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6 things that surprised me when I moved from Scotland to London

6 things that surprised me when I moved from Scotland to London

Mikhaila Friel

Mikhaila in Greenwich, London, in 2019.Mikhaila Friel/Insider

I moved from my hometown of Glasgow in Scotland to London in 2019.
London has a larger population than the entirety of Scotland.

I moved from Glasgow, Scotland, to London in 2019.

Mikhaila at Tower Bridge in London in 2019. Mikhaila Friel/Insider

I was born in Scotland, a small country in the United Kingdom with about 5.4 million residents, according to the National Records of Scotland.

I lived in Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, until 2019, when I started working as a reporter for Insider. Since Insider's UK office is based in London, I was required to move there full-time — and I couldn't wait to see what life was like in the capital.

Here are the things that surprised me most when I moved to London.

The London Underground is more complicated than the Glasgow Subway.

The Glasgow Subway map, left, and part of the London Underground map, right. SPT/London Transport.

As of 2022, London has a population of 9.5 million people, according to World Population Review, which is more than the entire population of Scotland.

So it makes sense that London's Underground covers a much larger area than Glasgow's Subway. The Glasgow Subway operates across 15 stations and only two lines, an inner and outer circle, according to SPT. Whereas the London Underground — known as the Tube — has 11 lines across 272 stations, according to TFL.

That being said, using Google Maps and apps like Citymapper made the Tube far easier to navigate than I had expected.

London feels like a bunch of small towns put together, rather than one big city.

A high angle view of London from Bethnal Green park, looking west towards the city. Roy JAMES Shakespeare/Getty Images.

London has 32 boroughs, all of which have their own distinct characteristics. I lived in Bethnal Green in Tower Hamlets, a borough in East London.

My apartment was right next to Broadway Market, a Saturday street market that offered delicious food. The area had plenty of quirky stores, cafes, and a park. I didn't expect to feel such a strong sense of community in the neighborhood, or for it to have such a small-town feel.

There are so many green spaces in London.

Mikhaila Friel in Victoria Park, East London. Mikhaila Friel/Insider

There are incredible outdoor spaces in Scotland, with lochs (the Scottish word for lake) and munros (which are Scottish mountains over 3,000 feet).

When I arrived in London, I didn't expect to spend as much time outdoors as I had in Scotland. But I was pleasantly surprised.

The city has 3,000 parks, which cover almost 18% of London — more than the area of the city covered by railways and roads combined — according to London.Gov.

When I use Scottish money in London stores, it often isn't accepted.

A stock image of Scottish money. Getty Images

Scotland uses British pounds, which is the same currency used in England. However, our banknotes look slightly different from English notes as ours feature portraits of notable Scottish figures, including writers Sir Walter Scott and Robert Burns.

While Scottish banknotes are legal to use in England and the rest of the UK, no business is legally required to accept them if they don't want to, according to Now Loan.

Some cashiers were apologetic and told me that they weren't allowed to accept Scottish notes because they had received a lot of fake notes in recent months.

I was surprised to learn that Londoners enjoy Scottish food.

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There are many Scottish traditions and Scottish foods that I was surprised to find in London. For example, some pubs and restaurants held events for Burns Night, which falls on January 25 every year in honor of the poet Robert Burns.

On Burns Night, we usually eat a Burns Supper, which includes haggis (spiced meat encased in animal intestines), neeps (turnips), and tatties (potatoes).

I also noticed that haggis toasties at Broadway Market were served all year round.

You'll never get bored in London.

A view of London from the Sky Garden. Mikhaila Friel/Insider

After spending a year in London, I left in March 2020 to spend lockdown with my family in Glasgow, Scotland.

I arrived back to London in August 2021, this time bringing my boyfriend, who had never visited before. As we explored the city together, I was pleasantly surprised to find that there were so many places in London that I had yet to see.

We visited Kew Gardens (a botanic garden in southwest London), Richmond Park, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, all of which I never got around to seeing the first time around. I felt like a tourist all over again.

In London, there are always new experiences to be had.