Hello again, 

I am back with another post, describing the main differences I think there is between living in Cyprus and England. 

I will start with the obvious, the weather. It is very well known that England have lots of rainy days and not much sun. This is not very true. It is true that it rains a lot but I think it is exagerated. In South of England, where Guildford is, we have many sunny days although even with the sun it can be cold. My advice is don’t trust the sun (I made a lot of mistakes of trusting the sun and ended up freezing lol). Always have an extra layer with you so even if it gets colder than you anticipated, you don’t end up freezing. 

In addition, transportation in the UK is significantly easier when compared to Cyprus. There are frequent buses running between the main student accommodation, Manor Park, the main campus, Staghill and the town centre. In Cyprus, everyone is conditioned to have a car as transportation isn’t the most convenient but in the UK I believe having a car as a student isn’t a necessity. You also have to pay for a parking permit when you have a car if you are living on campus which is £309.75 for 9-months. Even if you don’t walk to walk to the bus stop or wait for the bus, you can always call an Uber for a good price. Moreover, there are many trains between London and Guildford which only takes 35 minutes. In my honest opinion, the train tickets to London are unnecessarily expensive and I suggest to get a railway card if you are planning on taking frequent trips which give you 1/3 discount on your ticket. 

The food culture is also very different from ours. In town centre, we have many big fast-food chains such as McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, Taco Bell and so on. As a vegan, I believe being a vegan in the UK is relatively easier when compared to Cyprus in some ways. For example when you go out there are always vegan options no matter where you go. In Cyprus for me it was usually chips and beer. In big supermarket chains, there are also a lot of vegan substitutes. When I say a lot, I mean hundreds of different meat substitutes. However, in Cyprus we have loads of traditionally vegan food which I miss when I am in the UK. In Guildford there are also a lot of restaurants from different cultures to name a few Greek like Meat The Greek, Lebanese like Jeita, Japanese like Kokoro and YoSushi, Spanish like La Casita and French like Cotê.  

Overall these are the biggest differences between Cyprus and the UK. I hope you found the information useful. 

Thanks for reading,

Till next time,

Cemsu XXX