It can be surprisingly easy to forget that there are a lot of curiosities around the world that you would miss if you never traveled or interacted with other people.
Someone asked “What’s a crazy fact about your country?” and people from across the globe shared their best examples. We got in touch with veteran traveler Jayne Gorman to discuss learning more about the world. So get comfortable as you read through, upvote your favorites, and be sure to comment your own thoughts and opinions below.
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#1
UK.
During the ad breaks on certain TV shows, (such as Corrie), we have what we call the TV pick up, when the British National Grid gives an extra boost of power to manage the sudden influx of people getting up to switch on their kettles to make themselves a cup of tea. There are people whose jobs are to predict exactly when these pick ups will occur.
Image source: Rovia2323, Nathan Dumlao
#2
We’ve had a war with Denmark for the past 25 years over ownership of some random island. It’s fought by exchanging alcoholic beverages and exchanging flags being planted on the island every once in a while.
unfortunately the war just ended this year.. :( we split the island down the middle… So disappointing of an ending to an epic war.
Image source: bobbi21, Toubletap – Own work
#3
Belgium went 594 days without goverment and didn’t become a crime ridden dystopia.
Image source: Noideamanbro, Aron Marinelli
#4
In Finland we have 5.5 million people and 3.2 million saunas.
#5
After we put the Indigenous people on reserves we allegedly wanted them to become farmers, but we didn’t just teach them to farm the way White folks farmed with the 19th century technology that was current at the time. We had a “peasant farm” policy where we gave them rudimentary tools and made them farm with old timey techniques, ostensibly due to the belief that they had to “evolve” toward modern farming on their own, but actually so that they could not compete with White farmers and basically stayed farming at a subsistence level or failed at it altogether.
(Canada, if you’re wondering.)
Image source: smuffleupagus, GreenForce Staffing
#6
Believe it or not, Kazakhstan is the number one exporter of potassium in the world. All of your potassium supplements come from here. I would know, I own a potassium factory.
Image source: Plumbus90, Elsa Olofsson
#7
The Unicorn is our national animal.
Image source: anon, Juliana Araujo the artist
#8
Still my favourite fact is the fact one of our prime ministers probably drowned and to remember him we named a pool after him.
Another contender is the fact that in one of the world wars the game plan for if we were invaded (and lost) was to lead them into wildlife.
Image source: lolucorngaming, Pixabay
#9
In Bulgaria shaking your head means “yes” and nodding means “no”. My country is the only one in the world which has reverse meaning behind the shaking and nodding. So if you happen to spend your holiday in Bulgaria be prepared to not get confused by this. :D
Image source: Moon_falcon, Priscilla Du Preez
#10
I live in the only industrialized nation without universal healthcare and 14% of working age adults don’t have health insurance.
Image source: Exact_Roll_4048
#11
Most of us stopped using the flags of our country in public or wearing the jerseys of our National team because nowadaya those things translate to supporting the president, who is f*****g stupid.
That’s Brazil for ya
Image source: danillaosg, Ramon Buçard
#12
We made a commercial openly admitting we misunderstood a native word and ended up naming our country “village”.
Image source: NomadClad, Jonathan Velasquez
#13
Our landmass looks like a boot and I think it must’ve kicked our biggest island at some point, because it’s moving away from us by 1cm a year.
Image source: thathorsegamingguy, Anders Jildén
#14
We ate our prime minister. Oh and we also ate his brother
Image source: Dazzling_Run_5519, Ngân Dương
#15
We have more bikes than people
Image source: p_anime, Héctor Martínez
#16
The first King of England made a law that everyone had to be in bed by 8pm.
Image source: Buddleia01, Quin Stevenson
#17
One of the many is, Denmark is the first country to legalize porn and the porn industry along with sex work such as prostitution/escorts (As long as you’re turned 18)
Image source: Its-a-strange-life
#18
It’s illegal to handle salmon suspiciously
Image source: Lopsided-Alps3853, Abstral Official
#19
Our country has the most number of vegetarians yet our chicken dishes are widely popular.
Image source: anushkagarg00, Priscilla Du Preez
#20
France.
We have the longest domestic flights : The first one is from French Polynesia to Paris ; The second one is from Reunion Island to Paris, their duration is respectively 16h and 12h.
Oh and our longest land border is with Brazil.
Image source: Matrozi
#21
The amount of dialects, compared to it’s size. I am talking about Switzerland.
There is no exact number. Strictly speaking, differences can be found in every village compared to the surrounding villages, so that one could also say with some justification that there are at least as many dialects as there are villages, which is a huge amount.
Switzerland has always been shaped by conquests and immigration, and so very different languages have been able to coexist over the centuries. Even before the 6th century, groups with alemannic dialects immigrated to Switzerland, breaking up the nationwide spread of romance languages. Since 1848, German, French and Italian have been considered the national languages of the Confoederatio Helvetica.
Image source: Trackmaniac, Tim Trad
#22
We were the first country to legalize same-sex unions in 1989 🏳️🌈
Image source: bjoerkismylove
#23
My country’s whole economic system relied on families of 10 children supporting the 2 parents. And that’s the reason it totally failed, along with heavy corruption and nobody paying taxes, left us with being a country in debt for the last 13 years. Right now, the economic power relies only on tourism and nautical commerce.
Image source: mastro1741, Charlein Gracia
#24
Women health care is practically non existent
You can’t go to a gynecologist without being bullied by your doctor or their assistant. They will judge you before you even try to explain what the problem is. There is no education on period or cramps or anything. No sex ed.
Image source: Eitch_Bee
#25
It has no official national language but many of its citizens think it’s English.
Image source: hobbiesaremygame, Aaron Burden
#26
The full name of our capital which roughly translates to city of the gods is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit
Image source: VicBulbon
#27
the age of sexual consent used to be 12. yes, you heard that right, 12. it wasn’t even that long ago that this was changed, it was changed to 16 just back in march.
Image source: jdwasnottaken, AnnaStills
#28
We are most invaded country on earth. Scoring first with whooping 200+ times.
Image source: anon, RDNE Stock project
#29
we have 11 time zones and it’s so big that from our capital to some cities you need to go over 6 days by train.
Image source: ritamoren
#30
There’s an ongoing court case against a man, who entered the church with a hat.
It lasted 4 years and is still going, the procurators once again put it under scrutiny.
Image source: anon, Karl Fredrickson
#31
The movie The Wolf Of Wall Street was financed with our taxpayers’ money. Also we lost a plane.
Image source: anonymous_and_, Alexander Grey
#32
Despite being a country with continental proportions, more than 8 million square kilometers, we’ve got a notorious lack of atypical natural phenomena. No volcanoes, no earthquakes, no hurricanes, no tsunamis, it doesn’t even snow anywhere in the entire country. On the other hand, we’re in the list of megadiverse countries, with six continental biomes.
.
.[EDIT] Ok people, it does snow in here, kinda rarely and only in a very small part of it, but it does. It was a generalization because the huge majority of us have never experienced it in the country, I’d risk saying more people from here have seen snow while traveling abroad than people have within the country. Sorry for the exclusion, I was just making it practical for the argument. Also, fora bolsonaro.
Image source: skywalkerblood, Vadim Bogulov
#33
Our navy is the second largest air force in the world
Image source: UnconstrictedEmu, James Lewis
#34
you can marry a dead person (with presidential agreement and under special conditions)
Image source: chinchenping, HONG SON
#35
We have a quarter of the world’s drinkable water.
Image source: CheeseburgerBrown
#36
We have the highest density of castles in the world, if the same rate were to be applied to New York, Manhattan alone would have two of them. If you were to apply our castles per capita (roughly 1/5000), New York would have 13,000, the US would have 514,000.
Image source: CymroCam
#37
We are fourth in alcohol consumption, somewhere in top 10 tobacco use, #1’s in beer per capita and over 30% of people here are obese
Image source: anon, BENCE BOROS
#38
We have the highest number of porn stars per 1 million inhabitants….wow.
Image source: your-creepy_uncle-69, 2H Media
#39
Our country declared war to the US sometime during WWI (or WWII? Can’t remember), which to this day hasn’t been ended with a piece treaty or anything. So we’ve technically been in war with the US for the last 100 (80?) years.
Image source: Wotah_Bottle_86
#40
On one end of the country, there’s a cocktail where people drink whiskey with a real cut off human toe inside. On the other end, you get a certificate for drinking whiskey and kissing a dead fish.
Image source: a_supportive_bra
#41
They say there are more guns than there are people
Image source: BlackbeanMaster
#42
Our financial system just made the world commit securities fraud
Image source: WiseKibbles, Scott Graham
#43
Do people even know where Slovakia is
Image source: OneNo7285, Anthony Beck
#44
We haven’t been hit hard or at all by any of the current world economic disasters.
Image source: anon
#45
We have the world’s highest number of ministers per capita (excluding microstates) with one minister per 10.000 people.
Image source: Mr_Curious_
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