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The world is wonderfully diverse. So many different countries and so many different cultures. Traveling can broaden our horizons, of course, but some things and experiences can still remain a mystery. That's why it's always interesting to hear from the locals: what they recommend, what they advise to avoid, and what fascinating facts we should know about their native place.

Someone was curious to know more about the latter, so they asked: "What are facts about your country, which foreigners do not usually know about?" People from all around the world started sharing their countries' wonderful secrets. From national animals to lesser-known achievements, all kinds of interesting facts came to light.

What about you, Pandas? Do you happen to know any strange facts about your homeland that you think foreigners should know, too? Let us know in the comments if you do!

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#1

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe As a Canadian, I cannot stress this enough: DO NOT APPROACH THE GEESE IF YOU VALUE YOUR LIFE.

Rorschach_22 , Ashleigh Bennett/Flickr (not the actual photo) Report

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#2

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe French here.

Parisian don't hate you in particular.

They hate everyone.

They hate each other.

And most of them are not even born in Paris in the first place.

madeleine-de-prout , Chad Davis/Flickr (not the actual photo) Report

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gerard julien
gerard julien
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

wrong stereotype : actually parisians don't hate you, they just ignore you !

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#3

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe Scotland: National animal is the unicorn. Not joking.

sodsto , Staffan Vilcans/Pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa)
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa)
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The Lion and the Unicorn. Lion for England and Unicorn for Scotland. The ages old symbol for the United Kingdom. I may be a Yank but I know a few things.

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#4

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe Brazil: We have the biggest japanese community outside Japan.

fourangers , Kyle Lui/Pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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#5

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe The Italian national animal is the wolf, yes, but it's usually not specified that it's the *female* wolf.

AlbiTuri05 , Tambako The Jagua/Pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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#6

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe The United States was formed by a bunch of aristocrats that didn’t want to pay their taxes.

ZackInKC , 401(K) 2012/Flickr (not the actual photo) Report

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#7

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe Mexico is not yellow, and I'm tired of Hollywood always making Mexico yellow in their movies.

Seya_Ayanami , Halle Stoutzenberger/Flickr (not the actual photo) Report

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Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa)
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa)
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

THANK YOU! I always thought that was weird. I think it's because of the Spaghetti Westerns of the 70s and 80s. So Italians making movies about the USA and making the South West look yellow and orange to make it look hot. That's my theory at least.

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#8

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe One fact not even people who were born and raised know about: During World War 2 the Netherlands had one of the worst survival rates for Jews in all of the German occupied territories; only 5,000 out 105,000 survived the war. The extensive Dutch civil administration is often cited as a cause of this; once German police had access to the public records they knew exactly who was Jewish, and where they lived. Once they had that information, it was easy for them to target and deport any Jewish people living in the Netherlands.

While that is true, what is not often talked about is how much of the work tracking down Jewish people was done by Dutch people, many of whom benefitted financially from their actions. Police and civil servants got paid bonuses if they found Jews in hiding, notaries public would make a hefty commission on the sale of confiscated Jewish properties, even the national rail company got their cut charging the Germans for use of their trains to transport captured Jews to concentration camps.

Education about this aspect of the German occupation has gotten much better over the past ten years or so, but when I was a kid we were taught none of this. We only heard about the how the heroic resistance would oppose the Germans and try to hide Jewish people, when in reality there were more collaborators than there were ever members of the resistance.

ConstableBlimeyChips , crash71100/Flickr (not the actual photo) Report

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#9

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe I feel like too few people are really prepared for how fast the Australian sun will burn them when they get off the plane...

If your SPF isn't 50+ it might as well go in the bin.

Retirement in Australia is basically skin cancer treatments.

Slip slip slap people.

blahblahrasputan , Phil Kates/Flickr (not the actual photo) Report

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Rayne OfSalt
Rayne OfSalt
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We play a game here in Oz called "Spot the Brit". It involves keeping an eye out for lobster red people in public. You see one, you've found the Brit. For some reason, Brits are the absolute worst at underestimating just how badly and how quickly the sun will burn them here. If you're travelling to Oz, don't bring sunscreen from your country - it's not formulated for our country and is effectively worthless. Buy some that's made here the moment you get off the plane and slather yourself in it before you step out of the airport.

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#10

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe New Zealand is colder than people expect.

pgraczer , Pedro Szekely/Flickr (not the actual photo) Report

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#11

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe Iceland does not have a Mcdonalds. Not sure if this is a well known fact or not but I get asked by trourists sometimes.

BlueBabyCat666 , Stock Catalog/Flickr (not the actual photo) Report

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Jo Firth
Jo Firth
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Another reason to visit Iceland (as if there aren't enough already).

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#12

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe 🇮🇪

1. We're not all drunk alcoholics.
2. We're not British.
3. There is more food and drink in 🇮🇪 than your stereotypes of potatoes, Guinness.
4. We don't like it when you claim your Irish through a long line of relatives.
5. The people here are not leprechauns. Some are just small or ginger.

Complex-Breadfruit88 , Iain/Pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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Donna Sempek
Donna Sempek
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

So if my grandmother was from Ireland I should keep my mouth shut?

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#13

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe Most of the haggis sold for meat are farmed in Wales. Wild scottish haggis are practically extinct.

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Jo Firth
Jo Firth
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think the haggis is similar to the drop bear in Australia ...

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#14

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe As a Norwegian, Norway likes the "we are forward thinking and accept all people" publicity, but in reality, Norway is incredibly racist and xenophobic.

A lot of Norwegians will get angry if you point it out too.

Wappening , Patrick Nouhailler/Flickr (not the actual photo) Report

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Suzie
Suzie
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The whole world is getting that way sadly through the actions of a few !

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#15

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe Many people in the US do not carry firearms.

OldSamSays , Cristian Ramírez/Flickr (not the actual photo) Report

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Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa)
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa)
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

MOST. In fact the vast majority of us do not. At this point there are about 80 million gun OWNERS in the USA but there are almost 400 million guns. Most of us don't own any guns but the ones who do, own on average five guns each. Think about that. 2/3 of us own zero guns but the ones who do own guns, own around five. YOU ONLY HAVE TWO HANDS FFS. Gun culture is out of control.

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#16

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe In World War II Canada interned Japanese people.

Many people don't know this but what is now Strathcona and East Vancouver used to be Japantown which was a bustling Japanese community. They were taken from their homes and businesses. In fact if you visit some of the buildings in Vancouver's Pacific National Exhibition (PNE), you're visiting the very buildings they slept in; hundreds of cots, lined up with no privacy.

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#17

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe Amsterdam is not the only place in the Netherlands.

gfxdaniel , _ Harvey/Pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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#18

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe pierogi is already plural , no knead to call them pierogies.

karol256 , Karolina Grabowska/Pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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#19

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe Our elderly care is abysmal. Nursing homes in US costs $8-15k a month and most insurance companies don't cover it. Don't be old, kids!

theassassintherapist , Matthias Zomer/Pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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#20

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe Germany: The autobahn is just a mundane part of everyday life many of us don't really think about, and speed limits do exist.

blacka-var , conticium/Flickr (not the actual photo) Report

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Surenu
Surenu
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's technically true that there's no speed limit, as in there is no general speed limits like on every other type of road. However, authorities can and do enact speed limits if road conditions make one necessary. So don't expect to go blasting over the A43 at 300 kp/h for an hour or so. You'll likely be stuck in a traffic jam for that time.

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#21

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe There are actually more than 3 Pyramids in Egypt.

RevelationDelta , David McEachan/Pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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Korrie Broos
Korrie Broos
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There are more pyramids in Sudan than in Egypt. Over 200 in Sudan vs 118 In Egypt

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#22

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe Brazil actually have strong laws against crime. We are just incapable of enforcing them. I think most Brazilians don't know this either.

Gentle_Capybara , Erik Cooper/Flickr (not the actual photo) Report

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Surenu
Surenu
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think this is most places. Here in Germany, too. Yet every time something goes wrong our politicians call for new laws... because properly enforcing the existing ones costs money.

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#23

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe Canada is a well known place for animation. A lot of US studios farm out work here and it's subsidized by the provincial governments. The standards for children's animation is high and is easily exportable to other countries.

1_art_please , Domenico Convertini/Flickr (not the actual photo) Report

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#24

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe Oktober fest does not start in October.

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#25

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe When it comes to Dubai, 99% of people seem to be of the opinion that Dubai has no culture and little history.

Not so. When i moved there in the 80s (before it became a behemoth), the culture was very much evident.

Fishing from dhous, trading along the river, ancient traditions such as camel racing, falconry and, most impressively, creating successful nomadic communities that thrived for thousands of years in some of the most desolate areas on the globe.

And then oil was discovered.

Wonderful-Section971 , Aleksandar Pasaric/Pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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Glasofruix
Glasofruix
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yeah, nowadays it's a sterile land full of influencers and luxury shops

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#26

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe Good Filipino hospitality only works for foreigners. Towards fellow countrymen, most Filipinos are pretty selfish.

wickedhobbitses , Rene Sibulangcal/Pexels (not the actual photo) Report

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#27

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe Australia - has 15 ski resorts, though by international standards they're pretty lame...and expensive.

Gregorygherkins , Roderick Eime/Flickr (not the actual photo) Report

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#28

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe Rick and morty is animated in ireland.

like... everything about that seems wrong.

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Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa)
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa)
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Lot of good animation studios in Ireland. Always has been going back to the 60s.

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#29

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe Singapore has entire clusters of crammed foreign worker housing out in the fringes of the city in industrial areas, at the edge of forests, and along the sea.

I_love_pillows , Fabio Achilli / Flickr (not the actual photo) Report

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#30

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe South Africa, First human heart transplant took place here. Also, the Kreepy Krauly and cat's eyes were invented here.

Saffer13 , Alex Healing/Flickr (not the actual photo) Report

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#31

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe That we burned the White House down.


AliMcGraw:


O CANADA!

MuskokaGreenThumb , Pom/Flickr (not the actual photo) Report

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Corvus
Corvus
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

But they did it very, very, very politely. And apologized afterwards :D

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#32

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe An exiled French aristocrat is the reason we (the United States) gained our independence. To be honest, I think most U.S. citizens don't realize this either.

TheLonelyScientist , Jarrett Campbell/Flickr (not the actual photo) Report

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#33

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe In Belgium, hospital insurance is typically included as part of the national social security system, which is funded through taxes. This means that citizens contribute to the financing of hospital insurance through their taxes, ensuring access to healthcare services without additional out-of-pocket expenses for hospitalization.

This partially explains why Belgium has a tax rate of 40% for incomes exceeding 15,000 euros per year, which is essentially a minimum wage salary over here.

BeanoBEAST , Presidencia de la República Mexicana/Flickr (not the actual photo) Report

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Ace
Ace
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Not sure why the poster thinks this is unique to Belgium, most of its neighbours have similar health systems and similar tax rates.

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#34

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe There are sand dunes in Colorado, US. 

Quix66 , Christian Collins/Flickr (not the actual photo) Report

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#35

Sweden. Our public transport is good enough that you really don’t beed to rent a car unless you have tonnes of baggage. You can get around on busses and trains super easily.

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#36

Foreign people think that Butter Chicken, samosa and butter roti are the only dishes that Indians eat. There are many more than that, taster, healthier, and affordable 🙌🙌.

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#37

Didn't ban the use of DDT until 1989 last country in the OECD I believe also the last of the nations that had troops exposed to agent Orange in Vietnam to offer compensation and funded treatment

NZ.

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#38

To know that Marrakesh and Agadir are not the most beautiful, there are other unknown cities that you can visit and enjoy (Morocco).

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#39

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe Honduras is essentially just Mexico and Brazil but a bad knockoff.

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#40

“Scottish Haggis Are Practically Extinct”: 30 Interesting Facts About Countries Round The Globe Chicago is shockingly clean, and the people are crazy-friendly and will take their entire lunch break to walk you to the Art Institute if you're mildly lost, and invite you to Thanksgiving Dinner along the way.

We're not rude. We're not New York!

Chicago is also one of the world's greatest gourmet food cities, the best American city for architecture, and BY FAR the best American symphony orchestra. We gave the world Modernist Cuisine, and skyscrapers, and deep-dish pizza, and we remain the world's top destination for jazz. The Art Institute is WORLD F*****G CLASS.

Everybody knows facts about New York and LA and SF and Walt Disney World, but foreigners hardly know anything about Chicago -- "It's in the middle, right?" "Ooooh, Al Capone, bang bang!" -- but it should be your top US city to visit.

I absolutely promise you that you will enjoy no US city more than you enjoy Chicago. Everybody who lives here loves Chicago, and wants you to love Chicago, and they are SUPER NICE besides. You will begin to believe in American smiles because Chicagoans smile because they mean it and want you to enjoy your visit.

AliMcGraw , Paul Hudson/Flickr (not the actual photo) Report

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Kristal
Kristal
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6 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Lol clean? You've got to be kidding me. No, no it's not clean. Maybe certain neighborhoods but not overall. I lived in Southside and used public transport and drove all around the city. I promise you, it would not be considered a clean city by anyone that has actually been to other big cities around the world.

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