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.
More info: Ourtravelhome
#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 credits: Rovia2323
#2
Belgium went 594 days without goverment and didn’t become a crime ridden dystopia.
Image credits: Noideamanbro
#3
In Finland we have 5.5 million people and 3.2 million saunas.
Image credits: HeidiSJ
Bored Panda got in touch with Jayne Gorman, from the travel blog Ourtravelhome to learn more about exploring the world and the things you might discover. First and foremost, we wanted to know, after years of traveling, what she would tell her younger self.
“Don’t overthink it, just do it. When I was younger I had a habit of turning things down if it wasn’t the right time or might have been complicated. I distinctly remember backpacking in Asia and deciding not to include Laos on the itinerary as I could always come back another time. Well, guess what, 15 years later an opportunity to pop into Laos has not presented itself! Now, as a 38-year-old mum with a 4-year-old and a mortgage, I look back at the freedom I had then and think I probably could have done a little bit more with it.”
#4
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. 😀
Image credits: Moon_falcon
#5
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 credits: lolucorngaming
#6
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 credits: bobbi21
When it comes to traveling, spending money sometimes isn’t a matter of convenience, it can actually affect your safety! So we asked Jayne Gorman to talk a bit about when it’s worth spending that little bit extra. “I think it’s all about working within your budget and making smart choices! Personally, I’ve always favored a mix of high/low travel. I’ll often fly with a budget airline on a short-haul flight so I can splurge on a boutique hotel in my destination. I’d definitely pay a premium for transport if it gives me more time at the destination. But I might self-cater my lunch that day to make up for it!”
#7
The first King of England made a law that everyone had to be in bed by 8pm.
Image credits: Buddleia01
#8
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 credits: Plumbus90
#9
We ate our prime minister. Oh and we also ate his brother
Image credits: Dazzling_Run_5519
“Always research the options for airport transfers. In some destinations, Marrakech and Lisbon, for example, a taxi is much faster and just as affordable as public transport. But in Luxembourg, where I’m headed next, all public transport is free. Pre-planning your arrival saves time, money, and stress.” Indeed, Americans might be surprised that in most places there is dedicated transport to and from the airport.
#10
The Unicorn is our national animal.
Image credits: anon
#11
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.)
#12
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 credits: thathorsegamingguy
We also wanted to hear if she had any extra advice for traveling somewhere completely new in general. “Start a collection on Instagram and save posts with top tips and things you’d like to do at your destination. Save points of interest to a Google map. I create a new list for every destination I visit and will save my hotel, popular restaurants, attractions, etc to a map in advance so it’s easier to plan my days and navigate the destination,” she shared with Bored Panda.
#13
Our country has the most number of vegetarians yet our chicken dishes are widely popular.
Image credits: anushkagarg00
#14
We have more bikes than people
Image credits: p_anime
#15
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.
“As data roaming with your own network provider can be very expensive, I recommend downloading an eSIM before traveling. I use a company called Airalo to buy a local eSIM and load it up with a cheap data package as I would literally be lost without my phone.” You can find more on her website or on her Instagram, and if you want to learn more about life in some countries, check out our article on people confirming or denying stereotypes.
#16
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 credits: mastro1741
#17
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 credits: danillaosg
#18
We made a commercial openly admitting we misunderstood a native word and ended up naming our country “village”.
Image credits: NomadClad
#19
It’s illegal to handle salmon suspiciously
Image credits: Lopsided-Alps3853
#20
It has no official national language but many of its citizens think it’s English.
Image credits: hobbiesaremygame
#21
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 credits: jdwasnottaken
#22
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)
#23
Our navy is the second largest air force in the world
Image credits: UnconstrictedEmu
#24
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 credits: anon
#25
The movie The Wolf Of Wall Street was financed with our taxpayers’ money. Also we lost a plane.
Image credits: anonymous_and_
#26
We were the first country to legalize same-sex unions in 1989 ?️?
#27
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.
#28
We are most invaded country on earth. Scoring first with whooping 200+ times.
Image credits: anon
#29
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 credits: Trackmaniac
#30
We have the highest number of porn stars per 1 million inhabitants….wow.
Image credits: your-creepy_uncle-69
#31
you can marry a dead person (with presidential agreement and under special conditions)
Image credits: chinchenping
#32
I live in the only industrialized nation without universal healthcare and 14% of working age adults don’t have health insurance.
#33
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.
#34
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
#35
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.
#36
We have a quarter of the world’s drinkable water.
#37
Do people even know where Slovakia is
Image credits: OneNo7285
#38
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 credits: anon
#39
Our financial system just made the world commit securities fraud
Image credits: WiseKibbles
#40
They say there are more guns than there are people
#41
We haven’t been hit hard or at all by any of the current world economic disasters.
#42
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.
#43
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 credits: skywalkerblood
#44
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.
#45
We have the world’s highest number of ministers per capita (excluding microstates) with one minister per 10.000 people.
#46
My country’s name is based on the word “uterus”