I moved to England because of love – probably the most wonderful reason to do anything in life. And while there are still lots of things that I believe to be better in Germany, there are also a multitude of things about the UK that I simply adore and that I find better over here. Some in, some out of control of the people. If you’re thinking about moving here (or just want to hear me brag about how cool your country is), have my top 5 of why I enjoy living here.

#1 The British landscape

Germany is beautiful, don’t get me wrong. We’ve got an iconic coastline in the north, stunning forests and lovely hills and mountains. But what I love about the British landscape specifically is one, the ruralness of it, and two, how wild it is. We like it tidy in Germany, which transfers to everything in our life – including our nature. Here in the UK, however, it’s more of a “grow however and wherever you want, nature” kind of mindset. Everything feels more real, in a way, as it’s less maintained. And I just simply love it. Plus, the old cobblestone-architecture here in Britain makes it all just look really homely and romantic. Wide open fields, dense forests, stunning waterfalls, coursing rivers, heather on the hills as far as the eye can see and incredibly stunning mountains. I can’t get enough of British views.

#2 Beaches & Coastlines

On a similar notion, being an island, the UK obviously have a tremendous amount of wonderful beaches – be that soft white sand, pebble beaches or wild and wonderous cliffs. The seaside is my happy place and I try to be there as often as I can. Don’t go when it’s really, really windy though. The sand will attack you without mercy. Anyway – here’s why it is so much more beautiful than the coastline we have in Germany: because it’s an island. You see, we’ve got tides here in the UK, of course, but they aren’t as volatile as they are in the north of my homeland. As I a child I had to check the daily newspapers for high and low tide times, as there was the risk of having to walk several kilometres to find very shallow water. It could ruin your day. It’s also quite dangerous, if you don’t know what you’re doing and are caught in the incoming tide. But because of this, our water in the Northern Sea is always a very happy green-brownish mud. Here in the UK? It is crystal clear.

#3 Public Footpaths

This ties in wonderfully with the first point that I made. Again, in Germany, we like things organised and tidy – which means that every park, forest or general place in nature you have access to, has very clear signs and designated, maintained paths. But here in the UK? Oh boy. Okay, listen. The UK has an extensive network of public footpaths. They are everywhere and it’s absolutely marvellous. Little wooden signs in the absolute middle of absolute nowhere just happily telling you which direction (roughly) to go. Following a path is a wonderous adventure that’ll take you over fields with actively grazing sheep or cows, across farms, having to wade through rivers – it’s marvellous. It’s like the country’s just saying: “You wanna hike? Awesome, go wild!“

#4 Sunday Roast Dinner

Now I know that there’s the prejudice of British food just being incredibly boring and beige. And I’m going to be honest, quite a few dishes really have potential but aren’t really [das Gelbe vom Ei]¹. There are, however, I couple of things that are marvellous. The Meal Deal’s pretty great, I love Yum Yums and Brit’s are great at pasties. But hands down the best thing you have here is the Sunday Roast Dinner. Goodness me, what a wonderful dish. Let me have all of the parsnips and Yorkshire Pudds, please. Thanks. If you’re visiting the UK, do yourself a favour and go to a restaurant that offers it – there even are some that offer this exclusively. You won’t regret it, I promise.

#5 The online presence of the Government

Wow, okay, so this one stands out a bit – but after considering what to fill the last slot with, this one made the biggest impact when I considered it. As mentioned several times, Germany’s organised, but we could definitely learn a thing or two about how easy and accessible every single governmental service is. The Gov.uk website is incredibly well done and especially when I first moved, I appreciated the easy language and how simple the navigation is, too. Whatever it is you need, you’ll find it there without any issues, it’s clearly structured and well explained what you need to do. As someone who moved from a highly bureaucratic country, this made and continues to make my life so much easier.

[Picture by Illiya Vjestica – thank you!]

1. “Das ist nicht das Gelbe vom Ei” – literally “this isn’t the egg’s yolk”; a German idiom which use if we politely want to tell someone that something’s a bit shit. ↩︎