UK vs US
* Trains! That run on time! With clear, audible, and polite announcements! Explanations and apologies for delays! The food cart on the train to Edinburgh!
* The tube! More clear, audible announcements and explanations. Apologies when they fuck up. And they tell you when the next train is coming! And they run so much more frequently than the subway!
* People on escalators actually stand to the right so you can walk on the left if you’re in a hurry.
* Courtesy! People who go out of their way to be nice. (Two examples: the guy at the British Museum who wrote me a voucher to use my audio guide two days later without paying again because I’d only had it for an hour before the museum closed, and the wonderful woman in Edinburgh who saved me and ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
jaydk from having to pay £101 each to get back to London after our stupid tour bus got us to the train station too late to make our scheduled train. Not to mention the countless people who held doors or let me walk first instead of shoving their way in front of me.)
* They censor that hideous Saw ad that makes me gag every time I see it in NY. (In London it’s just a blur with a “censored” mark over it. Here it’s a guy wearing another guy’s face as a mask. I don’t think I should have to see this horrid thing every day on my way to work.)
* People actually know what Doctor Who is! You can walk into a toy store and buy Doctor Who stuff!
* Sooooo much history. Buildings and artifacts and ruins going back thousands of years instead of hundreds. Just a more thorough perspective on history and our place in the scale of things.
* You can get alcohol anywhere. And even bring it into the theater with you!
* Three words: Clean. Public. Restrooms.
* Cheaper theater tickets. So many good theater options.
* People just talk more quietly. Well, except the loud drunken assholes, who are apparently pretty much the same everywhere. But in restaurants or on the train, it’s just quieter.
* Pretty much every single restaurant offers multiple clearly marked vegetarian options (with a little “V” sign on the menu). Unfortunately most contain dairy products, but it’s still ahead of the US.
* Really good tea. Not that horrid stuff you usually get in the US. Even the cheap tea provided by our London B&B was superior to the bitter Lipton crap that you get here.
* FREE MUSEUMS. I’d go to the British Museum every week if I lived over there.
* David Tennant. Oh, you lucky people who don’t have to fly over an ocean to get to Hamlet. I want to see it again!
* Sleeping the night through without being awoken by a cat.
* Not having to give Lucifer his insulin shots. I think that was my favorite part of the vacation, actually. *sigh*
* Lukewarm water. WHY DO THESE FAUCETS EXIST? No one wants entirely hot or entirely cold water! You want water that you can put your hands in without burning or freezing! If you combine the faucets into one you can have all three options! I DO NOT UNDERSTAND.
* Long hot showers. The freezing-cold shower in Stratford was definitely the lowlight of my trip!
* Plumbing in general. How hard can it be to create a toilet that flushes correctly???
* Heat. I know, I know, global warming, spoiled Americans, but I freaking hate being cold.
* Air conditioning on the subway. Even in fall there were a couple of occasions in which we were sweltering in there.
* Things open late. How can the tube close at midnight??? I would never survive long-term in London.
* Being served tap water and having it refilled at restaurants. Especially spicy Indian and Thai restaurants.
* Comfortable mattresses. I think it’s an insult to true mattresses everywhere to label that stabby, saggy thing I slept on in London a “mattress.”
* Trash cans. Do British people just carry garbage around with them all day? I can’t tell you how many times I had to hunt and hunt for somewhere to throw an empty water bottle or a wrapper that wouldn’t fit into my jam-packed tourist bag before going into a no-food-or-drinks attraction. GRRRR.
* Internet. My cats. My own bed. You know, the usual. :)
Tags: travel
13 Responses to “UK vs US”
Paratti on October 24, 2008 4:10 pm | Link
Street, stations etc Rubbish bins have been mostly removed since the IRA started putting bombs in them.
[reply to this comment]
rusty-halo on October 24, 2008 4:20 pm | Link
Wow, that’s creepy.
[reply to this comment]
a_white_rain on October 24, 2008 4:57 pm | Link
Oh man cold! You’ll see me bitching about that a lot. IT’S NOT EVEN PROPERLY COLD HERE WITH REAL SNOW. Not sure if I could live there, but omg I so want to visit. Good public transportation is nowhere here.
[reply to this comment]
rusty-halo on October 24, 2008 5:40 pm | Link
It is an awesome place to visit. And they have David Tennant! And John Simm! ;)
[reply to this comment]
minervamoon on October 24, 2008 5:23 pm | Link
>People on escalators actually stand to the right so you can walk on the left if you’re in a hurry.
It’s such a wonderful system! How can we get that adopted in the U.S., damn it all?
>People actually know what Doctor Who is! You can walk into a toy store and buy Doctor Who stuff!
Whenever I’m in Target with a friend, I always have to shout, “WHERE IS ALL THE DOCTOR WHO STUFF?” (and she always has to reply, “In England.”).
_______
>WHY DO THESE FAUCETS EXIST?
Oh my GOD! I think every single person I met in the UK got my “WTF is up with your faucets?” rant. I’m still at a loss to explain it. Similarly, the lack of garbage disposals in sinks (something about it being illegal for anything but water to go down the drain — which makes so much sense).
>Things open late. How can the tube close at midnight??? I would never survive long-term in London.
In Lancaster, the shops closed at 4 or 5 o’bloodyclock. How do people do their shopping after work? London is a bit better, but you’re right about the tube; I got stuck a few times. They do run buses throughout the night, though.
[reply to this comment]
rusty-halo on October 24, 2008 5:45 pm | Link
It is so annoying that NO ONE in the US knows to stand on the right! Anytime I’ve (politely) asked people to step to the right so that I can walk past, I get glared at or yelled at. Stupid lazy Americans. :P
THOSE FAUCETS MAKE NO SENSE. It’s like… more effort, for less flexibility. No one has explained it to me.
A lot of places in Stratford seemed to close early too. Admittedly I’m spoiled by living in NYC; lots of places close earlier in more suburban or rural parts of this country, too. But I was still surprised at how much closed early in London. I probably should’ve spent some time figuring out the bus system, but it turned out to be unnecessary since we were headed home before midnight each night after all.
[reply to this comment]
soundingsea on October 24, 2008 6:37 pm | Link
It sounds like 90% of the Ways the UK Is Better are basic courtesy. Why oh why are people here so RUDE?
[reply to this comment]
rusty-halo on October 24, 2008 6:48 pm | Link
Yup, basic courtesy. It now feels completely depressing to get on the subway every day and deal with the incessant rudeness that I’d gotten used to ignoring. *sigh*
[reply to this comment]
nutmeg3 on October 24, 2008 6:43 pm | Link
I don’t understand the tube closing at midnight at. all. I mean, OK, maybe 3:00 AM or something, but midnight?! That’s early even for an old broad like me.
Welcome home, btw.
[reply to this comment]
rusty-halo on October 24, 2008 6:53 pm | Link
Thanks. :) It feels so disorienting to be back… twelve days was a long time to be away!
[reply to this comment]
Zafra on October 24, 2008 10:49 pm | Link
The grocery stores here annoy me. I’m just north of Orlando, FL which you would think would be somewhat of a thriving metropolis. But sadly, no. Our major grocery store chain closes at 10pm on weekdays (down from 11pm!) and 9pm on Sundays. I think on Saturdays they are still open until 11pm. Our buses make their last run from 11p-midnight. Target and most other stores (Circuit City, Best Buy, etc) close at 10pm or earlier. The mall closes at 9pm unless it’s a month before Christmas until about two weeks after.
This just means every person under-the-sun is shopping from 5-7pm or on the weekends, which makes it a crowded mess. And when I worked an off-shift I had to shop in a grocery store I hate just because it happened to be open either really late, or twenty-four hours. Even that isn’t so, anymore. I think they close at midnight now. If I was an insomniac or having an episode and wanted to shop at midnight after a particularly bad day (ie lying around unable to act or think rationally) I’d have to travel several miles to the nearest ’super’ something.
[reply to this comment]
Darcy on October 25, 2008 3:00 am | Link
Trains! That run on time!
Really? You had on-time trains? Gosh.
If you combine the faucets into one you can have all three options!
Not in England you can’t — even mixer taps don’t mix correctly. Bah.
[reply to this comment]
pluckyyounggirl on October 26, 2008 8:39 am | Link
I WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND BRITISH FAUCETS. NEVER.
Now I miss London again. :-(
[reply to this comment]