While some of this may be true, I just want to comment that I’ve lived in a number of European countries as an expat, including several which are known to be typically “unfriendly” and have never had trouble making friends (and I am not some magically gregarious, extroverted person) Indeed, if anything, once I learned even a small amount of the language or found people who spoke some English, my being a foreigner was an easy way into meeting people.

The times I lived in either areas or countries with few foreigners, lots of people were extremely interested in learning about how I came to be in their area, why I chose to go there, etc. Sure, this isn’t the path to long term friendship, but once you start talking to people you find other things in common, and real friendship builds from there. And when I lived in places with lots of tourists or expats, people were also very friendly once they realized I valued their culture and was interested in learning, and wasn’t just a drunk tourist or a someone who expected them to adapt to me rather than the other way around.

Living in a new place for sure has its challenges, but it can be very rewarding. Particularly if you will be in a job where you have an opportunity to work with local people, you will find friends.

Also, if you decide you want to travel, flights from Iceland to Europe are often extremely affordable. Iceland wants to promote tourism so you often can get quite good deals on flights in my experience (never lived in Iceland, but have priced out lots of flights).

I can’t comment on Iceland in particular (though the people I’ve met from there have been cool), but as long as you’re not bankrupting yourself or something, taking the opportunity to live abroad is one of the best decisions I ever made.