Since my first-authored paper was accepted to IEEE WCNC 2023, held in Glasgow this year, and the spring break of Taiwan was luckily right after the conference, I had the opportunity to do a small subsidized solo trip in Scotland for about 10 days (excluding flights).

The conference

Technically the main event of this trip, but the least of my focus in actuality.

The first day was the tutorial (I don’t really know what that means), and the next 3 days were the main conferences. Since there were a lots of presenters, the conference was divided into many many sessions, each in its own room, and there would be a few sessions happening simultaneously.

The big room in the picture was the main one. Most of the sessions were held in much smaller ones, and typically there would be only the presenters plus a few random people in each room, so like less than 20 listeners in total.

Apart from the SHEER number of audience, the slides were generally very basic and verbal mistakes were often made during presentation, eliminating any stress of presenting. Seriously, I didn’t expect much, but it was really so much easier than what I was expecting. You can even look at your powerpoint notes when speaking (and so I did)!

I only attended 2 sessions in the span of 3 days and spent all the other times in my hotel room due to a gastroenteritis I got from merely A GLASS of white wine for some reason. Pretty sure it was not a hangover because it was only a glass, and that the symptoms lasted for THREE fucking days. I was not convinced that I would have participated in more sessions if it were not for the gastroenteritis though. I would probably be touring around Glasgow more. I still have some marked spots in Glasgow on my Google Map yet to be explored.

Not only did I miss the welcome party or whatever, but I also forgot to use the free train ticket they gave us.

Thankfully I was never anticipating the conference so the wasted 3 days were not really a huge deal for me.

Places I visited

Glasgow

See Glasgow Review.

Edinburgh

See A Day in Edinburgh.

Cairngorm

See Skiing in the Scottish Highlands.

Transportation

Walking

Walking is THE WAY in Scottish cities. The pavements are wide, some even have fence; the buildings are your typical European buildings, meaning they are absolutely gorgeous everywhere, especially if you come from a crowded ugly Asian shithole; and the air is very clean as there are no scooters at all.

Another reason for walking is the lack of other short-range options. Cycling is difficult in Scottish cities even if there is a public bikes rental system, and bus uses an expensive flat fee.

Bike

Cycling is extremely difficult here. In Taiwan, we can either ride in the motorcycle lane or the huge pavement which often contains a veranda. In Scotland, however, there are no motorcycle lane, and the pavements are always full of people. A positive feedback loop of the lack of motorcyling & cycling options I guess.

You pretty much only see the food delivery men riding the bikes, and they often have to dive between the pavements and the roads.

Glasgow does have public bike rental systems called OVO Bikes with quite a lot of “stations”, but not many people use them. I tried it once but it was just such a pain riding through the streets. Walking is much more convenient.

Bus

The bus system is fine. There are quite a lot of bus stops and route, and the double-buses ensure that there is almost always vacant seats. However, the price is not dependent on the number of stops you ride, but a fixed one, and it’s not cheap at all. So for shorter distances, just walk.

Train

The train system in Scotland is called ScotRail. ScotRail trains are typically pretty short, many of them only have like 3 carriages, but there is almost always vacant rows in my own experience.

Both the interior and exterior are a very beautiful deep blue.

The seats are very comfortable (definitely better than Taiwan’s), and the most amazing thing is that, there are power sockets on each seat!!!!!!

Be aware that some stations don’t have a gate. You’ll still need to show your ticket to the conductor on the train at some point regardless.

Car

Driving a car is supposedly the travel in the north of Scotland, namely attractions like the Scottish Highlands and Isle of Skyle. HOWEVER, there are 2 main huge obstables for a 21yo from Taiwan like me.

First, most European cars are manual transmission, including car rentals. There are a few auto transmission cars, but very pricey.

Second, the minimum age requirement for renting a car is 23yo, so even if I am “courageous” enough to drive a manual transmission car ON THE LEFT, I can’t.

I actually did not know most European cars are manual transmission when I decided to obtain a manual transmission licence instead of an automatic one like 90% of Taiwanese choose. I only chose it because they were about the same price to learn and automatic transmission seemed really simplistic and boring.

Prices

Transportation

Bus

The buses here are fixed price. Even if you only ride for a stop, it will still be the same price.

A single ticket in Edinburch costs ￡1.8.

I’d say it’s about 2x of Taiwan’s price.

Train

ScotRail is reeeeally pricey. It’s about 3x 4x of Taiwan’s railway. Most of the time you’ll have an entire row (2 seats) for yourself tho.

Food

The food price is about 2x of that of Taiwan. A nice lunch (main + drink) costs about ￡15 , and a nice dinner costs about ￡20.

Clothing

The clothing here costs more or less the same as Taiwan for some reason. Not fair at all.

Language

Listening Comprehension

As much as I like about the British accent, I still have trouble understanding them at times. I’d say about half of the time I’ll have to ask them to repeat (sometimes more than once) to truly understand what they’re saying.

There was one time when I was checking out at H&M, the clerk asked me if I need a “baak”, I was like a bike? Why the fuck would I need a bike? I asked “a bike?” for confirmation and he was like yeah a bike, so I just said no in confusion. Later when I was packing another customer responded yes to the question and then the clerk fetched a bag for her. So he was actually saying a “bag”. Looking back it’s pretty obvious that the clerk would be asking me if I need a bag when checking out, but it just didn’t come up to me at the moment.

Stupid British English usages

Cheers

The Brits love to use cheers in replace of thank you (and goodbye), and it makes absolutely zero sense. Why would cheers mean that? I think the opposite would have make much more sense, like saying it when you want to say your welcome or hi. Here are some example dialogues that I think to be perfect.

Clerk: Here’s your receipt.
Customer: Thanks.
Clerk: Cheers!

elevator opens
Person waiting outside: Cheers!
All the people inside: Cheers!

XXX Hire

For some reason when you want to rent something here, it’s not called rentals but xxx hire like car hire or bike hire.

When I first heard about car hire, I thought it was like hiring someone to drive for you, an uber basically, but no, it’s just car rentals.