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At about 2.5 times the area of Vancouver Island, Scotland isn’t all that big.  The UK as a whole is about 9 times the size of Vancouver Island. While in Edinburgh I have noticed several things that appear strange to me.

1. Anything that can be named is named, including staircases which get names like “granny’s green steps” and “playfair steps”.
2. A single street often changes its name every block. We live just off Constitution St – Leith Walk – Elm Row – Leith Street – North Bridge – South Bridge – Nicolson – Clerk St – South Clerk St – Newington – Minto – Craigmiller Park – etc. Not living on a grid-based system makes navigating quite bit more exciting. A postal code is often only shared by those living on your block.
3. If it can be eaten, it can be deep fried. Mars bars are quite good, but I have yet to get them to deep fry some Double Bubble.
4. There is an elaborate game to fool tourists into thinking that haggis is in fact an animal … are people that gullible? Did you know that Nanaimo Bars are in fact made with little pieces of iron from the jail cell bars of Nanaimo’s first prison – this is what gives them their distinct taste when they are actually made in Nanaimo … Had you going, didn’t I?
5. In Canada we have streets, roads, avenues, and crescents. That wasn’t good enough for Scotland: here in addition we have Closes, Loans, and Braes.
6. Mongers – sounds bad!  They are actually good. We’ve been to the fishmonger, and seen the ironmonger’s shop. I think my new title will be codemonger.
7. I am still trying to enhance my Scottish vocabulary.  So far I’ve got aye, naye, wee, hiya and nutter. Oh and Trousers – try not to make that mistake.
8. Lochs, Glens and Monroes – Lakes, Valleys and Mountains.
9. Haggis Samosas – They exist! – Haggis actually tastes pretty good, but keep the mental image of the animal it comes from in mind.
10. The little green men who tell you it is your turn to cross the street do so at the same time for all the crosswalks in the intersection (however, I think this may only be an Edinburgh thing as I noticed them working as they do in Vancouver, in Glasgow). So it appears that pedestrians cross, then cars go one way, then cars go the other way, then cars stop and pedestrians cross again, and repeating. If you are a fast walker then you can cross in two directions during the same light, if you are a slow walker then you wait longer as you miss one of the lights and it takes longer for the lights to go green again. I don’t really know why they do it this way, I could see the case for doing it this way if both traffic directions required a pedestrian light but in most cases only one of the directions of flow is busy and needs the light.