Countries you didn't know existed....
- Thread starter jugularvein
- Start date
dylanredefined
Not a house elf a tiger
The mod used to call it F.R.Y as in the former republic of yugoslavia
Must have gladdened the heart of whoever it is who thinks up odd names just for the military to rename a country.
Must have gladdened the heart of whoever it is who thinks up odd names just for the military to rename a country.
DownwardDog
Well-Known Member
Spion said:Yes.
Fantastic game
What about least-touristy country you've visited? That would combine talking about all these little-heard-of places with the opportunity for a bit of travel showing off.
I think mine would be Syria
Working in the aviation business I've had the opportunity to do the entire Axis of Evil:
North Korea is totally fucking insane. Probably best summarised by breakfast in the hotel: cold rice. However, there had obviously been some sabotage by a counter-revolutionary cell in the Number 28 Central Chopstick Production Facility because the waitress gave me two grimy pencils with which to eat it. Seems more comical than truly dangerous
Iran. Surprisingly good red light district made doubly exciting by the ever-present prospect of detention and torture.
Iraq. Only been to post-Saddam Basrah and it didn't seem that bad to me. Certainly better than half a dozen African countries I can think of. I'm going to do the Kuwait City - Baghdad drive next month so I'll report back assuming I survive it.
Syria. Met Mrs. DD in an Aleppo bar. The fact that quality tottie like her will marry someone like me to get a new life outside Syria tells you all you need to know about the Ba'athist wonderland.
Spion
I hear ya
DownwardDog said:
Hehe, ace story. Reminds me of a place we stayed in Cuba - a sort of run down holiday camp that had seen better days. We were the only guests and there seemed to be some food shortgage going on. We went for breakfast and no food came for a while and the staff were acting all sheepish. Eventually they figured they'd have to give us somethign and we ended up trying to eat some half-ripe oranges they put in front of us.
I'd be v keen to hear how that goes. Good luck with itDownwardDog said:
DownwardDog said:
Aleppo is the groping capital of the world. Mrs Spion got grabbed - not very subtly - about half a dozen times there. Mostly in the souk, where guy's hands would just shoot out for a feel as she walked along. And once in a power cut where we were walking upstairs to the hotel entrance and someone ran up and copped a feel
trashpony
Hag
laptop said:Shh. Nice little scam those correspondents have got going there. You're just jealous
Yes, it's true. They have confessed that they aren't exactly sure where their correspondents are quite a lot of the time ...
So there's probably a few of them pretending to be in Iraq who's actually filing from a sunlounger in Dubai.
Orang Utan
Maybe I like the misery
Most of these places are quite well known if you have an atlas - it's the new ones from the old Soviet bloc that I have trouble keeping up with, like East Ossetia.
Sealand, Kingdom Kreuzburg, Autopia anyone?
Sealand, Kingdom Kreuzburg, Autopia anyone?
Orang Utan
Maybe I like the misery
Isambard said:Autonomous Republic surely!
Yeah, I find all these micronations very intriguing - I'm tempted to annexe a Western Isle for the purposes of founding a ginger homeland
Orang Utan
Maybe I like the misery
Well it's in a disputed region between Georgia and Russia in the Caucasus - it's probably a very beautiful place - but poor and cold in the winter for sure.trashpony said:I've always thought that Ossetia sounded rather glamorous. I have no idea where it is though. Probably cold and extremely poor.
Oops, it's North and South Ossetia, not East and West
rubbershoes
not the only raver in the village
Donna Ferentes
jubliado
I've had holidays in both.Major Tom said:
lang rabbie
Je ne regrette les gazebos
trashpony said:
Only officially ceased to be in 2003 when the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) established in 1992 was replaced by the looser confederation of Serbia and Montenegro (Srbija i Crna Gora sometimes abbreviated as SCG) - there has been no boundary change.
Confusingly, most websites in the confederation, including the government, are continuing to use the .yu suffix allocated to the FRY rather than the allocated .cs - Don't know whether this is because of the strong probability that Serbia and Montenegro may go for independence in 2006.
lang rabbie said:
Probably waiting for an update to the ISO 3166 country codes that IANA/ICANN uses to determine the delegation of country-code top level domains. .cs should be available as it became redundant when Czechoslovakia split, although there may be legacy system use of that ccTLD.
pogofish
Testicle Hairstyle
Not an individual country, but I always enjoyed the oddity of Barle-Nassau. A few chunks of Belgum, some miles inside the Dutch border. Apparently, they couldn't agree on the border here so the land-ownership roll was used instead!
Might that be Dhannamar (sp?)? Think that was more of a cult "state", asserting its independance. Think they have been forced back into Italy recently though, forced to pay taxes & get planning permission for their underground temples etc!
axon said:
Might that be Dhannamar (sp?)? Think that was more of a cult "state", asserting its independance. Think they have been forced back into Italy recently though, forced to pay taxes & get planning permission for their underground temples etc!
Major Tom said:
Tried to explain Wales to my spanish teacher here in rural spain the other week. After 10 minutes I gave up. 'You mean the west of england?' she asked. I'll take an atlas in with me when new term starts.
Also sat down to a CD ROM excercise all about nationalities and countries.
What nationality are the following celebrities, the question asked. No 'English' option for Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell. Here in Spain it appears they are considered american!
I'm starting to wonder just what kind of spanish I'm being taught.
Orang Utan said:Well it's in a disputed region between Georgia and Russia in the Caucasus - it's probably a very beautiful place - but poor and cold in the winter for sure.
Oops, it's North and South Ossetia, not East and West
Russia has a few federated republics. Chuvashia is one. I was in Russia last summer, some incidents occured (the few times that the Caucuasus was mentioned on the TV news)- Georgian troops were firing on a convoy of Russian and South Ossetian military personel meeting near the border. Russian troops blowing the fuck out of a house in Dagestan after a shootout with militants hiding there, and Georgia threatening to fire upon any any ships or boats moving off the coast of Abhkazia, as it is still a spot where Russian tourists like to go for their summer hols. Sounds like a fun place to be the Cauacasus.
You're not confusing it with FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) or Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, are you?dylanredefined said:
"Confusingly, most websites in the confederation, including the government, are continuing to use the .yu suffix"
There are quite a few websites that use the .su domain - all of them put up after the Soviet Union ceased to exist!
North Ossetia and South Ossetia aren't disputed between Russia and Georgia, so much as South Ossetia is attempting to secede from Georgia with Russian support, iirc. North Ossetia is accepted as Russian territory.
The Caucasus is very nice (and pretty diverse) in parts...
jugularvein said:
Kiribati and Vanuatu are former British colonies: The Gilbert and Ellice Islands. In my first year of secondary school, back in the day, we read A Pattern of Islands by Sir Arthur Grimble which was about his days posted there in the 1920s as a very minor diplomat. Not as dull as it sounds, it was rather charming and self-deprecating in a colonialist sort of way...
jugularvein
extra
jugularvein said:
Poor bastards.
jugularvein
extra
yeah lonely planet says it's basically been raped
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