General

• Elevators don't have door close buttons, only door open ones.
• Escalators go up on the left hand side.
• You have to turn on an outlet before you can use it.
• For light switches, up is off and down is on.
• There are no complimentary peanuts or drinks on EasyJet.
• Rein Air was caught using the toilets as a booked seat.
• Toilets are called water closets and it is not unusual to pay to use pulic ones.
• The Prime Minister is not eleceted by the people. He is appointed by the majority party.
• Living areas are much smaller.
• Food is more expensive and you get smaller portions.
• Burgers are sometimes eaten with a knife and fork.
• Cash registers are mostly coins bins. There is a little section where the cashier files away the notes all together.
• Traffic lights are a little differnt here. Drivers get a warning when the light is about to turn from red to green. The light wil either go to a red and yellow (also called amber) or to a flashing yellow light before it turns green.
• Soft drinks come in 330mL cans and 500mL bottles.
• Some alcohol comes in 2L bottles.
• The ground floor is marked G and the floor above that is 1. So our second floor is their first floor. One of my friends here told me that he was in an elevator in the States and he pressed G thinking that it would take him to the ground floor. Wasn't he suprised when he wound up in the under ground garage. Also the basements might be labeled with negative numbers.
• In the UK you can leave school at 16 or you can stay in and take your A level exams to get ready for college.

• Everyone in Northern Irleand holds dual British and Irish citizenship. With that they can get both UK and Irish passports.
• When I am drunk, I can't understand what these people are saying.
• In Belfast as soon as your light turns red the light for the cross traffic turns green, so it isn't a good idea to run a red light since there is no pause between you stopping and them going.
• Most cars are manual transmissions. If you go to rent a car and they give you an automatic then they might ask if you know how to drive and automatic. If you take your driving test on an automatic then you are not allowed to drive a manual. When coming to a stop in a manual many people will put on the hand brake while they are at rest.
• Snickers used to be called Marathon Bars and Starburts used to be Opal Fruit.
• No one wears hats or white running shoes and no one has facial hair...guess who sticks out like a sore thumb.
• Everything is much more expensive here!!
• Someone in the IT field makes around �20000+ a year. That translates to about $37,000+ annually in the States. To put in perspective, I have buddies making $60k+ right out of undergrad (about �33k+). That is a little less than senior engineers make here.
• People will change their car insurace annually.
• Cars rarely have more than a 2 liter engine and if they do then it is probably a diesel. Gas is around 85p per L, which is almost $6 a gallon.
• Many of the police cars in Belfast are actually armored trucks.
• Kids smoke all over the place. I saw a 10 year old smoking in a KFC with his dad!!! There is a motion that is being debated to ban smoking in bars. Dublin passed a similar measure earlier in the year.
• There are public taxis and there are private taxis...big difference. Private taxis aren't allowed to pick you up off the curb. They must be called for a pick up.
• At the height of summer, it starts to get light at 3:30 am and stays light until almost 11:00 pm. This can really mess you up.
• Sandwhich shops and pub grub is where it is at.
• It rains more often than not. It was sunny one morning and people made sure to point it out to me as a rare occasion.
• Lots of the younger crowd wear black. Not so much Gothish stuff, just rebelish low cut and short stuff.
• Breakfasts are awesome!!! A good fry should be able to fill most anyone.
• There are four main banks in Northern Ireland and all of them print their own notes. They are legal tender all over the UK but many people in England are hesitant to accept them. The Bank of Scotland also print their own notes.
• The four banks are:
  • Northern Bank
  • Ulster Bank
  • Bank of Ireland
  • First Trust
• There are at least seven different versions of the pound coin.
  • a dragon
  • wheat(?) and a crown
  • celtic cross with a flower in the center
  • single lion in a circle
  • three lions stacked
  • coat of arms with a lion and a unicorn
  • cricket equipment(?)
• The Europa Hotel has been bombed 45 times. That is more than any other hotel in the world.
• Loyalist are the people who want to remain part of Britan and are usually Protestant.
• Nationalist are those who want a 36 county Ireland and are usually Catholic.
• For all of you who like beer, when you order a pint in a pub, you get 20 oz. instead of 16 oz.
• Belfast has the 2nd and 3rd largest cranes in the world at their shipyards. The Titanic was built there.
• No such thing as a liberal arts degree. College is soley geared towards your career choice.
• No peanut butter. :o(
• There is absolutely no shortage of liquor stores. I pass like 8 if I walk home from work.
• When ordering a Guiness, they fill it most of the way the let the head settle for a bit then fill it up the rest of the way. So don't take the beer before they finish pouring it.
• In some areas there is a severe lack of respect or the fire department. People will start fires, wait for the firemen to show up and then stone them when they try to fight the fire.
• Some of the fire brigade is on strike. If enough of them do strike then the army is brought in to do fire duty. They have their own fire engines and every thing. In England the military fire trucks are painted in a camaflouge scheme, but in Belfast they are bright yellow so that people won't mistake them for other other military vehicles and attack them. This is a left over artifact from the Troubles.
• Northern Ireland is the only place in the UK where the police officers can carry fire arms.
• In the evenings, when people start emptying out of pubs, there can be some dangerous situations when drunk people meet. In London, police will go from fight to fight breaking them up and arresting people, but in Belfast, there is very little of that.

• Only about 5% of the police force is used for traffic duty. Instead they use speed cameras to catch speeders. But the thing is, the cameras are very well marked so you know when one is coming up. Not every camera box has a camera in it though, they are moved around periodically.
• Cayoning is awesome! Put on a wetsuit, jump off small waterfalls into plunge pools and absail (repel) over big ones. Good fun and beautiful scenery.
• Munros - there are 284 of the 3000 foot plus peaks around Scotland. A popular sport is to see how many you can climb.
• Edinburgh is actually a lot of small villages that have grown together.

• Much smaller than I thought, or at least the area of the city with the cultural attractions.
• Temple Bar is the place to go for a good time.
• Arthur Guiness had 21 children. Guiness For Strength!!!
• the Book of Kells is beautiful, but is much smaller than poster portray it.
• The Book of Durrows is a book of the gospels similar to the Book of Kells.
• Dublin Castle isn't much of a traditional castle.
• The smallest pub in Dublin isn't all that small. You can fit like 20 people in it.
• St. Stephen's park is a really nice place to walk around or sit and read.
• The Customs House is a fairly impressive building.
• Pedestrians have no regard for traffic signals.
• Drivers have to regard for pedestrians who have no regard for traffic signals.

• Marijuana is legal in Holland (as if you didn't already know that).
• In 1996 coffe shops became government licensed sellers of reffer.
• Guess who complains a lot about Holland's drug policy...France. But while France's president is blaming Holland for France's drug problems, Spain, Moroccom and Pakistan are all supply more drugs to France than evil Holland is.
• The Red Light district gets its name from...red lights. Window shopping takes on a slightly different meaning here. Girls stand in widows with red lights above them trying to coerse you to come in and "party" with them.
• Lets talk prices:
  • &euro 12 a bag for weed, that's about $15.
  • &euro 30 for 5 grams
  • &euro 50 for a 15-20 minute "session" sith a lady
  • &euro 25 for a live sex show
  • &euro 20 for an hour of all you can drink at the Banana Bar (WARNING: The Banana Bar is not for the faint of heart...or women).
  • a pre rolled joint is &euro 3.50, the same as a beer
• Some of the prostitues are members of a union.
• There is talk of a public smoking ban begining a few years down the road (like that'll ever happen).
• Holland has one of the lowest drug useage rates in Europe.
• Mind bending shrooms are also legal in Amsterdam, but only the fresh ones, the dried ones have been processed (dried) so they are now drugs.
• Smart shops will sell shrooms along side other herbal "supplements".
• There is a gay club right down the street from The Winston, the place I stayed, called The Cockring.
• The Winston's rooms are decorated with posters of nude people. Classy, huh?
• Obviuosly one of the worst business move one could possibly make would be to open a sweet and pastry shop in a city that is over run by foriegn stoners. I mean really, what were they thinking?
• A comedy theater called Boom Chicago puts out a nifty little magazine/guide called Boom!. I got some of this information on Amsterdam from there.
• Don't be out on the streets past 2am is a good rule to go by.
• Ignore the guys saying "charlie, charlie." They aren't asking about your buddy Charles, they are trying to sell you crack. Yes, crack, as in crack cocaine, angel dust, nose candy, star dust, ... you get the picture.
• Though it took some 8 hours before I was offered my first opportunity to buy hard drugs, that changed as soon as the sun went down. The dealers aren't that shy about it either (or maybe their just stupid). They'll ask, " you want some crack?" from like 15 feet away.
• There are bikes everywhere! And bike lanes too.Watch out because they might ring their bell, but they won't slow down.
• Locals smoke a marijuana/tobacco mix while Americans usually smoke their weed straight. You can tell when the Amaericans are around because there is no tobacco sent to cover up the weed.
• Funny enough the clothes I wore out on Friday and Saturday night smell a bit like weed. Go figure.
• They actually let cars drive around some of the major Red Light District streets, which is absolutely mental.
• There is no straight line from point A to point B. The canals make sure of that.
• Believe it or not, some people make it their goal to stay stoned for their entire visit to Amsterdam. From what I am told there are worse ways to spend your time in Amsterdam, like say ... not being stoned.
• Being stoned might lead you to believe that you are a Communist dictator or have paid a sea gull named Frank to have sex with you.
• If you are not stoned, try not to make the others around you self conscience about there stonedness.
• The box game rules!
• Be a friend, buy your mates some baclava. They'll love it.
• Dave and Shannon are awesome.
• Sorry to disappoint but no, I didn't smoke or go to a live sex show. Or get a hooker. Or do shrooms. Or hard drugs. Geez, what was the point in even going?!

Getting through thick accents is one thing, figuring out what they are talking about is a whole other story. Here are a few words to help get you along.

Here		There		Where
hey or sup		alright		UK
thanks		cheers		UK
crazy or insane		mental		UK
making fun of		taking the piss		UK
good for him		fair play to him		UK
excellent		brilliant		UK
perfect		dead on		UK
call a cab		ring a cab		UK
rent a car		hire a car		UK
rent out or lease		let		UK
didn't feel like it		couldn't be bothered		UK
messed up or sketchy		dodgy		UK
small or little		wee		UK
yes		aye		UK
figure it out		sort it		UK
Heineken		beer		Amsterdam
space cake		muffin with hashish		Amsterdam