It’s easy to assume that life between English-speaking countries is pretty similar, so the culture shock can be a bit of a wake-up call.
A Brit travelling to the States might find their head warped by how massive everything is, from the supermarket aisles to the portions. Visitors to the UK from Australia, on the other hand, might be stunned by how old everything is.
Not only is the UK packed out with centuries-old buildings that look stunning to this day, but many of them have been sliced up into retail lots for our convenience.
For Amie Elizabeth, a TikToker from Down Under who posts under the handle @Amieelizabeth95, the move to London came with plenty of cultural whiplash. A particular oddity for her was the grandiose nature of our inner-city McDonald’s outlets.
"Some friends came to visit me from Australia recently and these are the things that like blew their mind about living in the UK that I just thought was so cute because I've been here for two years now, so like you take them for granted when you're living here,” she said.
When it came to the architecture, the blend of genius design and modern convenience was particularly difficult to come to terms with.
Amie noted how ‘all of the beautiful buildings that just hold so much history in them’.
“When I first moved here I was so mesmerised by all of the beautiful historic buildings,” she said.
"You'll walk through central London, and you'll see a McDonald's in this beautiful old Victorian building, and you're like why do they let them put McDonald's in there?”
It’s something we take for granted in the UK, especially in central London where it can be easy to miss the buildings for the crowds, but some of our McDonald’s franchises really do have some of the best facades you’ll see anywhere in the world.
And doesn’t that make you proud to be British?
"My friend was like I genuinely think you need a whole month to spend in London to unpack it and I was like no, babes, you need an entire lifetime to see all of London and even then you won't see it,” Amie continued.
“Anyway, this is just a reminder that I moved to London because I freaking love it here."
As far as other cultural differences between the UK and Oz go, Amie had plenty more.
"These are British things that I thought were weird when I first moved here, but after a year of living in London, I just find completely normal,” she said.
"My first one was Amazon same-day delivery. My friend forgot one of their phone chargers, and so we ordered her a new phone charger off of Amazon. We ordered it like 8am and arrived by 10pm, and she was like wow, what."
She’s got time for a classic trope, too: "British people just love to queue, and when I first got here I was like why are we waiting in this line for subway? Why is there a line to get into the petrol station?
“Like there was just queues for everything, and now I just factor it into my daily life and I'm comfortable with the fact that I probably spend 12 out of my 24 hours in a day queuing."
Featured Image Credit: Elena Zolotova/GettyTopics: Fast Food, McDonalds , Social Media
Rachael Davis