She Moved to the World’s Safest Country and Left After Seven Months: “I Started Losing My Mind”

Sometimes the places that look most perfect on paper turn out to be the hardest to actually live in. That’s exactly what 27-year-old Australian influencer and veterinary technician Hannah Hamar discovered when she packed up her life and relocated to Iceland, a country that has held the title of the world’s safest nation since 2008. She ended a long-term relationship, quit her job, and set off with the kind of optimism that only a big life change can bring. Within seven months, she was booking a flight home.

The decision wasn’t random. Hannah’s mother is Icelandic and moved to Australia in her thirties, which gave Hannah a deep pull toward the island and a sense that she was reconnecting with her roots. Thanks to her mother’s local contacts, she was even able to secure a job before she arrived, which in a country of roughly 300,000 people is no small advantage. On paper, everything lined up perfectly.

The early days were genuinely exciting. Hannah hiked across an active volcano and soaked in scenery that most people only ever see in photographs. But as the Icelandic winter set in, the reality of daily life began to weigh on her in ways she simply hadn’t anticipated. The near-total absence of daylight threw off her sleep entirely and left her feeling disoriented and worn down.

Sleep deprivation turned out to be the biggest factor driving her decision to leave. “I couldn’t cope with the insomnia,” she admitted, describing how the dark winters made it nearly impossible to feel like herself. Being far from close friends and family deepened the isolation in a way that was hard to push through. “I felt so lonely. I think I started to lose my mind a little,” she said.

The cultural adjustment brought its own set of challenges too. While Hannah found Icelanders to be genuinely warm once you got past the initial reserve, building real friendships took considerable effort. She noticed that people don’t greet strangers on the street the way Australians do, and the language barrier made socializing feel like an uphill battle on even the best days. The dating scene also caught her off guard, as Iceland leans heavily toward a casual approach before anything serious develops, which felt quite foreign compared to what she was used to back home.

@hlhamar snowy scenes in Iceland #reykjavik #iceland #scenery ♬ Right Down the Line – Gerry Rafferty

Then there was the cost of living. Groceries in Iceland ran roughly two to three times higher than what Hannah had been used to paying in Australia, and eating out was simply out of the question on her budget. She found herself surviving on the cheapest cuts of meat and heavily processed food because fresh produce was just too expensive to justify. It was a stark contrast to the lifestyle she had left behind.

The weather added one final layer of difficulty. Iceland regularly issues orange and red weather alerts for genuinely dangerous conditions, and Hannah described a particularly rough flight during a storm as the most frightening experience of her entire life. Between the relentless storms, the endless darkness, the loneliness, and the financial pressure, whatever romance she had attached to living in the world’s safest country had completely worn off by month seven.

Her story is a real reminder that safety rankings and breathtaking landscapes don’t tell the full story of what everyday life actually feels like from the inside. If you’ve ever taken the leap and moved abroad or have had a similar wake-up moment in a place you idealized, share your experience in the comments.