Starbucks in Scotland and All Over the World

Though Starbucks may appear to be something of a modern American construct, they have quickly spread as the Starbucks virus takes hold all over the world. While studying for a summer in Europe, I was shocked to discover the huge selection of Starbucks coffee outlets that were available right in their central neighborhoods. Full of history, adoration, humbleness, and double tall caramel mochas, the mood was decidedly fractured as we plied our way through the slog and grime of something so rudimentarily distasteful yet hypnotically addictive.

I should take a step back here and allow that Starbucks are all over the world. They are all over the United State, they are all over the United Kingdom, they are even popping up all over the United Arab Emirates! Starbucks can be found in Australia and Japan, Starbucks can be found in Puerto Rico or Peru. Starbucks has become something of an institution, much like the snuffing of the neighborhood delis in place of a Subway Sandwich Shops and let's not even get started about those damn golden arches.

It should come as no great surprise that there are Starbucks littered right around historical sites; while they appear to have yet infiltrated everywhere, Starbucks still litter the landscape in places like Germany, France, Spain, and Greece. It's eminent that as their clout continues to morph they will no doubt demand that their coffee be the offical drink of the Holy sites in Rome and Jerusalem.

The sad facts are clear and it should not astound me that there were Starbucks in this one country where I Summered in 2001. But the strangest thing about this wasn't that they were there, it was where they were. I'm talking about the stony city of Edinburgh Scotland.