In the UK you can drive a car with your domestic license. But for no more than a year from the date of entry. Since under my contract I was to live on the foggy island longer, I had to take the driving test. That turned out to be quite difficult and not cheap.
Slowly mastering driving on the left side of the road, I made the first step toward obtaining the treasured pink card. At the nearest post office they gave me a special application form for a provisional driving license. I had to attach a fee of 38 pounds and a photograph (another three pounds or so).
Here the first difficulty arose. Holders of British passports only need to have their identity certified by someone who has known them for at least two years. But I had to submit my passport to the nearest traffic police office (DVLA). Everything was certified there, and about a month later I received my provisional license. However, there is an alternative: send the document to the DVLA by mail and patiently wait for a reply, relying on the reliability of the Royal Mail company.
Now it was time to start taking exams. I couldn't force myself to simply sit down and study the rules, so I had to recall my student days and schedule the theory test - after all, I would definitely have to prepare for it. For a fee of 20.5 pounds, on the examination agency's website, I booked a date that seemed very far away, four weeks later. The first week was spent buying a disk for exam preparation at an auction for 10 pounds. There I could also buy the paper version for five pounds, but with it you lose the ability to practice with the program. The Highway Code was bought for 1.49 pounds at a nearby bookstore.
The theory test consists of two parts. First, you need to correctly answer 30 out of 35 theoretical questions offered. There are about one and a half thousand possible questions. Fortunately, answering most of them did not require any special knowledge. For example, there were quite a few questions like: "If another car rudely cuts you off, what should you do: honk, overtake and cut back in, or stop and continue once you've pulled yourself together and restored your spoiled mood?"
If you forget the realities of domestic driving, it's not at all difficult to answer correctly. Dozens of questions are devoted to the use of mobile phones, or more precisely, to the ban on using them while driving. Overall, having passed dozens of exams at school and university, learning one and a half thousand questions is not particularly difficult.
The second part of the theory test looks far more unusual: a computer simulation of encountering potential hazards on the road. Thirteen clips filmed from a moving car are shown on the monitor one by one, and points are awarded for how quickly the student reacted to an approaching hazard. This is not easy for novice drivers, but is quite easy for those with practical experience. Practicing with clips on a CD helps you get the hang of it. I passed the test on the first try, correctly answering all 35 questions and scoring 65 out of 75 on the simulation, with a required minimum of 44.
Then came the most interesting part. I had to learn to drive. Or rather, learn to pass the driving test. Because learning to drive on the left side is simple. But getting rid of a bunch of bad habits acquired over years of driving is much harder. Moreover, many driving techniques (using the handbrake, changing gears, reversing, etc.) under British rules differ significantly from what my instructor once taught me.
The test usually lasts about 40 minutes and consists of an eyesight check (reading a car number plate at a distance of 22 meters), several questions on vehicle maintenance, driving around town, and two maneuvers (parallel parking, a turn in the road, an emergency stop, or reversing around a corner into a minor road).
You could take the test either in your own car, equipped with an additional mirror and a learner sign, or in the instructor's car. The examiner doesn't care where or how you learned to drive.
Realizing that I wouldn't pass the test just like that, I started looking for an instructor. Calling around to large driving schools yielded frightening results: they all insisted that I absolutely needed a block of 12 lessons, that foreign driving experience in the UK would only be a hindrance, and that I couldn't get by with a small number of lessons. In general, the standard course for a beginner is considered to be the number of lessons equal to the student's age multiplied by two.
Since each lesson cost around 20 pounds, it was frankly a pity to take a course of 12 lessons. I turned to an independent instructor. At the first lesson, he went on and on about how difficult it is to correct old mistakes and bad habits. And he listed a long list of my typical mistakes that did not meet the requirements of British examiners. I was lucky with the instructor - an elderly man showed me all the possible routes for the test in the test center area, and also shared some professional exam secrets.
The following week I practiced driving on my own - not exceeding the speed limit, properly turning the steering wheel, checking all blind spots, and applying the handbrake for any stop longer than five seconds. Thus, practicing on my own between lessons with the instructor, I took a total of five lessons at 20 pounds each. I also paid the instructor an additional 40 pounds for letting me use his car for the test. The test itself had to be booked well in advance - eight weeks ahead due to the queue at the test center. And it cost 39 pounds. For an additional nine pounds, you could take the test on a Saturday.
Now about the most important thing. On average in the UK, only 44% of learners pass the practical driving test. In some test centers, the figure is around 30%. And, undoubtedly, without sheer luck, you cannot pass a 40-minute test on city roads. I was lucky, and I passed on my first attempt.
Another nine pounds in fees - and after a couple of weeks the coveted plastic card arrived in the mail. In total, obtaining it took 4.5 months and 261 pounds. That is, roughly the same $500 for which you can buy a license back home. This procedure, however, takes much longer in Britain. True, it also brings incomparably more benefits - my car insurance with a local license immediately dropped by about half.