Hey, everyone! Welcome back to another video for the British Council’s LearnEnglish Teens website and their YouTube channel.

I’m kind of in a rush, but I just wanted to tell you what today’s video is going to be about. Any guess? Actually, you probably can tell from the title. Anyway, we’re on our way to Iceland this morning, so me and my flatmate, Viktoria – who you might have seen in one of our other videos where we were making sushi – are on our way to Iceland for five days. It’s our first time that either of us are going, so we’re really excited and we just want to show you what we discover really, so if you’re interested, keep watching!

Hey, guys. So, we made it to the Geyser or we’re just about to enter. You can see all the little steam smokes. And Vicky!

It was, it was all right ...

Vicky: Well, except for the ...

Sophia: We went through a very big, like, mist cloud and that was kind of scary, but we’re here. We’re about to enter, so we’ll show you what it looks like when we’re closer up.

We’ve just entered the Geyser and we’re walking and we’ve seen that apparently the water is between 80 to 100 degrees, which is very hot. Well, you can see the vapour, so I guess it is quite hot. Maybe a bit too hot for a swim.

So, the geyser we went to see was just the baby geyser. We are told that the big geyser can take years to erupt, but when it does it can shoot up into the air as high as 70 metres. The baby geyser’s explosion was also impressive and it exploded every ten minutes on average.

Vicky: It’s the second day. We are driving. We are driving to the waterfall right now. And then we have some other things planned, like, um, the Diamond Beach, if we can make it that far today. But we will keep you updated.

Sophia: What’s your first impression of Iceland?

Vicky: It’s so pretty. It’s really peaceful for me.

Sophia: So, Vicky, where are we?

Vicky: We’re at Gullfoss waterfall. It’s pretty cool. (Sophia: Looks …) Looks icy but also it’s steaming so it might be warm.

Sophia: Yeah.

Sophia: Hey, guys! So, we are at our next stop. I actually don’t know how to pronounce this waterfall but it is amazing. Vicky’s just waiting in the car, but let me show you what it looks like. It’s incredible.

There’s a lot of geothermal energy, a lot of natural springs and a lot of natural waterfalls. So, I’ll bring you closer. We’ll see what it looks like.

Fun fact: Justin Bieber filmed his music video to his song ‘I’ll Show You’ at this very waterfall.

Currently I’m on the black beach. It’s got black sand, a lot of black rocks and this interesting cave feature. Let’s go closer.

This black sand beach is made from volcanic activity. It was created by lava flowing into the ocean, which cooled immediately and formed, over time, into these little rocks. Another fun fact, the popular TV series Game of Thrones was filmed at this beach as well as in other famous locations in Iceland.

So the sand isn’t really sand. It’s actually black volcanic rock. Is it volcanic rock? I don’t know.

Vicky: I think so, but it’s even smaller here. (Sophia: Yeah … ) If you go further down … It’s crazy.

Sophia: It’s very interesting – it leaves no, no sandy marks.

So, guys, we have just finished and then we’re back in our room and I thought it would be nice to show you what our hostel room for the next two days looks like. Before this, we were staying in an Airbnb closer to the capital but now we are in Skógar – I think that’s how you pronounce it – and this is just what a typical hostel room looks like. It’s a private one, so there’s only two bunks. As you can see, I’m up here and Vicky will be down there. We have a little sink, and here is Vicky! (laughter) … I was just showing them the room and explaining what a hostel-style room looks like. So I was saying how we have bunks but if you’re in a shared dormitory, then you’ll have, like, six or eight of these, or even ten …

Vicky: … and it’s cheaper.

Sophia: And it’s cheaper because then it’s, like, per head that you pay for the room. But sometimes you can get male only and female only, and sometimes it’s mixed. But, yeah, this is our little room for the next few days. We’re just going to relax for this evening and then we’ll show you what we’re doing tomorrow, I guess.

Good morning, guys! It’s our fourth and practically final day, erm, in Iceland, and we’re just about to leave our hostel, but before we do, there’s this really cool waterfall that we’re going to check out! As you can see, there’s loads of waterfalls in Iceland. I think that’s the main thing we’ve been seeing. (Vicky: But this is a big one!) But this is a big one, and I think we can climb to the top so we’re going to try and do that now.

We’re about to try and climb all the way up here. I don’t know if you can see, that’s actually quite a lot of stairs. I don’t ... I wonder how tall it is? I’m sure we’ll find out.

The best thing about the Skógarfoss Waterfall is how close you can get up to the crashing water. It’s an incredible experience.

So, guys, we finally made it to Diamond Beach. The ice has melted along the sealine, but there is still big chunks of ice right there.

Vicky: No diamonds.

Sophia: No diamonds.

Vicky: I thought she was going to get me a diamond ring but …

Sophia: But um … The water is, like, really blue and so is the ice and we’re wondering why that is. We actually don’t know.

Vicky: The reflection maybe …

Sophia: Do you think it’s to do with the minerals, though, in the water?

Vicky: I don’t know. Maybe.

Sophia: The Blue Lagoon was also really blue, but it looks really pretty and it’s a nice sunny day so we’re enjoying the sun.