Guides to Life in Iceland
Practical guides for locals, immigrants and others to doing things in Iceland
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Do Shit: Get Everyone Ready For School
Anna Kristín helps you navigate the best deals for your kids It isn’t easy to navigate the Icelandic household’s back-to-school season, the autumn, when it’s time to restock your kids’ wardrobe in general, get them a bigger bed, new backpack and find…
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Unemployed? There’s A Benefit For That
The Grapevine’s ongoing guide to getting shit done Jobs, am I right? In the last installment of this series we took a look at how to leave a job — whether you’re let go or you resign — and what to expect…
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Do Shit: Whether You’re Fired Or You Quit, You Have Rights
The Útlendingur’s ongoing guide to getting shit done Jobs. You can’t live with them, you can’t live without them. Well, fine, you can live with them — a lot of people have jobs they love, with employers and colleagues they gel with…
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Winter Driving For Dummies
The Útlendingur’s ongoing guide to getting shit done This winter is wintering hard. In fact, I’m typing this article as an orange weather warning morphs into a red weather warning and the Icelandic Met Office promises violent storms will stretch across the…
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Gig While Keeping On The Tax Man’s Good Side
The Útlendingur’s ongoing guide to getting shit done Life in Iceland is very expensive. While nothing here has never been affordable, news circulated at the close of 2024 that the cost of groceries was set to increase by 30%, while the cost…
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Go Get Yours — Child Benefits Edition
An Útlendingur’s ongoing guide to getting shit done When last I penned this ongoing series of (hopefully) informative and helpful articles on navigating Icelandic bureaucracy, society or just life in general — hey, those who can’t do, teach, amirite? — I was…
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Do Shit: Pass As An Icelander
If you’ve been following the Do Shit series for a while, you should be able to do a lot of shit by now. We assume you’ve gotten your legal status squared away, successfully filed your taxes, gotten housing benefits, joined a union,…
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Do Shit: Move House, And Live To Tell The Tale
Welcome to the latest episode of our ongoing útlendingar’s guide to getting shit done. Moving fucking sucks, and there’s no two ways about it. It’s tiring, it’s a huge amount of hassle, and upending your only truly safe space is psychologically gruelling.…
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Do Shit: Housing Benefits Edition
We immigrants get a bad rap sometimes. Despite the fact that moving to another country, learning a new language, integrating into a new culture, and basically starting life from scratch far from the place you were born is a hell of a…
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Do Shit: Have A Life Laundry
I dunno about you guys, but I’m a bit of a hoarder. Not the living-in-a-junk-cave, stepping on plates, sleeping under newspapers kind of hoarder. More of the benign garden variety type, with a few too many totes full of old electronics, some…
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Do Shit: Paying It Forward (To Yourself)
The Útlendingur’s ongoing guide to getting shit done Pensions. Hey, wake up, it’s not that boring! In fact, if you really think of it, knowing that you’re putting money aside now to sustain you in your third act is pretty exciting. But…
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Do Shit: Figuring Out Labour Unions
The Útlendingur’s ongoing guide to getting shit done If you are working in Iceland you’re likely aware of the existence of labour unions. In fact, one of the first on-boarding questions you’re likely to be asked by a new employer is “what…
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Do Shit: Get Your Kid Into Leikskóli
The Útlendingur’s ongoing guide to getting shit done Is there anything as wildly wonderful and simultaneously stressful as being a new parent? You’ve welcomed a darling little baby into your home, doted on them around the clock, filling their squishy little belly…
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Do Shit: Get Checked For Cancer
An Útlendingur’s ongoing guide to getting shit done It’s often touted as rude to ask a lady her age, but nobody asked and I’m not embarrassed. Though my youthful aura belies my age, I’m going to be 40 this year — on…
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Do Shit: Get Out There And Protest
An Útlendingur’s ongoing guide to getting shit done It may still be cold in Iceland, but it sure feels like the world is on fire. Maybe, catalysed by said fire, you’re in the mood to join your peers in a little peaceful…
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Do Shit: Making Sense Of Recycling In Reykjavík
The Útlendingur’s ongoing guide to getting shit done For 14 years living in Reykjavík, I found myself lamenting the lack of home pick-up for sorted recycling and biowaste. So when Reykjavíkurborg began rolling out its new waste management system in 2023, I…
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Do Shit: How To Get An Abortion In Iceland
The útlendingur’s ongoing guide to getting shit done Much like wrangling your annual tax return or figuring out how to register your kid for extra-curriculars, navigating the health care system in Iceland can be tricky and frustrating and, sometimes, rage inducing. But…
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Coming And Going On The Cheap
The Útlendingur’s ongoing guide to getting shit done If you’re an Útlendingur like me, one of your favourite things to do in Iceland is leave Iceland. Whether it’s the odd trip to the motherland to grace family and friends with your presence…
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Do Shit: Make Small Talk With Icelanders
The Útlendingur’s Guide To Getting Shit Done “So, how do you like Iceland?” If ever you happen across an Icelander keen on engaging in small talk, that undoubtedly going to be a question posited at the first inkling of your foreign heritage.…
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Renew your rafræn skilríki
The Útlendingur’s Ongoing Guide To Getting Shit Done You know what I hate? Remembering passwords. I know, my trusty Apple products store all my login details safely in a keychain, but I still inevitably mange in too many cases to fuck that…
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The Útlendingur’s Guide To Getting Shit Done: Divorcing
Consciously uncoupling in Iceland Are you longing for your significant other to hold a less significant place in your life? Then getting a divorce may just be for you! Here in Iceland, either party in a marriage is legally allowed to apply…
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The Útlendingur’s Guide To Getting Shit Done: Make Friends
Try your hand at making local friends Making new friends in adulthood can be tough. Long gone are the days when you and another eager mini human bond over a shared love of the monkey bars on the school playground or are…
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The Útlendingur’s Guide To Getting Shit Done: Start An EHF
So you’ve been gigging, freelancing and contracting and figure there’s got to be a more professional way to organise yourself — not to mention a slightly more lucrative way to manage your salary and taxation. Consider establishing an einkahlutafélag, or ehf. We…