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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

This post may include affiliate links.

#1

People Share Bizarre True Facts About Their Countries, Here Are The 45 Most Interesting Ones 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.

Rovia2323 , Nathan Dumlao Report

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#2

People Share Bizarre True Facts About Their Countries, Here Are The 45 Most Interesting Ones 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.

bobbi21 , Toubletap - Own work Report

Final score:
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Tiffany Munday
Tiffany Munday
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9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It’s called the Whiskey War and it was between Canada and Denmark

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#3

People Share Bizarre True Facts About Their Countries, Here Are The 45 Most Interesting Ones Belgium went 594 days without goverment and didn't become a crime ridden dystopia.

Noideamanbro , Aron Marinelli Report

Final score:
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Steve
Steve
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9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is a non-argument . It's not like there was no justice system for 594 days

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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

People Share Bizarre True Facts About Their Countries, Here Are The 45 Most Interesting Ones In Finland we have 5.5 million people and 3.2 million saunas.

HeidiSJ , HUUM Report

Final score:
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#5

People Share Bizarre True Facts About Their Countries, Here Are The 45 Most Interesting Ones 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.)

smuffleupagus , GreenForce Staffing Report

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Content Wombat
Content Wombat
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Just one of all the atrocities heaped on the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Absolutely horrendous.

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#6

People Share Bizarre True Facts About Their Countries, Here Are The 45 Most Interesting Ones 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.

Plumbus90 , Elsa Olofsson Report

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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

People Share Bizarre True Facts About Their Countries, Here Are The 45 Most Interesting Ones The Unicorn is our national animal.

anon , Juliana Araujo the artist Report

Final score:
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#8

People Share Bizarre True Facts About Their Countries, Here Are The 45 Most Interesting Ones 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.

lolucorngaming , Pixabay Report

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#9

People Share Bizarre True Facts About Their Countries, Here Are The 45 Most Interesting Ones 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

Moon_falcon , Priscilla Du Preez Report

Final score:
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Kosnian
Kosnian
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In Greek "Ναι" (né) means yes, not no. Word for no is "Όχι" (óhi). Can be confusing for all latin or Germanic languages

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“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. 

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#10

I live in the only industrialized nation without universal healthcare and 14% of working age adults don't have health insurance.

Exact_Roll_4048 Report

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#11

People Share Bizarre True Facts About Their Countries, Here Are The 45 Most Interesting Ones 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

danillaosg , Ramon Buçard Report

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Nicole
Nicole
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I wish so many in my country didn't support that sorry excuse for a person Donald Trump. It's downright humiliating and dangerous for our rights.

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#12

People Share Bizarre True Facts About Their Countries, Here Are The 45 Most Interesting Ones We made a commercial openly admitting we misunderstood a native word and ended up naming our country "village".

NomadClad , Jonathan Velasquez Report

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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. 

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#13

People Share Bizarre True Facts About Their Countries, Here Are The 45 Most Interesting Ones 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.

thathorsegamingguy , Anders Jildén Report

Final score:
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#14

People Share Bizarre True Facts About Their Countries, Here Are The 45 Most Interesting Ones We ate our prime minister. Oh and we also ate his brother

Dazzling_Run_5519 , Ngân Dương Report

Final score:
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#15

People Share Bizarre True Facts About Their Countries, Here Are The 45 Most Interesting Ones We have more bikes than people

p_anime , Héctor Martínez Report

Final score:
107points
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Fembot
Fembot
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

As a Dutchie, I’ll illustrate how this happens: we’re a family of four and have 9 bikes between us. One regular for each of us, for going to school, into town, friends, a bit of shopping etc. Then we have two e-bikes (one old for me and a flashy one that my partner uses), these are for longer distance home-work, 10-30 kms. We have one mountainbike, one racing bike, and lastly one older, a bit s**t bike our kids like to use for going to places where people are careless, like the station or sports field. I know it’s a lot but not at all uncommon in households I know

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“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. 

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#16

People Share Bizarre True Facts About Their Countries, Here Are The 45 Most Interesting Ones The first King of England made a law that everyone had to be in bed by 8pm.

Buddleia01 , Quin Stevenson Report

Final score:
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PFD
PFD
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

OP refers to mediaeval curfew, originally a requirement that home fires be banked after a certain time (usually said to be 8 or 9 pm) as a precaution against fire (curfew is from cuevrefeu, cover-fire). This was signalled by the ringing of bells. The "first king of England" refers inaccurately to William I, traditionally said to have introduced this law. That part is b******t history though. Apparently the evidence is patchy in inconclusive. However similar laws existed across Europe, and in England specifically, there was probably no single national law but a patchwork of varying local laws and customs.

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#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)

Its-a-strange-life Report

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Lyone Fein
Lyone Fein
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9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Legalization means workers can unionize. They can prosecute customers or employers who abuse them. They can negotiate contracts, etc.

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#18

People Share Bizarre True Facts About Their Countries, Here Are The 45 Most Interesting Ones It’s illegal to handle salmon suspiciously

Lopsided-Alps3853 , Abstral Official Report

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#19

People Share Bizarre True Facts About Their Countries, Here Are The 45 Most Interesting Ones Our country has the most number of vegetarians yet our chicken dishes are widely popular.

anushkagarg00 , Priscilla Du Preez Report

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#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.

Matrozi Report

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Joeshar
Joeshar
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9 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

French Guyana: A European land in South America, considered as a Caribbean country.

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#21

People Share Bizarre True Facts About Their Countries, Here Are The 45 Most Interesting Ones 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.

Trackmaniac , Tim Trad Report

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Kosnian
Kosnian
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Officially the Rhéto-roman, or Romansh , is considered the 4th official language of Switzerland, and spoken daily by 60000 people across the country. It's a language exclusive to Switzerland.

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#22

We were the first country to legalize same-sex unions in 1989 🏳️‍🌈

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Fembot
Fembot
Community Member
9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And the first to legalize same-sex marriage was the Netherlands. In 2001, so still not a brilliant track record for the world in general

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#23

People Share Bizarre True Facts About Their Countries, Here Are The 45 Most Interesting Ones 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.

mastro1741 , Charlein Gracia Report

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#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.

Eitch_Bee Report

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#25

People Share Bizarre True Facts About Their Countries, Here Are The 45 Most Interesting Ones It has no official national language but many of its citizens think it's English.

hobbiesaremygame , Aaron Burden Report

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#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

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#27

People Share Bizarre True Facts About Their Countries, Here Are The 45 Most Interesting Ones 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.

jdwasnottaken , AnnaStills Report

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#28

People Share Bizarre True Facts About Their Countries, Here Are The 45 Most Interesting Ones We are most invaded country on earth. Scoring first with whooping 200+ times.

anon , RDNE Stock project Report

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#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.

ritamoren Report

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#30

People Share Bizarre True Facts About Their Countries, Here Are The 45 Most Interesting Ones 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.

anon , Karl Fredrickson Report

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#31

People Share Bizarre True Facts About Their Countries, Here Are The 45 Most Interesting Ones The movie The Wolf Of Wall Street was financed with our taxpayers' money. Also we lost a plane.

anonymous_and_ , Alexander Grey Report

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#32

People Share Bizarre True Facts About Their Countries, Here Are The 45 Most Interesting Ones 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.

skywalkerblood , Vadim Bogulov Report

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#33

People Share Bizarre True Facts About Their Countries, Here Are The 45 Most Interesting Ones Our navy is the second largest air force in the world

UnconstrictedEmu , James Lewis Report

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Mustafa Kiziroğlu
Mustafa Kiziroğlu
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9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Don't forget the other navy with 400 fighter jets and also numerous ones belong to Air National Guards.

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#34

People Share Bizarre True Facts About Their Countries, Here Are The 45 Most Interesting Ones you can marry a dead person (with presidential agreement and under special conditions)

chinchenping , HONG SON Report

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#35

We have a quarter of the world’s drinkable water.

CheeseburgerBrown Report

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#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.

CymroCam Report

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#37

People Share Bizarre True Facts About Their Countries, Here Are The 45 Most Interesting Ones 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

anon , BENCE BOROS Report

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zububonsai
zububonsai
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9 months ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I take a wild guess and look in the general direction of... 🇨🇿 Czech Republic?

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#38

People Share Bizarre True Facts About Their Countries, Here Are The 45 Most Interesting Ones We have the highest number of porn stars per 1 million inhabitants....wow.

your-creepy_uncle-69 , 2H Media Report

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#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.

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#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.

a_supportive_bra Report

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Downunderdude
Downunderdude
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9 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The Sourtoe Cocktail is practically a rite of passage for visitors to Dawson City, Yukon. It's a simple drink (a shot of whiskey, usually Yukon Jack) with an unusual accompaniment: a mummified human toe.

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#41

They say there are more guns than there are people

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#42

People Share Bizarre True Facts About Their Countries, Here Are The 45 Most Interesting Ones Our financial system just made the world commit securities fraud

WiseKibbles , Scott Graham Report

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#43

People Share Bizarre True Facts About Their Countries, Here Are The 45 Most Interesting Ones Do people even know where Slovakia is

OneNo7285 , Anthony Beck Report

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#44

We haven't been hit hard or at all by any of the current world economic disasters.

anon Report

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#45

We have the world's highest number of ministers per capita (excluding microstates) with one minister per 10.000 people.

Mr_Curious_ Report

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