Hi there, it's Ernest from Trip Astute. As many of you know, I spent the holidays in
the UK. So in this video, I'll be sharing the top things that I noticed as an
American when traveling to England.
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England is a beautiful place to visit, and for American travelers, fairly easy
given the language and lack of visa requirements. I actually visited in
December 2017 since Fiona's family lives just outside of London. We decided to
spend the holidays there and also take a couple of side trips to Barcelona, Lisbon,
and Bath. I decided while I was there that I didn't want to do a traditional
destination review on London, simply because there's so much to show and
there are already so many great destination reviews and channels on the
subject. So I decided to focus on things that I noticed as an American. In fact,
since Fiona is a Brit, I'm always surprised at what she finds unique and
different when were in LA. So this is a summary of things that were surprising
to me as an American traveler. Number 1: Traffic flows. Like a handful of
other countries, Brits drive on the left side of the road. This was especially
disorienting when I first arrived. I also kept looking for traffic on the wrong
side when crossing the road. Parking is also less structured than in the US. You
can park on either side of the road, even if you're facing the wrong side of
traffic. Lastly, I thought the traffic lights were really cool. The Brits use
the yellow or amber light to not only signal when the light is turning from
green to red, but also from red to green. Number 2: Plastic notes. I was surprised
on my last trip that certain cash bills were now plastic. While Brits use a lot
of coins, which we're definitely not accustomed to in the US, I found that the
plastic money to be pretty awesome. I definitely would love to see the US
adopt the plastic notes like so many other countries. Number 3: Gigantic
plugs. The plugs in the UK are different than the rest of Europe, and they are
huge. Seriously, the plugs are gigantic compared to what we're used to in the US.
Also, each outlet has an individual switch, so don't forget to turn on the
switch and make sure that you have power before charging up your phone at night.
Number 4: Interesting foods. It was really fun being in the UK for the
holidays. The Brits have some really interesting foods like mince pies,
Christmas pudding, and Scotch eggs. What's interesting is that they're not often
what they are named. For example, mince pies have something called mince meat,
but don't actually contain meat. Christmas pudding is not really what we
Americans would call pudding. And Scotch eggs are, well, those are eggs, but
they're surrounded by meat. But I don't think they have anything to do with
Scotch. Also, there's a whole host of other foods that just have weird names,
and to an American, may be slightly inappropriate. Number 5: Gas stations.
Not only is gas or petrol, as the Brits call it, really expensive, but I found
that they use the green handle to represent regular unleaded gas. In the
US, we typically use the green handles to designate diesel. So, if you're filling
up your tank in the UK, make sure you read the labels carefully at the pump.
Number 6: Mobile payments everywhere. I was shocked at how prevalent mobile
payments were in the UK. I would say that 90 percent of transactions could be made
with Apple Pay, which was super convenient since I didn't have to deal
with the whole chip and signature process. Since most of the world is using
chip and pin, signatures are typically not required when paying for products
unless you're using an American credit card since most of our cards don't
support the technology. Though using mobile payments allows me to pay without
any complications. Also, it worked on the London Tube, which
was a nice bonus. Number 7: Military time is commonplace. While we typically don't
use military time in the US, you'll notice that most Brits will use it in
their daily lives. I noticed that Fiona's phone in the US
was set up with military time, but when I saw that most other phones in the UK
used it too, I realized it was a normal thing. Number 8:
Tuna and corn sandwiches. Okay so I love both of these things, but I never thought
of putting them together. When we stopped at a Marks and Spencer market to pick up
a quick lunch, I noticed they had a bunch of unique seafood options like tuna and
corn, prawn, and salmon sandwiches. I opted for the tuna and corn,
and I have to say it was delicious. Number 9: Tons of accents and dialects.
Great Britain is just over half the size of California, but even within such a
small country, there is such a variety of dialects and accents. I personally found
the accents from Scotland and Wales to be the most difficult to understand as
an American, but even some of the northern accidents were challenging.
Still, I think it's so interesting that a country so small can retain so much
variation in the language. And those are the top things that I noticed as an
American in England. There's actually a lot of other things like the different
terminology and phrases used, but we'll have to save that for another video. Have
you been to the UK? If so, what differences did you notice? I'm also
curious to hear from Brits who have visited the United States. I'm sure there
are a ton of things that we do that must be completely nuts to those outside the
US. If you enjoyed this video or found it useful, please hit the "like" button and
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