“THERE will be a price to pay.” Those were the unprompted words of a shop worker serving us in the centre of Bucharest last Friday when he realised we were from the UK. He was at pains to be friendly when we asserted firmly that we were Scottish and had voted to remain in the EU.

He was utterly shocked and clearly afraid that Brexit could trigger a major continent-wide crisis. No wonder the European leaders have told the UK to go quickly rather than prolong negotiations and drag everyone else down too.

We flew into Romania – whizzing through passport control while shamefacedly displaying our UK passports – just hours after Britain bought its one-way ticket out of the EU and into chaos.

We were part of small bunch of tourists on a plane full of young workers and their families going home for a break. The picture portrayed in Britain of Romania and the youngest member states is of bleak, destitute countries exporting hordes across the English Channel and the North Sea to steal the jobs of British workers.

I must confess to having pictured Bucharest as a city of stark, brutalist architecture, dilapidated streets and grinding poverty. But I could not have been more wrong.

Yes, most of its historic old town, which in the 1930s was known as the Paris of the East, was destroyed by Nazi bombs followed by cultural vandalism by President Ceaucescu. But today it’s a vibrant, cosmopolitan and youthful place. It looks thriving and there are clearly a lot of citizens of western European states exercising their freedom of movement to work and live in Romania.

The public transport system is far superior to that of any UK city, while its streets and parks are sparklingly clean, kept tidy by armies of street sweepers at all hours.

Being understood in Bucharest was made easier by the efforts of many, particularly the young, to learn at least some English. I would have been completely adrift were it not for them.

The vast majority of the people in the UK don’t feel the need to learn any other languages. Centuries of colonial superiority and our historic failure to provide effective language education in in our schools have rendered individual British citizens disabled in foreign lands.

How many folk in the UK have a little bit of Romanian, or Danish or Polish? My Higher French is a distant memory, which never equipped me for proper conversations anyway.

Yet so many folk look down on EU citizens who come to the UK with the tools to communicate, work and thrive in a foreign country when most of us can hardly order a beer in a continental pub.

As Scotland deals with the aftermath of the Brexit vote, we have a real chance to carve ourselves a reputation divorced from backward-looking Britain. One that is a bit more humble than the vainglorious Britain that precedes us. One that sees itself as an equal member at the table, not one that is always looking to have its cake and eat it.

Unless Brexit is catching and the EU itself disintegrates, Scotland is on full pelter to stay in. As I write, Nicola Sturgeon is examining all possible avenues of achieving that. It’s been suggested independence might not even be necessary.

But whether or not independence is a necessity, it surely is the means by which Scotland, as a sovereign nation, can join the European Union as wholly different kind of member from bellicose Britain.

Scotland’s political consensus has been proven beyond doubt to be left-of-centre in this referendum. There can surely be no serious argument now that the UK is a homogeneous nation.

An open, progressive, inclusive Scotland with a proportionate sense of itself would have more credibility and influence in a renewed Europe that will need to examine how it can properly engage its citizens.

It’s clear from the Daily Mail comments page that the consequences of Brexit for the folk with French holiday homes and dogs they love to transport back and forth across the Channel are only just hitting home. They voted for Brexit without understanding the positive impact the EU had on their daily lives.

Too many UK governments have sought to europeanise Britain by stealth without any attempt to honestly explain the issues and complexities – probably because they have a low regard for voters they’d rather keep in ignorance.

That ignorance came back to bite the educated elites with a vengeance last Thursday. It is our successive Westminster leaders who sowed what they are now reaping.

A newly sovereign Scotland will find continuity in history for its shiny new independent relationship with Europe.

Prior to the Act of Union, stemming from the wars of independence, Scotland had always looked to Europe, learned from Europe, and contributed to Europe, culturally, politically and in the arts and sciences. Scotland sought continental peace while England pursued conquest. The reformation brought education on a mass scale. The enlightenment was propelled by that advanced universal education, established before being wed in a union against the popular will.

Our 18th-century ancestors, the poorest included, would have known much more about Europe in all its diversity than we do. We’ve had the misfortune to live in an insular, paranoid, post-empire Britain that has distorted the outlook of many. The alienated folk who voted for Brexit have had most of their "education" on Europe from The Sun and The Daily Mail.

Scotland now has a chance to pick up the threads of the enlightenment, broaden and deepen education further, replicate the renewal of Gaelic with investment in other languages too, and include all our citizens in determining our future relationship with Europe, our contribution to Europe and ultimately, the direction of Europe itself.