Summary

The author, who moved to England with her husband, shares her dislikes about living in England, including driving and parking difficulties, unpredictable weather, and challenges in traveling to mainland Europe.

Abstract

The author, who moved to England over a year ago, expresses her overall positive experience living in the country. However, she highlights several aspects of life in England that she finds challenging. These include driving on narrow roads, parking difficulties, and dealing with the unpredictable weather, which often makes outdoor activities unpleasant. Additionally, the author discusses the inconvenience of having to cross the English Channel to travel to mainland Europe, which requires significant planning and can be costly, especially when traveling with pets. Despite these challenges, the author maintains a positive outlook on her life in England.

Opinions

The author finds driving in England challenging due to narrow roads and parking difficulties.
The author dislikes the unpredictable weather in England, which often makes outdoor activities unpleasant.
The author finds traveling to mainland Europe from England inconvenient and costly, especially when traveling with pets.
Despite these challenges, the author maintains a positive outlook on her life in England.
The author appreciates the amount of sunshine in England, which was more than she expected.
The author finds the short winter days in the North of England challenging, making winter seem interminable.
The author expresses her frustration with the complications involved in traveling to mainland Europe from England.

Things I Hate About Living in England

Life is not all afternoon tea and sunny walks through the lush countryside

The author’s puppy, Ginny, coming home soaked after a walk (photo by author)

Over a year ago, I moved to England with my husband. And it has been mostly positive.

We love our lives here. We love exploring this country and some of the things people had told us would be difficult, such as the food or people not being friendly, have not been a problem for us.

However, there are aspects of life here that I don’t love.

Driving and parking

I am not a very confident driver overall. I didn’t like driving in Canada, where the roads are wide and mostly straight, and I definitely do not like driving here.

The fact that we drive on the opposite side of the road here was not as much of an issue as I thought it would be. It’s a bit jarring at first and it always feels weird when I go back to France. But my brain got used to it rapidly. When all the cars are going in one direction and all the signalization is organized that way, it’s hard to get confused.

However, the roads are incredibly narrow here, especially in the countryside where I live.

I’m always much too close to the side of the road, feeling like I am in the middle of the road.

A few months ago, that led me to hit the side of my tyre on a sidewalk, which caused it to rupture. We had to get our wheels fixed as I hit it so hard, the metal alloy was damaged.

I try to avoid driving as much as possible.

I also hate parking, especially in towns and cities, where there is never enough space, the spaces are narrow, and you need to do your manoeuvers on the street while watching out for traffic.

Before I go anywhere, I look for parking nearby to make sure I’ll have enough space to park without feeling rushed or stressed.

The weather

Before moving here, I knew to expect a lot of rain.

And I’ve actually been surprised by how much sun we get.

I expected rain for days on end, without stopping. While it does rain a lot, it’s usually for a short time and the rest of the day is cloudy or sunny but dry.

However, the weather here can still be hard to handle some days. I’m in a region where it is very windy, which can make walks very unpleasant.

The weather is also fickle. It’s hard to know how to dress as it might be sunny and warm one minute, windy and cold the next, and cloudy and warm right after.

And while the rain is not constant, it’s still very regular, which makes everything muddy. I have given up trying to keep my shoes clean.

As someone who spends a lot of time outside because of my very active dog, the weather can often be a challenge.

Also, being in the North of England, the days get very short in the winter and it gets pitch black early which, more than the cold, makes winter seem interminable.

Having to cross the Channel to get anywhere

Moving to Europe, we were really excited that we would get to travel and explore this continent.

However, we quickly found out that living in England is very different from living in mainland Europe.

We can’t simply drive to a neighbouring country like we would if we were living in France or Germany.

Traveling to mainland Europe from England takes planning. There are a number of options but all of them can be quite costly and inconvenient.

Especially if you have pets. I’ve written extensively about the challenges of traveling to and from England with pets so I won’t here but it is difficult.

I have friends who live in Germany and are able to go spend the weekend in Paris or in Vienna as a last-minute idea. We can’t do that because there is a body of water standing in our way.

While we still have been able to travel to mainland Europe and it is significantly easier to travel from England than it was from Canada, I still resent having to go through all those complications to visit my family or explore new countries.

England is wonderful. I wish everyone had the chance to truly explore this incredible country.

But, as with every other country, there are some challenges to living here.

Driving is hard and stressful. So is parking.

The weather is not as bad as I expected but it is still something to contend with and something to take into consideration when making plans.

And traveling from England to the rest of Europe is much more challenging than I had anticipated.

None of these aspects make my life incredibly difficult though, and my overall experience here is positive.