Freedom! Och Aye! Haggis! *Insert every other Scottish stereotype here*
That's the easy part of being Scottish in a dominantly English enthusiast circle. I let these things go over my head as being from a tourist heavy city in Scotland I'm use to dealing with misconceptions and stereotypes. Really though, we've suffered enough, be nice to your Scottish friends! Let me walk you through some of the plights of being an enthusiast in Scotland.
M&D's: Scotlands Theme Park
(Ok, so ignoring the recent balls up with the place and the attempt to phoenix the company.) This is what we have, this is the biggest "Theme Park" we have, there's the odd other amusements elsewhere, but we were dealt a bad hand! Our nearest parks to M&D's are; Blackpool Pleasure Beach (144m), Flamingo Land (168m) and believe it or not Tayto Park (183m) but if you really want to go that far you have Alton Towers a further 255 miles from M&D's! Don't even think about a quick drive down to Thorpe Park, it's quicker and easier to hop on a flight to Spain for the weekend!
Transport to/from Parks
If you don't drive, it's a double hit, chances are, you're either going to have to miss the opening or closing of the park in order to get a train home, or you're going to need to fork out on a night in a hotel, which means lugging bags with you on the train/bus thats already crammed full plus the Monday off work and it's just getting less fun the longer we look at it. Add in to it all that public transport to most parks is awful, it's just not a fun thing to have to do!
"What do you know about theme parks, you're Scottish"
I have heard this SO much! Apparently coming from a country with a limited supply of coasters means we know nothing about them. You know, as if travel and the internet aren't things. We can also include the sarcastic comments of "So what coasters do you have in Scotland?"
"But that's in Scotland"
Yes, I happen to live there, or I did, I haven't had a single question about my address on season pass forms since living in England, but I have met some very unprofessional staff while trying to collect season passes in the past! How rude!
School Trips
Growing up to find that people got to go to Alton Towers, BPB, Thorpe park for their school trips! I thought I was lucky going to M&D's, I feel cheated! I then figure out that we spent a week away with school at Winmarleigh Hall, a whole 20 miles from BPB and they didn't have the decency to let us have a few hours at the Pleasure Beach! Gutted!
There we go, a short list, but my chats with other Scottish enthusiasts (yes, there's more of us out there! Maybe I should have added that one to the list!) these are the ones we all seem to have in common.
*Disclaimer*
Not an attack on anyone, English or otherwise, please take this as a bit of fun through the eyes of someone in a minority that has heard a lot in relation to my birthplace/accent/heritage.
Now, if you don't mind, I need to clean the bagpipes and get a haggis hunted for my dinner!
Becca