The UK…the land of royalty, roast dinners and rain. At least that’s all I knew about the UK before travelling there from Australia for the first time. While it is now one of my favourite travel destinations, it was never really somewhere I thought about travelling to until I decided I wanted to take a break from uni and do the whole, live and work in a pub thing. (I feel like this is compulsory for all Australians).
Convinced that I needed a change, I finally took the plunge and signed up with a company who set me up with a job in a pub in Birmingham. After receiving my visa, it was February and I was excited, had my bags packed and was ready to go. People always told me that I was going to be travelling to the other side of the world, but it wasn’t until I had sat on the plane for 24 hours that I realised that I literally was on the other side of the world!
The nerves started to creep in as we approached for landing and at one point a little voice inside me started to wonder if this experience was really something I wanted to do. As if in an instant, the cold then hit me like a wall of ice. As it was early February, I literally was faced with a wall of ice when I departed the plane. (I felt like that guy in the movie ‘Cool Runnings’ when he gets out into the ice and its’ so cold that his dreadlocks snap off, haha). It was fresh to say the least, and considering I had just left the peak of the Australian summer…it was quite a shock to the system.
After I made it through what seemed like 1000 questions at customs, I walked into a shop to buy some water and some snacks. The weird thing was that the lady at the counter asked me, ‘You ok?’. As any polite Australian would reply, I told her ‘yes, I’m fine thankyou’ and then walked away wondering if she saw the exhaustion in my eyes so thought it best to check I was ok.
When getting into a cab, the driver also asked me if I was ok. Now I was starting to get suspicious. Do I look concerned? Do I look like I’m worried about something?…I was fine but I was starting to feel like other people thought that I wasn’t.
When starting my new job at a pub in Birmingham a few days later, I quickly realised that this whole ‘you ok?’ thing was actually a greeting. Here I was, thinking people were worried about me but really, it was their way of saying hello. I felt like a right idiot! Haha.
Over the next few weeks I had to learn a range of new skills such as: how to walk on an icy footpath without slipping over, how to layer my clothes so that I felt warm enough when outside but not boiling hot when I was inside with the fire going, how to drink a whole pint, how to recognise the difference between the coins, and of course, how to pack my own groceries at Sainsburys as the staff didn’t do it for you like they do in Australia.
Luckily, I got a grasp on all of these things pretty quickly (#fastlearner), but there is still one thing that even today I don’t understand……why on earth does every English person think Australians actually drink Fosters beer??? I had never had a Fosters beer in my life and couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it was on tap in the pub. Not only that, but it was actually a really popular beer. I still don’t understand it and it will forever remain a mystery to me.
I gradually came to discover that there were also a few words in the English vocabulary that baffled me and which as a result I had to adjust to. Words such as: aubergine rather than eggplant, rotor rather than roster, and pepper rather than capsicum. (You can only imagine the look on the poor customers face when she ordered a baked potato with peppers on it and I brought it out with a sprinkle of black pepper….oops!!)
So…shortly after this, my agency moved me to another pub out in Devon. If London felt far away, Devon certainly didn’t feel any closer. Now I was out in the countryside in a place I had never heard of. Not only that, but the new pub was ‘dog friendly’. This is something that we don’t do in Australia. I had never heard of such a thing and actually seeing dogs running around whilst I was serving food and drinks didn’t really stop feeling weird for a good three weeks or so.
This pub however was unique and really beautiful. It was hundreds of years old and positioned on a lock which opened every so often to allow boats to come through. It was an extremely popular eating and drinking spot, and I quickly got to know all of the regulars private business after spending hours polishing glasses and chatting away with them on the days it was quiet. I also loved the fact that all of the other staff were great fun and made me feel like England was a home away from home.
Gradually I got used to living away from home and was really enjoying immersing myself in the British culture. Being a food lover, one of my favourite things was eating all of the yummy foods. Roasts with crackling, Pork scratchings, Pork pies, aero chocolate and costa coffees all became a big part of my life and I was loving it. Luckily for me, I bought myself a bike so I could travel around and burn a few calories, haha.
Another thing that I absolutely loved and still enjoy now when I go over to the UK, is the cider. I must have tried so many and I can honestly attest to the fact that British cider is THE best cider. (If you are a cider lover, then England is for you).
Aside from the food and the drinks, the people, the cozy pub culture and the beautiful scenery all over England, there was one other thing that caught my eye and still stays close to my heart, and that my friend is a little thing called ‘PRIMARK’.
If you don’t know what Primark is, then I’m sorry but we cant be friends. If you do however, I’m sure you are smiling quietly right now, reminiscing the amazing times you’ve had in store. I had no words when I first stepped into Primark. The feelings of exhilaration took over my body and I literally didn’t know where to start. To this day, I leave extra space in my suitcase when I go to the UK especially for my Primark purchases. Once I even bought an additional suitcase just to cater for all of the extra clothes I was bringing home. The funny thing is that when I’m wearing my Primark clothes in Australia and people ask me where I got it, I just tell them I got it in London or England and then they think I’m super classy!!
So basically by this point you could say that I had finally found my feet in the UK. The sad part was however is that my holiday working visa had an expiry date which meant I had to return home. Although this was sad, it was also exciting as I knew I was now returning home as a different person. Not only was I more aware of the world, but I had taken a chance on an experience that to this day is still honestly one of the best things I have ever done. Home is always lovely, but I knew that this experience in the UK would not be my last, in fact it would only be one of many, many more!
Hope you enjoyed reading my little experience from my first travel in UK and do come back to @ukdaily blog to see more of amazing experience I had when I visited UK for first time!
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