Iceland: Not an EU member? Could have fooled me.

Reporters on the Job: Returning to Iceland after an eight-year absence, I noticed some big changes before I was even allowed into the country. Arriving from North America, my hand luggage was screened through X-ray machines before going through passport control, where I received a European Union entry stamp.

Icelanders aren’t in the European Union (read my story about that here) but as a visitor you’d hardly know it. EU citizens can travel and work here freely, and most of Reykjavik’s waiters and bus drivers seem to hail from my old stomping grounds: Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, or Bulgaria. It’s even part of Europe’s unified customs regime, something actual EU members like Romania and Bulgaria have yet to achieve.