The 5 Worst Things About Scotland

Scotland is a beautiful country, there is no doubt about that. However, when I was asked what I thought about Scotland, I said "ehh it's ok I guess" I like to joke about the fact that I love warm weather and the beach, a rare occurrence in Scotland, I was born in the wrong country. Scotland has me a lot to complain about, but to be fair there are a lot of horrible things that Scotland doesn't have like high crime rates and pollution. Here are five of my least favourite things about my home country and they are in no particular order.

5. The Weather is Abysmal  

This first one is a no-brainer, Scotland is often associated with horrible weather. No matter what season it is, it will rain. Even in march, it will snow at the least convenient time and in the summer, it will rain while you least expect it. On the rare occasion there is sunshine, it is brilliant, there are loads of beautiful beaches to go to in Scotland and the sunsets are a marvel to behold. Sadly, most of the time in Scotland you'll expect to be walking around in the showers and it's even worse when it's raining and windy at the same time. 

4. Scotland is Becoming a Nanny State

To speak in layman's terms, the Scottish and UK governments have put laws in place which inconvenience the lives of students such as I. Primarily, the sugar tax has been put in place in order to combat the obesity epidemic which has ripped through Scotland. As a consequence, this has meant that Sugary food has become more expensive and in less quantities. The worst thing is that the sugar tax killed original Irn Bru, however, it has come back in limited edition so there is hope.

Furthermore there is also a few rules regarding alcohol consumption, most notably how expensive it is, a pint at my student union bar will set me back about £3.50 and a litre bottle of rum is £15. If you compare this to the prices of alcohol in other countries such as in Brazil or South Korea then this is daylight robbery. 

Alcohol for sale in a supermarket in Rio, selling bottles of vodka for no less than £8!

3. We Love Football Despite Being Garbage at it

The national sport of Scotland is golf, however we are crazy about football. Our national team has nothing to show for it, we haven't qualified for an international tournament since 1998 and it's always painful to see the team's failure to perform in qualifiers when we find out that we have missed our chance to qualify and being beaten 3 nil by Kazakhstan. When it comes to the Scottish league, there is a lot to talk about. The sectarianism and violence between Celtic and Rangers can get out of hand and the fact that no club apart from Celtic wins anything in Scotland depresses me. No matter what team I have seen, I have witnessed passionate fans, every time I have seen Hearts score, the crowd goes absolutely wild, when I have seen any EPL team score the fans will mostly have their phones out taking videos rather than properly celebrating. If you have the chance to see a SPL match, give it a go, it might also shock you to find out that there are more than two teams in Scotland.

2. How Non-Scottish People Talk to us

Nothing worse than when on a trip to London, I hand over my Scottish banknote and they are hesitant to accept it, looking at it like it's monopoly money. The frustrating thing about saying I'm from Scotland is that people will either say "I won't put it against ya" or "So do you support Celtic or Rangers?" When asked the latter, I have to awkwardly explain that I support neither and I am a Hearts fan despite being from Glasgow. Another classic thing to explain to people is that Scotland is not England, it's not part of England and it's a separate country from England. Not everyone can get their head around the idea of Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland being separate countries, but also making up the country of the UK. I was once asked why the UK doesn't have provinces or states rather than being split into countries, look mate I didn't make the rules.

1. Public Transport is a Joke!

This is all about perspective, if you compare our public transport to that of the US or Brazil, our public transport is Great. Nonetheless, if you compare public transport in Scotland to how it is in Germany or Japan, our public transport is dreadful. Scotrail is genuinely awful, overpriced, overcrowded and trains tend to be never on time or even cancelled. You can even get ripped off if your ticket is off-peak during peak time and the stations are absolutely terrible. Most notably Glasgow Queen Street, this place has been under construction for years and looks like an absolute dump. Furthermore it's even worse if you want a train to London, it will take almost six uncomfortable hours and you will be mugged off! A train from London to Glasgow set me back almost £70 and the wifi on board was poor. Meanwhile in Japan, a Shinkansen ticket only cost me about £30 and took a fraction of the time it would take on a Scottish counterpart.