Need Hints-Going to London, York, Edinburgh, Dublin & I don't drink
#21
Join Date: Dec 2006
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I was going to say, I do almost wonder if this sort of worry is a generational thing? It's my perception (and maybe I'm wrong) that baby boomers grew up in a time when it WAS considered strange or rude or antisocial not to drink or smoke. But it's really not like that anymore and as far as the UK is concerned, in my very limited experience, it doesn't matter if you're in London or in rural highland Scotland- no one will bat an eye if you drink coke or ginger ale in a pub. Everyone is too busy doing their own thing, and no one's really in the business of making friends with strangers anyways.
FWIW I'm not a big drinker, more often than not I stick with soda water and lemon or lime and I've never felt out of place. And most of my pub time in the UK has been spent in a city where you regularly have to dodge puddles of vomit and pee on the sidewalks every morning, if you're up and about before the street cleaners have made their rounds.
FWIW I'm not a big drinker, more often than not I stick with soda water and lemon or lime and I've never felt out of place. And most of my pub time in the UK has been spent in a city where you regularly have to dodge puddles of vomit and pee on the sidewalks every morning, if you're up and about before the street cleaners have made their rounds.
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I am notmuch of a drinker - will have wine with dinner and that's about it. We stopped in a lot of pubs for lunch and I had eithr OJ or bottled water. Sometimes the beau would have a beer (depending on what there was) or sometimes also a soft drink - since we were driving. And while other people were polite I must admit that we never got into log conversations with locals - but then we woudln;t expect to do that here either.
There was never any problem with this.
If you are going i nto apub to spend the whole evening and with the goal of conversation with the locals I still think soft drinks are fine. But imagine there are a lot of local places that won;t neessarily be into in-depth conversations with strangers (esp since american tend to talk about different topics than the British/Irish at the drop of a hat - much more personal info given out to randome people -not just where you're form, but what you do, where you live, where your kids go to school and where you've been on yuor last 4 vacations).
If you are going into a palce for hours
There was never any problem with this.
If you are going i nto apub to spend the whole evening and with the goal of conversation with the locals I still think soft drinks are fine. But imagine there are a lot of local places that won;t neessarily be into in-depth conversations with strangers (esp since american tend to talk about different topics than the British/Irish at the drop of a hat - much more personal info given out to randome people -not just where you're form, but what you do, where you live, where your kids go to school and where you've been on yuor last 4 vacations).
If you are going into a palce for hours
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