Once I stayed with an MP in his London apartment; it was in a crappy area (Whitechapel?) and the flat was small, old and the gas heater required putting coins in to function! I had never seen such a contraption! His weekly rent there was more than my monthly rent, and my apartment was in a nice section of Berlin!
I am sure England is the same as the US or Germany - the further away from center of town, the cheaper things get. Still - I have lived in Berlin, NYC, Chicago, Los Angeles and now Las Vegas - and as far as cost of living, my impression is that London just seemed to be the priciest for the least creature comforts.
I’m sure it is. My point is that London isn’t the whole of the UK – or even England. Living in London isn’t just expensive in comparison to cities in other countries, it’s expensive compared to living in cities in the same country – and by a significant margin.
The UK’s a lot more racially diverse than other European countries. Not that other countries are completely full of white natives, but they’re nothing like the UK.
I’m from Spain and found both Yorkshire and the Highlands very pretty, with the occasional breathtaking spot. You also have a lot more Gothic and pseudo-Gothic than the rest of Europe, including a large amount of civilian buildings.
One difference is that many people who are bilingual will be broken-bilingual, having a “home language” and English rather than a second language they’ve learned at school. Their level of, say, Spanish, won’t be much different from that of someone who’s had a few years of bad teachers but the mistakes will be different ones. Of course, this doesn’t make much difference to the OP.
One of my coworkers in Scotland claimed that she hadn’t seen anybody who looked like an immigrant, she’d been expecting to see a much more “colorful” population. I had to point out that, for example, her neighbor whose lastname ends in -poulos is of Greek extraction and the guy at the 24h store was clearly from the Indian subcontinent. The lass may not be colorblind, but she isn’t very good at facial features
There’s a lot more ethnic variation and a lot more ethnic restaurant and stores than in most of Europe. In other countries you’re unlikely to find an Indian or Japanese restaurant in places with less than a million inhabitants; in the UK you have Indian takeaway holes-in-the-wall in places with several thousand inhabitants. Please note that this definition of ethnic doesn’t include Italian, as those are everywhere.
Will you feel better if I tell you that the bread sold by Morrison’s is as good as that found in decent Spanish bakeries?
Which still puts it at one star as opposed to the five stars of French bakeries (the only country where I actually found myself looking forward to bread), but oh well.
