Things NOT to do in England

The English are one of the most peculiar nations of Europe. They insist on driving on the other side of the road, they insist on using the pound even though they are part of the EU. At this point, they want to leave the EU, because they think they are better off without the union. There are many interesting and odd things you will notice if you live here for a while or even if you just visit London for a short time. These are customs that you will only see in England, and you will never see on the other side of the World.

1. The English love queuing and they call it a queue instead of a line. In America, people stand in line, here they queue. You go down to the tube (subway), and people are standing in an organized queue, waiting for the train to arrive. If you try to cut the queue like I used to do when I arrived in the country, they will make very ugly comments, and they will think you are a rude foreigner, who doesn’t respect the local customs. So queue jumpers will not be treated kindly here.

2. Don’t take up the whole space on the escalator. Always stand on the right side of the escalator and let people pass by on the left side. If you take up too much space and you won’t let people pass you, you will hear the locals commenting on you.

3. Don’t try to drink the English under the table, because you will lose. If you want to make English friends in a pub and you want to have a couple of pints with them, that’s great. They are friendly people, who will welcome the idea, but don’t try to keep up with them unless you want to end up getting alcohol poisoning. They can stand outside of the pubs for hours and drink from early afternoon until late at night, and they can drink pint after pint, and they can still stand on their own feet.

4. Don’t ever say anything bad about the Queen. The English love the Queen and they think Her Majesty is the best thing England has. I even heard some of them say that England’s economy will never be affected by Brexit because they have the Queen. The Queen is on every pound bill, and she is respected like no one else in the World.

5. Don’t call the whole of the UK, England. Especially not, when you meet Scots, Welsh or Northern Irish, because they will be very much offended. Many of them oppose being part of the UK, and they have strong national identities.

6. If you are in the South of England, don’t try to spark up conversations with strangers in public, because it is not a very common thing to do and people will not understand it. They will think you are just a weirdo.

7. When someone asks how you are, never reply negatively. Tell them you are fine and everything is going well. In this country, you will have to fake it. People will not talk about negative things and the English won’t even know how to handle bad news.

8. Don’t insist on cold beer or coke with lots of ice. Do like the locals, just drink it warm.

9. If you meet a Britt, who wants to talk about the weather, do not try to talk about something else. Go on and talk about the weather for as long as the Britt wants. It’s their favorite thing to do in this country, and they can go on talking about it for half an hour.

10. In London, never make eye-contact. Londoners will do everything to ignore eye contact on a packed train. They will feel very awkward if you stare into their eyes and try to make eye-contact or if you initiate a conversation with a stranger in public.

Eccentricity is among the most celebrated British traits. There is no end to Britain’s weird and wonderful festivals and traditions. Here you can do cheese rolling or bog snorkelling. (Bog snorkelling is a competition of people, swimming in very dirty water in strange costumes.) Here you can have endless new experiences. You can also call them odd experiences. I can assure you that you will be amused.

Barbara is a London-based luxury travel and lifestyle blogger of www.jet-settera.com. She left her country when she was 17 to conquer the World as a model. Ever since she has lived in seven countries and visited 68. She blogs about exclusive destinations and the some of the most prestigious events around the World such as Venice, Cannes, San Sebastian Film Festivals, Oscar Parties in LA, Fashion Weeks in Milan or Paris, yacht parties in St-Tropez as well as Prince Albert’s wedding in Monaco. She also writes about adventure travel across Asia, South-America and Europe. Read about her latest adventures to Indonesia on her blog. Find her on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest

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