Okay, still trying to catch up...
Two days ago, my parents rented a British car, and we started the six-ish hour drive to Glasgow. Now might be a good time to remember that the British drive on the left side of the road, and the steering wheel is on the right side of the car. For all intents and purposes, it's like driving in a mirror.
Pulling out of the rental station was an exercise using the other half of my brain. It took a lot of effort to remember that for a left-hand turn, you don't have to wait very long, you just go. Right-hand turns were the hardest for me to wrap my head around - you have to go around and then make sure to land in the lane on the far side. Earlier, my darling father made a right turn into the far lane, but he started driving to the left, which meant that he was heading into oncoming traffic. I am disgusting myself, but in the words of Katy Perry, "It felt so wrong, it felt so right." I was momentarily confused because it seemed right automatically, but my developing British-senses knew that something was terribly, terribly wrong. A quick U-turn fixed the problem, but still rattling us.
One last word: British roads are all really narrow. Not fun when your driver tries to follow the line on the left side of the road instead of the right, and you end up hitting the curb ("verge" here)/trees/other cars. Okay, we didn't hit other cars, but there were a few close calls.
You really quoted Katy Perry.
ReplyDeleteI don't think we have anything further to say to each other!