10 Random Facts From Around Europe

Hello from rainy Stockholm! Outside it’s gray and boring and we are all cuddled up under the duvets. Today I thought I’d share ten random facts from around Europe. These are things that we have learned during our trips. It’s actually one of the highlights of traveling, I think, you learn so much!

10 Random Facts From Around Europe

So, here we go – 10 random facts from different places in Europe. I hope you will enjoy this list!

1. Czechoslovakia does no longer exist*.
2. The Åland Islands, even though they belong to Finland, have their own stamps.
3. Bratislava (the capital of Slovakia) was the capital of Hungary for a couple of hundred years and between 1536 and 1830, eleven Hungarian kings and queens were coronated here.
4. Moscow hosted the Summer Olympic in 1980. As you might know, there isn’t really a lot of water near the Russian capital (apart from the river). So, Tallinn arranged all the sailing competitions.
5. The huge sea fortress in Helsinki is called Suomenlinna (the Fortress of Finland) in Finnish, and Sveaborg (the Fortress of Sweden) in Swedish. Finland was a part of Sweden until 1809 when it was lost to Russia,
6. The Schengen Agreement was signed on the tripoint where the borders of France, Germany, and Luxembourg meet. This tripoint is located in the middle of the Mosel River, just next to the village of Schengen.
7. Slovenia is not quite as landlocked as one might think. The coastline of the Slovenian Istria is 43 kilometers long.
8. Georgia was once the main supplier of tea within the Soviet Union.
9. If you exclude the Vatican City, then Vienna and Bratislava are the two capitals in Europe with the shortest distance in between. Only 64 kilometers separate the cities. Globally that title goes to Brazzaville and Kinshasha.
10. All of the top 5 most northern capitals in the world are located in Europe. These are Reykjavik, Helsinki, Oslo, Tallinn, and Stockholm.

Tell us, what random facts have you learned while traveling?

*This is old news BUT apparently a lot of people had better things to do on January 1, 1993, than following the news.