Topic: Your Country

I'm also from Scotland,the land of wild haggis, a football team that's crapper than the weather and the one and only Oor Wullie. Jings,crivens and help ma boab.

I'm from the Kingdom of Fife which is famous for not much except for being shaped like a Scottie dogs head. Oh and being the home of golf. My town Kirkcaldy, the birthplace of philosopher and economist Adam Smith, is a place in constant decline. I left Scotland 18 years ago to work basically anywhere but there but I return every year for a short visit. I've lived in Thailand now for the last 8 years and see myself staying for a few more years. I am currently in my homeland though, a 2 month visit has turned into a 6 month one. I'll be here for 1 or 2 more weeks. Even after 18 years away, a few weeks at home and it feels like I've never been away.

Woo! 'MURICA!!

@Tyranexx Funny you should mention New Orleans, as I'm on my way home to Texas as I write this! It truly is a fascinating city to study from cultural and historical perspectives. Not to mention that it's just an incredibly fun place to be as it is XD

I grew up in Northwestern Washington which, by your description, seems pretty similar to Illinois. Plenty of agriculture and wooded areas, as well as a LOT of rain. It also shows how America's diversity isn't very well distributed, as I lived in a small town that was predominantly white and Christian just like the majority of the rural areas of the state. There were a few minorities (mainly Indian, Phillipino, and Hispanic), but you didn't really find a lot of different cultures until you got to the big metropolitan areas like King County, which really is a melting point in every respect--race, religion, etc.

I've been up and down the Western half of the country as well as a bit of the South, but I've never been to the Midwest or the East Coast. I would love to see those areas at some point though, for the scenery as well as the history.

@Late @Meowpheel @spizzamarozzi I loooved Moomin when I was young! I'm afraid to watch it now, because I feel it won't be as good as I remember it to be.

It's been forever since I watched it. Like really, not since my early childhood.

I believe it still has some ardent fans though.

@Meowpheel My memories of Moomin are before we had internet! There's more weird 80s/90s cartoon I remember, but I don't recall their names...

The Wuzzles.

I really liked that one. We had a VHS with a few episodes and I watched it over and over back then in the 90's.

I live near Memphis, TN in the USA. We have barbecue, blues, and other stuff I guess.

Glad to see bunch of people commenting. I was a bit afraid this would turn out to be European only thread but I'm glad to see people from America as well.

@OorWullie I remember reading some thread where you told about the Oor Wullie comic and that's why I knew you were Scottish but I had no idea you're living in Thailand. What was wrong with Scotland?

Since people are still talking about cartoons, I'll present you Digimon! "But Digimon is a Japanese show", you say. Well, yes. But the Finnish dub is so horrible I must share it. I'm afraid you won't be able to spot all the mistakes but at least you'll get a good grasp of the quality otherwise.
Link
I really love the last one where Taichi says "Minä ratsastan, minä ratsastan." which translates to "I'm riding a horse, I'm riding a horse." while he's actually riding a bike.

I'm from a little country called England. There as some nice oak trees here, some of which are really old. Like Belgium, we also have some good beers, although I think Belgium beers are a bit richer and more interesting. Spring was just about to start, but now there is snow all around. It's been very mixed up weather recently. We have cream teas, which can be delicious; scones and jam and clotted cream and a big steaming pot of tea. Yum yum.

I live in Germany, specifically Upper Bavaria, which is in the very south-east of the country. Due to ... certain historical events that I‘m sure I won‘t have to elaborate further on, showing pride in our country is somewhat of a taboo. Unless it‘s about our favorite national sport - Fußball, or soccer or football, which I‘m not much of a fan tbh. Whenever somebody thinks of Germany and doesn‘t immediately think of our history, they think of the typical Bavarian cuisine: Brezel, Schnitzel, Weißwurst, Leberkäse and - of course - beer. Generally, many think of Bavaria and Germany as the same thing, which it isn‘t. Baviaria is but a Bundesland of Germany, a state like in the US so to speak, and the other 15 Bundesländer have each their own dialects, cuisine and traditions.

Australia. We have Drop Bears.

If anyone is interested, here is a comprehensive list of animals that won't try and kill you in Australia:
Some of the sheep.

@GoldenGamer88 Germany is a very beautiful country. Me and my friend traveled by train across the country on the way to Prague from the Netherlands back in 2005. We done it the cheap way by buying a rail pass but this meant we had to take the local trains, stopping at every station and switching trains several times, stopping over for the night in Frankfurt. The region that sticks most in my mind was Koblenz and it's surrounding area,beautiful scenery and so many castles along the Rhine. Definitely the best train journey I've ever been on. I have been to Germany many more times than that though. I lived in Maastricht in the Netherlands for 6 years and used to visit Cologne and Dusseldorf regularly. I also lived in a place called Venlo which is right on the German border. Me and my mates would cycle over the border often,exploring the parks and forests. My favourite place in Germany though and probably one of the most beautiful places I've ever visited is Monschau. I've been there a few times but one time we went, when my parents were over visiting it was covered in snow, with icicles hanging from the roofs. Was like something from a fairytale.

@Late From my early teens I always kind of new my future wasn't in Scotland. It wasn't until my early 20s that I finally left, a messy break up with a girlfriend being the push that I needed. I left on my own and moved to the Netherlands, stayed for a few months, went to France to work as a holiday rep for 2 years, back to Netherlands for 7 years and then on to Thailand where I've been since 2010. I won't be there forever, Vietnam appeals to me but we'll see. Who knows what life is going throw at you next.

One more thing I'd like to add about Belgium:
We have one of the world's most renowned zoos with Pairi Daiza.
People from all around the world visit this wonder with 1.7 million visitors in 2015 and rising. If you've never done so, it comes highly recommended if you love animals, nature and other cultures.

I'm from Italy. Things we are notorious for include having one of the highest life expectancy on the planet, an electoral system that allows everybody to win and no one to legislate, and of course the Renaissance. We also have the highest number of Unesco World Heritage sites in the world, and I peed in most of them.

More specifically, I'm from Rome, birthplace of Julius Caesar and deathplace of Nero. When britons come down for the holidays, they wonder how we manage to live in such a big city with just 3 tube lines. Then they realise that every time you dig a hole here, you always find a roman tomb, a roman house, or at least a couple broken plates.

I lived in the US for a short while but eventually I had to come back, despite loving the natural scenery and loving the people very much. I don't see myself staying in Italy much longer though. I love many things here, but my country has been run into the ground by its incompetent political elite - we are one of the lowest ranked european countries by quality of life, but the italian politicians are still the highest paid in Europe, go figure. I'm currently planning my getaway - maybe South America or Asia, who knows.

@OorWullie That's quite a journey. I never thought I'd be willing to move away from Finland but as I already said in a previous post, I tried to get a job from Sweden. I don't see myself going very much farther than that, though. I mean, it would be fun to work at Nintendo but they require you to be fluent in Japanese and I need more experience as well.

I do like to visit other countries. I think I've visited 11 European countries. Oh wait, Vatican City is technically a country, make that 12 then. I've never visited any country outside of Europe, though. I really want to visit Japan one day.

I'm hoping to move to another country at some point too. I don't really feel like there is much for me where I'm living currently and there's not much keeping me here. The only thing that would stop me from moving is my Mum (or Mom if you live in a Mom land ), she's mentioned that she'll feel quite lost when I move out and moving to another country would make that even worse. Our family also has a bad history with heart problems so she will probably get sick in 20/30 years unfortunately.

But ideally I would love to travel and live somewhere else. I don't have money or friends to lose so I might as well enjoy myself! The next 1-4 years will have a lot of changes for me so hopefully that includes some travel, hopefully outside of Europe for once

I'd love to move to The Netherlands one day. The people there always seem to be a lot nicer and more open than my fellow Belgians. I'd probably move close to De Efteling. It's my favorite theme park and I visit it at least once a year.

@Late Reminds me of that good old time I visited San Marino. Why? Because I could.

@Maxz Since you mentioned snow and I really like to take pictures of snowy Finland, here are a couple of them.

This one is from yesterday.

And this one is from last week when I was visiting my family. They don't have quite as much snow.