It’s official! This American is driving. I’ve been on the road for a few weeks now,
mostly just driving in and around our little town. I’m slowly getting braver though and have
ventured out to Loughborough, Leicester and other surrounding towns.
I purchased a small Volkswagon
Golf to knock around in. I had the
mindset of purchasing an older, smaller vehicle whilst I learn the way of the
road over here. Originally, I was going
to purchase an automatic, but decided against it because when it comes to
taking my driving test next year, I want to have a full license vs. just one to
drive automatics only.
Speaking of licenses…… You are
able to drive on your international license for a year before you have to pass
the test.
I thought I would find it
extremely difficult driving on the left side of the road, but it hasn’t been
too bad. Here is what I’ve found to be
the hardest part about driving in England:
· The roads are very
narrow. You definitely don’t have the
space you do back home. And don’t get me
started on all the parked cars on the street.
It can be quite terrifying figuring out if you have enough space on the
left with all the parked cars and space on the right with cars coming towards
you. More times than not, I have
screamed, “Oh crap, Oh crap, Oh crap” praying I’m not going to clip a car or
have a head on collision. If there isn’t
enough room for three vehicles on the road, you must stop behind the parked car
and wait for the oncoming car to pass by before you can enter into their lane
of travel to pass the parked car and carry on.
It can be kind of a nightmare if there is a ton of traffic and a lot of
parked cars on the street. Bottom line
is that England just does not have enough space for driveways, parking as we do
in the states.
· Driving a manual
is not something I’ve done on a continuous basis. It was more or less my cousin teaching me how
to drive one when I was 15, driving my best friend Jeanette’s first car,
driving my sister’s first car or Steve’s first car when he moved to the
states. With the lack of experience,
I’ve surprised myself quite a bit. I’ve
only stalled out 1 or 2 times and for the most part, the ride is pretty
smooth. I will admit though, that I
haven’t attempted Dumps Road. It is the
road the leads out to most places you need to go, but it absolutely terrifies
me!!!!!!!! The incline on this road is
STEEP! I usually go the longer way
around to avoid this hill. Until I feel
more confident in the fact that I won’t roll back on someone, I will continue
going the long way. J
· Motorways – I’ve
yet to attempt them! One day………
· Round a bouts –
They are everywhere. While I do think
they help traffic move along much quicker than traffic lights, figuring out
which lane you need to be in seems to be the hardest thing for me. The reason for that is because sometimes I
have no idea where I’m freaking going.
If I know where I’m going, then I’m good. It’s those places where I’m unsure that gets
me in trouble. I can’t tell you how many
times I’ve gotten off the wrong exit on the roundabout and had to turn
around. Story of my life. But I suppose that is also what helps me
figure out where I’m going in the end.
Practice and making plenty of mistakes can only help right?
· Parking – it costs
money to park everywhere except for your supermarkets. I totes had to ask a lady how to get a ticket
out of the machine the other day. She
looked at me like I was nuts!
That about sums up this stage
of my driving in England. Lottie and
Stella are both on mid-term break this week, so hopefully I’ll venture out a
bit more for some excursions with the girls.
Let’s just hope I get us there and back in one piece! J
