THIS IS THE ICELAND OF THE POOR | The B side

I live in Jamaica. It’s hot, expensive, crime ridden, with poor utilities, roads, schools, and hospitals. Plus many of the people are rude and dishonest. Even Iceland looks good from here.

In my early 20's, I lived in Iceland a year, but thought seriously about staying. I assiduously studied the language, made progress, and discovered how deeply connected to me my Icelandic friends became. Winter is an issue, of course. As a New Englander (Massachusetts), however, winter was a familiar companion. And I adapted easily. The long dark nights were extraordinary. Spontaneous parties with much drinking increased then. And, because of that, I will not touch vodka ever again. To adapt, one must give of oneself as the culture & people, seeing that, give to you. Given a choice, I will return to Iceland.

I was stationed in Iceland in 90 and this country boy from the Ozarks first forgien experience. The wind can get pretty strong as I've been picked up off the ground by my parka hood and carried a few feet, also been blown down several times. Getting out of a vehicle with a tail wind catching the door can push it all the way forward into the fender. Beautiful scenery, gentle people, interesting culture, much respect.

as an antisocial hermit who hates sunlight and loves freezing snowy weather, iceland sounds like an absolute win

I was stationed there. It is really fun, but really expensive. I am a pilot and I remember taking off at Keflavik with sunny skies and coming back two hours later with blinding snow storms.......One day I was flying with some Icelandic pilots and I was making an approach down to minimums with a 35 kt crosswind and I turned to them and asked "how do you guys fly in this"?, they laughed and said "we don't"! ha ha ha

Where was the part about the poor of Iceland? You spoke about the bad weather, the difficult language and the fact that people have a difficult time with depression, but I missed anything about the poor of Iceland. Did it get lost in translation?

I have been living in Iceland for more than 4 years now (moved from Toronto) and I agree with a lot of people here that this is a very expensive country to live in. However, salaries do make up for it. Learning the language is not necessary (at least in my experience) but is definitely helpful to integrate more into the society and maintain connections with people. I notice that Icelanders do appreciate it a lot when they see a foreigner learning the language. One thing that I have been struggling with (til to this day) is the lack of sunlight during the winter months (late Oct-May). But after living here for a while, I learned that if you make the most of the summer months hiking out, absorbing sunlight, and just being with nature, you´ll definitely look forward slowing down in winter months and do your indoor hobbies. Similar to Canada, majority of the people here are snowbirds, flying down south to Spain or Tenerife during the winter months. That being said, I do enjoy living here atm but who knows how long will that last :)

I am an American who lived in Reykjavik for 3 years. You don’t need to speak a single word of Icelandic as about 95% of the population speaks fluent English. The worst things about the country is the weather and how expensive it is. Crazy offensively expensive. Young people come from other countries to find work and then find out it’s so expensive they can’t live there.

I lived in Iceland for a year in my early twenties. I would never, ever, had stayed more than the year I had originally planned for. It has some great attractions: nature is ever present and beautiful, though harsh and really really cold; it´s quiet and practically silent, so if you come from a crowded place the first few months are heaven; and people are nice and tolerant, hardly anyone is agressive or unpleasant. BUT, the negatives outhweigh the positives for me very quickly: prices are sky high and salaries are not a great deal, so we´re talking Norway prices with English salaries. Most people in my age bracket would spend their ENTIRE salary on alcohol, it was wild. Plus, nature may be beautiful but the weather SUCKS. My best friend was from Bournemouth and he said English weather felt tropical in comparison (in the middle of the fking SUMMER the max temperature is 15 celsius). And the culture is just... cold. These are some of the worst conversationalists in history, it´s practically impossible to have a proper conersation with someone you don´t know because of how shy and mute they are, and the only exeption is when they get drunk, as it´s the only way they know to open up. So all in all it´s depressing after a while, That being said, I´ve made some good friends, and just like anywhere, people are people so you can always find someone amazing, charming, etc that breaks all stereotypes.

I live in Minnesota and have been to Iceland. Iceland is NOT cold, it's very pleasant in the winter.

I've a friend who went to Iceland and he told me 'imagine how cold it could be - and then understand that it's much colder than you can imagine'

Me and my family moved away from Iceland over 8 years ago. Now, with the news of corruption, economic mismanagement and skyrocketing prices, we literally give our thanks every day that we moved away. Smartest thing we ever did.

I went to Iceland about 10 years ago in mid July, I left 28 degrees in England and landed in 10 degrees in Iceland, the locals all told me it was an unusually bad summer but it didn't matter to me I loved every minute of my time there, the nature was wonderful and the people even better. I was surprised when the narrator said wages are very high, yet some of the examples given in the video were on the low side.

Been to Iceland just for 7 days and and i must say it's bloody expensive to live there no doubt about it. Much love and respect from NYC. Exceptional content.

It seems that Ireland and Iceland are having very similar problems. Too expensive to live, not great weather, lack of opportunity... I hope that soon this will change for both countries

I love Iceland, probably because it is similar to home in Alaska but with a very open, sharing culture. Many similar problems, though the added problem of very expensive/inaccessible healthcare and insurance outside of employment. The only saving graces are low tax rates, cheap land to build your own house on (still very possible due to little regulation of buildings at your own risk), endless opportunity for work, and good people.

I spent about two weeks on assignment in Iceland working along locals. They were very nice, spoke fluent English and complained that the young generation growing up with Internet doesn't want to use Icelandic daily and communicate in English with their peers. So the language is not as much of a barrier as the video makes it out to be.

Was in Iceland in 2021 for my birthday. I love that country, so beautiful and all locals so kind. We rented a camper and had leftover food. I felt bad throwing it so asked these two kind locals where the nearest food bank was. I recommend others to do the same. ❤

When you are surrounded by billionaires, the millionaire is poor. This is not a joke and this is actual poverty.

I lived in Iceland for some time. As an American, I would say the country is amazing. Very very little crime, clean, extremely friendly people. The climate and weather I didn't mind at all honestly. The little sunlight in winter I did not mind either. My only real grief. The cost of living is through the roof. It's deemed Reykjavik is one of the most expensive capital cities in Europe, and one of the most expensive capitals in the world. Food alone is outrageously expensive. But. If you look. Everything down to grains are imported. You cannot grow many crops in Iceland due to its geography of mostly volcanic rock. The interior of the island is very sparsely populated with harsh climates. The constant looming threat of volcanic eruptions. The island is one mega volcano basically.