5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Moving North

1. During my time in Scotland I heard a joke they tell rather often about the weather which actually applies really well to this list. Most northern-European countries only have two seasonsinstead of four. Those are, as the Scots very cleverly state, Summer and Rain, that’s all. So, forget those wardrobe changes every season, here all you’ll need is plenty of waterproof clothes and shoes.
2. Following the weather theme, you may have noticed I didn’t mention anything of umbrellas. Well that was no mistake, I’ll tell you why. In these almost six years I’ve never seen so many broken umbrellas lying around or broken so many of them myself. Why’s that you may ask. Wind, my friend, wind. Tends to be rather windy and rains in every direction which makes umbrellas rather useless. So, remember, the raincoat is your best friend.
3. And my last but not least point about weather and I promise I’ll go on to another something else. The weather is extremely unpredictableand changes insanely fast (once I saw, hail, rain, sun, and snow within 5 minutes of each other!) that you’ll have to always carry that raincoat we talked about before, and beware if you forget because chances are, you’ll get soaked to the bone!
4.  As promised this fourth point has nothing to do with weather, but with the fact that mornings tend to be rather bright and the lovely northerners have no notion of window blinds. For that reason I’d suggest you invest on a good sturdy eye mask and avoid walking around your apartment naked.
5. The last thing I found rather shocking is how aggressive they become while riding a bike (in those countries where they do, and they tend to do a lot up north despite the awful weather). Pay attention not to walk on the bike trail (if there is one) or you’ll risk being called all sort of not so nice names, and if they could a punch or two along the way.

-H