How is Scotland?
>>2825651it's shite
>>2825651It has its charms, but it's a very surface level country. By that I mean that there is a distinct Scottish™ experience - see some Highland cattle at pasture, see a rural castle by a loch, visit a whisky distillery - that is pleasant and can fill a week or two, but beyond that every town and village feels exactly the same and there aren't really any cities worth seeing. Edinburgh is very overrated and not a patch on other European cities, even minor ones like Bruges or Nuremberg, let alone Paris or London.
>>2825782I'd say this is a typical tourist experience. Edinburgh and the highlands are pushed as being the be all end all Scottish experience without getting too dirty.The main areas of Edinburgh at this point are built to extract as much money as they can from tourists.It's a beautiful historical city, but they want your cash.If you're coming do the usual tourist spots if you're into that, don't shrug off Glasgow because it seems dangerous, nobody has beef with some random foreigner and there's a wealth of museums, great food, party spots, then go to the countryside if you feel like getting out of the cities.
>>2825651Why does Scotland have such a big drug problem?
>>2825843It's a complicated topic. In short, Scotland is still stuck in the 20th century when it comes to treating the mentally ill. This makes for a bad combination with many poor schemes where you can either be bored and broke or blaze it up.
What is so bad about Glasgow? People talk about it like it's an open-air prison.
>>2825867I've lived here my whole life. If you don't go to the east end, it's an amazing place to live, even if you're poorer like me. It's also a very interesting city in that class hierarchy is overruled by the city's local identity. My secondary school (high school for Americans reading this) had the sons of millionaires attending alongside meth kids who wore rags. I am quite poor and frequently went to rich friends houses where they had like six floors.The violence doesnt exist anymore outside of the absolute poorest bit, we hosted the Commonwealth games and that was the final nail in the coffin after decades of gangs being whittled down slowly by the police and social workers.The young teams assimilate everyone regardless of class basically. Although young teams dont really exist anymore either. Thats a whole thing that you couldnt explain to someone outside the UK
>>2825870is the violence non-whites, or are there actually scary anglo demons walking around the poor bits?
Cold, rainy, depressing and the heroin capital of Europe.
>>2825843Imagine being within touching distance of England and yet not having the honour of being able to call yourself an Englishman. It's enough to drive anyone crazy
>>2825835I'm heading to Edinburgh later in the year, is the price of everything really that rough? I'm mostly going for the Autumn colours, architecture and the change of scenery. I wanted a very short trip to just go for some interesting walks and clear my head but I might consider going out into the country more if it's that bad.
>>2825871There are turf gangs who fight over ethnicity but only at night in town (the city centre). Going east towards calton and other clydefront shitholes its mostly neds. Govan has been cleaned up considerably thinks to the new bridge and a huge social effort.Ignore anyone telling you to avoid the town centre, many visitors are shellshocked by the state of the streets (very unclean esp on sauchiehall st), but its very safe during the day.One exception to this is union street next to central station. That entire block is hostels. Locals know to avoid it, tourists do not.So yeh mostly there are no demons walking around unless you got to the absolute worst sections by choice.
>>2825940It's not insane prices, it's just enough to make Scottish people scoff because everything in Edinburgh is noticeably marked up compared to other cities around the country. It won't be bad as a visitor coming with cash to spend, food/drink etc. will just be a few pounds more expensive than it would be elsewhere.
>>2825959are the turf gangs ethnic scots or?
>>2825988I might be out of the loop but growing up in a working class area it was yea. Scotland is like 93% white and most of the working class areas that have issues with violence are still majority white Scottish people. Any trouble in areas where the community is mostly immigrants or not White is usually confined to that area amongst each other.
>>2825867It’s as expensive as Edinburgh and has far less interesting stuff to do outside of being close to Loch Lomond and being the main rail and intercity bus hub to get to better parts of the country.I don’t completely hate Glasgow, seeing the Clyde from Clydebank was nice and there is a very good nightlife scene, but it’s been overdeveloped since the 90s to where it’s becoming more like a typical British city than a Scottish one.
the west coast is spectacularhighly recommend doing a highlands road tripon a motorbike is best
>>2825651>>2825782>>2825987Scotland is not a country, it's a province of the UK
>>2826169Curious.Also>UK>provinceyeehaaww, Chuck!
>>2825843its not sunny so they're sad
>>2826333There's more to it than that. It's genuinely just that every town is grim and deprived. There are some lovely villages though, like Pittenweem and Culross
