What we don't know about your country

[Unknower]

Is there something in your country that we foreigners don't know? Any inventions, that we think that come from somewhere else, any famous people from there, that people generally mistake to be from somewhere else, etc?

Here is one from my country, Finland. People seem to generally think that the molotov cocktail was a Russian invention. It was actually developed in Finland, against Russian tanks during WW2. We didn't really have any anti tank equipment, so we had to use logs and snow to stop the tanks, then scorch them with molotovs.

If there are any stories like that you would like to share, please do.

Actually Spaniards invented it during their civil war. We just came up with the name.

It's a good name though.

 

[Otterwuff]

Norway; the country is more than twice the size of England (323,000 km^2 as opposed to England's (country only) 130,000 km^2) yet we have less than 5 million inhabitants, as opposed to England's 50 million.

I find that mind-blowing to some extent.

 

[Code_Red]

Not everyone in Ireland drinks and we don't all speak with that stereotypical Irish accent,believe it or not.

 

[NoSlottedToaster]

The American South East isn't all Inbred and Slack-Jawed, Just Mississippi and Arkansas

 

[Sulu]

We're not part of Spain.

who would that be? portugal? andorra?

anywho, the U.K. has the 2nd longest country name on earth; the united kindom of england, scotland, wales and northern ireland. or something like that.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

 

[Firenz]

anywho, the U.K. has the 2nd longest country name on earth; the united kindom of england, scotland, wales and northern ireland. or something like that.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the full title
EDIT: damn someone got there before me

(also I think that we're still british subjects not citizens, although that might just be one's own personal choice, and we don't have a written constitution, and we currently have the longest continuous monarchy (they all have links to each other... however tenuous)

 

[Zacharine]

Yet another fun fact: Finland's Lapland has a population of 184 400 inhabitants spread over 98,984.3 km² (representing 30% of Finland?s total area). Land areas in Lapland account for 92,665.72 km², making the population density a measly 2.1 people/km².

1km x 1km area has on average 2.1 people living there. And this is with taking into account the city of Rovaniemi, with population of 59 000 people, making the pop. density on the wilderness even less.

And there are about 200 000 reindeer over there. So there is about 1.1 reindeer for every human living there.

Chew on that.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

Norway; the country is more than twice the size of England (323,000 km^2 as opposed to England's (country only) 130,000 km^2) yet we have less than 5 million inhabitants, as opposed to England's 50 million.

I find that mind-blowing to some extent.

Mind-blowing perhaps but perfectly true. It'll be because of a variety of factors, temperature, politics etc.

 

[TheFacelessOne]

Four of 50 of the states in the U.S. were once countries.

Texas, Hawaii, Vermont, and California.

 

[Deathsong17]

Us Welsh have our own language.

 

[Eleuthera]

The United States was once TWO countries.

The U.S., and Texas. Yes, Texas was a country for a very short time after it rebelled from Mexico, it's old owner.

But Texas soon joined the Union. But since we were a country for some time, the Texas flag is allowed to fly ALMOST as high as the United States flag.

Actually Vermont (I think, could have been New Hampshire) was an independant nation for a (very) short while as well before joining the Union.

 

[Chaossebba]

Belgium here, one of our guys invented the Saxophone back in 1841 (Adolphe Sax)

 

[Sonicron]

Germany here. We are not all bavarians. They are the ones with the "Lederhosen", white sausage, beer and strange festivals. (Although beer is good everywhere here). It is like thinking that all americans are like texans, or californians.

That's what I was going to say. Word for word.

Also, we invented the telephone. ^^

 

[Camoman]

We Canadiens don't drink maple syrop nor do we end every sentence with EH!

And we don't all like hockey ( Hockey is not our national sport either. That would be Lacross).

 

[Asciotes]

In America, we hate other Americans more then any other collective group of people on the planet.

and yet, marrying people of the same gender isn't. Seems a little backwards doesnt it?

And for Canada: Our Head of state, is the queen and not the prime minister. This, were a constitutional monarchy, as opposed to a republic, like the states.

 

[LeonLethality]

Did you know...
Not everyone in England wears a top hat?

GASP what has the world come to.

All tidbits of info I have learned over the years as a canadian I didnt know much of this so others probably wont either (please note I also searched for a few of them because I remembered little things about them but not the whole thing)

the longest coastline of any country belongs to Canada

Canada is the second largest country, in size, in the world

three oceans surround Canada, the Pacific, the Atlantic, and the Arctic

the Trans-Canada highway is the longest highway in the world It is 8,000km (4970 miles) long

Montreal has more snow than any other city in the world

there are more cows in Saskatchewan than there are people

Edmonton (my hometown =D) has the second greatest temperature variation in the world from + 40 degrees to -40 degrees celcius (sorry don't know conversion to fahrenheit only km to miles)

Montreal is to thank for that sign on vending machines with the guy shaking it and the machine falling on him if anyone ever wondered where it came from