England is not completely different from America, but there were quite a few things that weren't the same.
Here I share some "major" differences I found between England and America.
- We quickly realized that pedestrians do NOT have the right-of-way. Traffic comes at you from a different way (because they drive on the opposite side of the road), but that actually wasn't too hard to get used to for me. I look both ways anyway. :) Also, most roads have painted arrows and then the words "look left" or "look right." But you better believe if a car is coming you either need to run to get out of their way, or wait until they pass to start crossing. They also are not afraid to use their horns!
- A huge difference, that was quite embarrassing for me : you do not ask for cream for your coffee/tea. They will look at you like a lunatic. Cream in England was explained to me as a butter-like consistency. If you want what Americans call cream, you just ask for milk.
- Along the lines of coffee/tea, the biggest size drink cup I came across was 12oz, instead of our 24oz.
- If you want water at a restaurant you have to order it. They'll ask if you want still or sparkling. I believe if you order still it's a water bottle and they charge you. If you say "tap" it comes from the faucet and is complimentary (they also never used the word "free").
- There was not really any ice anywhere for cold drinks. A couple of restaurants gave a few cubes in tap water. You can't order an iced drink anywhere though.
- On beds they only have fitted sheets and then a heavy blanket in a duvet cover.
- I missed my flat sheet and thin blanket!
- They only have one salad dressing choice. It's called salad cream and was described as "almost like thousand island."
- Air conditioning was rare.
- If you know me at all you know I like very bland food. However; English food is terribly bland. Zach said they don't have hot sauce, you have to bring your own!
- If you're a traveling parent with an infant/toddler, some of the best advice I got was to not bring a stroller because they have a lot of cobblestone roads and sidewalks which makes for bumpy rides. They also have a lot of stairs to get into the attractions. Also, inside the old buildings there are quite a few stairs, and not everywhere has elevators.
- Carseats : one taxi service had one, the other didn't. We called ahead for both and requested one. The one that didn't provide a car seat charged us 20pounds more (about $40) for liability reasons. The driver said if he were to get pulled over he would get three marks on his license.
- They use military time, Celsius for temperature, pounds & pence for money. One pound is a coin, anything higher was a bill.
There you have it, the main differences I found that actually affected me while there. :)
Now I will share a short story from my time in England ::
It was the first day Penelope and I had arrived in London, so we were walking around exploring the city. I had noticed a couple of buildings had security. At one gated and secured street there was quite a large crowd that had formed. I looked around and had no idea what I was looking at. After about five minutes I finally decided to ask a gentleman what this was. He responded, "10 Downing Street." He must have noticed my still confused face. In my head I was thinking, is this some Downton Abbey thing? Do they shoot here? Thank goodness I didn't voice those questions out loud! The gentleman spoke again, "The Prime Minister lives down there. This is what you see on the news all the time, them capturing him entering and exiting his residence." Yeah, I'm an American and we don't have a Prime Minister so I actually have no idea what his role is! I should probably look that up now!
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