Things That Are Common in Other Countries, Sound Absurd in Yours

Hello, traveler! Are you ready for 80 days around the world? Can’t take that much time off? Well, how about 8 minutes around the world... But this is no ordinary tour! You’re about to hear some weird and extraordinary stuff about different countries! So, when you visit them for real, you can brag about your cultural knowledge to your friends and even pretend to be a local!

Let’s kick off — pun intended since its nickname is the Boot, with Italy, shall we? Italian police sure know how to be on duty in style! Not so many years ago, a Lamborghini was added to the police vehicle fleet in Italy. It probably helps them catch criminals fast! Or maybe the lawbreakers they are after get so impressed by how glamorous the car is that they stop to look at it for a second, and that’s how the officers easily catch them!

Since we are already in Europe, we might as well head to Germany! The speed limit is nothing but a suggestion on some parts of the German highways, called the Autobahn, and it’s actually up to drivers to choose whether to follow them or not. So, that means they can drive as fast as they want, or as fast as their car allows.

You might be aware that Slovakia is famous for its many castles and châteaux, but I bet you didn’t know this one strange holiday tradition they do there! A live carp is usually kept in the bathroom before preparing it for holiday dinner. Since carps are bottom feeders, people let the one they have swim in their bathtubs for a few days to clean its tract. That also means no long baths with luxury salts and flower leaves... After the dinner is served, they keep a scale from the fish in their wallet because they believe it attracts money. And apparently, the same goes for Poland, too! Hmm, there’s something fishy going on...

Let’s head to Finland, now! I have not one but two interesting facts about there! From 1999 to 2010, Finland held the World Sauna Competition in which the person who could sit in the sauna the longest would win. Or bake. These were so famous that people from all over the world would come to Finland to compete in this extreme activity. When you think about the fact that saunas were invented by the Finns over 2,000 years ago as a form of a bath, it makes sense that something like this became a thing. The funny thing is, the second bizarre Finland fact I have for you is also about a form of competition!

There’s this contest that originated in Finland called “eukonkanto” in which men participate in running a specific distance while carrying their wives. It even has a category in the Guinness World Records! The goal of this race for the contestants is to carry their partners through special obstacle tracks in the fastest time. In case you’re wondering, the original course consisted of rough, rocky terrains with fences and brooks back then, but it has been altered since to suit modern conditions. The “International Wife Carrying Competition Rules Committee” — yes, that’s a real thing — set the rules for the track to have two dry obstacles and a water obstacle about one meter deep. The Wife Carrying World Championships have been held annually in Finland since 1992 and the winner gets their partner’s weight in drinks, not gold. Talk about competitive spirit, huh?

Sweden, Finland’s neighbor, is no slouch when it comes to having some bizarre facts of its own! If you’re one of those people who is not a fan of sushi, you sure are not going to like this one... In Sweden, rotten fish is an actual food item called Surströmming. Okay, to be fair it’s not really rotten. It’s just lightly salted and fermented. However, it does smell rotten indeed... This version of Baltic sea herring has been a staple of Swedish cuisine since the 16th century. The fermentation process of the fish takes at least six months and gives the dish a somewhat acidic taste and a characteristic strong smell. So much so that it’s now known as one of the world’s smelliest foods.

Might as well, visit Harry Potter’s motherland before we leave Europe! I’m not gonna say people in the UK go to school on flying brooms or anything even though we probably all wish that was possible... But trust me, this one is as unusual as that! People in the UK have a competition to roll after a giant cheese wheel! Yep! You heard that right! The event is called The Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake and is held every year near Gloucester in England. A round of double Gloucester cheese is sent rolling down a 200-yard hill and participants race down after it. The competition was traditionally held by and for the people who live in the local village of Brockworth, but now they accept people from all over the world to take part in it. So, write your name down for next year, and you might just win the prize, which is — what do you think? Bad-smelling fish? No, it’s cheese, of course!

We’re gonna travel slightly east now and visit Turkey. If you’re one of those people who call themselves a gourmet, then this sure is going to interest you! There’s a dessert in Turkey that contains chicken meat. It’s a traditional dessert that’s a Turkish version of a milk pudding made with shredded chicken breast. It used to be a delicacy served to Ottoman sultans in the Topkapi Palace but it can now be found in almost every restaurant and is a very beloved dish!

Now we can’t have a work tour without visiting Asia! Our first destination there is Japan! If you ever have to drive a car in Japan, this sure is going to help you not get confused. Traffic lights there have a “blue” go light instead of the standard green. It has nothing to do with Japan’s color of choice or anything, but it’s all due to the Japanese language and the fact that there used to be one word to describe both blue and green. Although the international convention on traffic light colors dictates the regular red, yellow, and green, Japan is not among the countries which signed it. Yet again, in 1973, Japanese officials declared that the traffic lights should be the bluest shade of green possible to avoid any further confusion.

Time to head to Singapore! When you’re walking down the streets of Singapore, don’t be surprised to see bamboo poles sticking out the apartment windows. Bamboo is a widely available material there and it has a higher weight-to-strength ratio than steel. That’s why people use them to dry their laundry there and they say it actually helps clothes to dry faster. One more thing! Did you know that in Singapore, selling chewing gum has been illegal since 1992? But don’t get me wrong, chewing gum is not banned. Only importing and selling it is banned. So, that’s why you’ll rarely see someone chewing gum on the street. However, there’s an exception to this. It is still allowed to sell therapeutic and dental gums and these can only be bought from a doctor or a pharmacist.

When you think about fun activities nothing beats a good old-fashioned water fight, right? Well, every April during Songkran, the Thai New Year’s national holiday, Thailand holds a water festival. Major streets are closed to traffic and are used as arenas for water fights. People of all ages participate in the tradition and consider this a part of ritual cleansing during the celebration period.

New Zealand, the real-life Middle Earth, is our next destination! Taumata­whakatangihanga­koauau­o­tamatea­turi­pukaka­piki­maunga­horo­nuku­pokai­whenua­ki­tana­tahu. This is not what you get when a chimp sits down at a keyboard. This is an actual word, which I’m not even going to try to pronounce because my tongue and teeth would fall out just attempting it, but it’s the name of a real place in New Zealand and it’s actually known as the longest place name in the world with all of its 85 characters! The name is of Maori origin and it’s shortened to Taumata to make things easy for everyone, especially the tourists. And in case you’re wondering what the word means, it’s this; “The summit where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, the slider, climber of mountains, the land-swallower who traveled about, played his flute to his loved one.” Okay. Things must have been pretty slow back then when tooting a flute gets a town named after you. But who am I to judge?