Week 14 #2: 101 to survival in Scotland

So, I've been in Scotland almost 14 weeks now, and while I have come to feel quite at home with Scottish society, it is also very, very different from Denmark where I come from. I thought I'd list those differences here:

1. Bikes

If you come from Denmark you will expect to travel most places by bike. In the city I live in, Aarhus, it is faster to travel by bike than it is to travel by bus or car. Yes, Danes bike, in their suit and tie and with their kids and groceries. It came quite as a surprise to see very few bikes on the streets over here and to witness the disrespect about them.

2. Weather

You will hear that it always, always, always rains in Scotland. While it might rain less in Denmark, the generalization that it always rains in Scotland is just plain wrong. Yes, it does rain, and occasionally the weather will have difficulties figuring out if is winter/spring/summer/fall, but it does not always rain. In fact, Scotland is extremely beautiful in sunshine.

3. Tea

Tearooms. Please do yourself the favor of visiting a tearoom. There is a tea culture in Scotland that I have not witnessed anywhere else in the world, and being a tea lover and quite enjoying a nice cup of tea (not English Breakfast), a tearoom is a dream come true, wonderful place to visit. They usually offer many kinds of tea, and they also offer a variety of cakes and main meals.
Also, please don't be as stupid as I was and insult English Breakfast tea. There's a reason it's called English Breakfast tea, and Scottish people would anytime prefer breakfast tea over Earl Grey.

4. Money

Okay, so money. They have their standard bills ranging from the rare £1, then £5, £10, £20 and £50. These are easy to figure out. What's hopeless is the amount of coins that will weigh down your wallet after a shopping spree. These range from £0.01, £0.02, £0.05, £0.1, £0.2, £0.5, £1 to the rare £2. It seems like quite a large number of coins that's needed. Especially because they give back the exact amount of change, so in the end you get stuck with all the 0.0-somethings that no machine will want. I had to get rid of mine today, so I spent 10 minutes in Tesco feeling like a lousy person just feeding the machine all my ridiculous coins.
Again, please don't be as stupid to insult their coins. And really not in the same day you decide to insult their tea as well...

5. Food

Before going to Scotland you might hear about haggis. The vile, almost dangerous dinner dish made of sheep-things served in a sheep stomach. I have not had the possibility of tasting haggis while being in Scotland, and that is partly probably because of the anything but flattering description of the dish, but I have heard that it should be extremely delicious.
However, while haggis might be famous outside of Scotland, Scotland has other dishes as well. There is the deep-fried Mars bar (I didn't know about that one) and then there's Irn Bru which I have quite come to like, a lot. So much so that I'm actually drinking one right now.

6. Jaywalking

I don't even know how to talk about this. Jay-freaking-walking. The perfect way to stand out in Scotland is by standing still, waiting for the light to change to green. NOBODY does that. People just walk, and coming from Denmark where nobody walks before the light actually does turn green it was strange, at best, to find that even the police does not care to wait for the light to change, but if you decide to jaywalk, just make sure you're not going to get run over, because the cars and buses don't really care about you. You might just get run over.

7. Multiply by x

Well, take one item in Denmark and then imagine it in many, many other variations. Also, imagine a cinema with no less than insanely many escalators that will give you the best view of the city. While the most applied sentence to America is: "Everything is just bigger" I will go ahead and apply that term in another way and say "everything is just bigger than Denmark", because it just is.

8. Explore

Scotland is full of hidden gems and you just have to go explore to find them. Let me stress: do not sit in your room and expect the gems to just pop in through your window. It will not happen. You need to go actively seek them out, and while traveling through Scotland might be boring, it is also a very, very beautiful chance to see the Scottish nature is all its height and might. Because Scottish nature is majestic, and the sense of insignificance that comes over you when standing next to a loch or ben is unparalleled.

9. Myths

While at it with your exploring, please do yourself the favor of exploring some of the myths of Scotland. There are many, many more than there are mythical creatures, but they are a part of the Scottish legacy and as such they cannot be neglected nor ignored. The myths are what gives Scotland, and especially the cities their historical value, and a visit to a city without a myth is just a half-hearted attempt at something that will never become good.
If you go on a tour with no myths, you just simply didn't get your value for money.
Especially the myths have been a focus throughout this blog, and those are the stories I seek actively.

10. Dress code

One term commonly applied to Danish people is "they know how to dress accordingly to the weather" and Danes mostly dress in black or grey colors. No bombastic purple coats or a emerald green will be seen in the Danish streets, or if it does happen it will happen very rarely. So arriving in Glasgow in January in what felt like -15 degrees Celsius I was more than surprised to find that skirts and naked legs were commonly seen. I would be wearing fleece leggings, winter boots, double layers, hats, scarves and two pairs of gloves, and people almost looked at me like I was an idiot.
When we reached 15 degrees Celsius in the middle of April, and I was sunbathing in the window of my room, shorts and even shorter skirts were brought out. And bikinis.
So prepare for what you never thought you were going to see, and prepare to see that anything goes. And please don't forget the kilt.