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Iceland is one of the only inhabited places on Earth with no native mosquito population. The island's freeze-thaw cycles interrupt the insect's life cycle before it can complete.
Author not specified in the imported source
Iceland · Europe
External reference (site language): Iceland ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Our flight was cancelled and every hotel in Reykjavik was full. A barman closing up at two in the morning heard us arguing with an app, shrugged, and let us sleep in the back room on beer crates. He refused money and asked only that we leave the key under the mat.
Author not specified in the imported source
Reykjavik, Iceland · Europe
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Nearly every home in Reykjavik is heated by geothermal water pumped from volcanic bedrock, which is why the tap water smells faintly of sulphur but the air stays remarkably clean.
Author not specified in the imported source
Reykjavik, Iceland · Europe
External reference (site language): List of volcanic eruptions in Iceland ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
The cheese slicer was patented in 1925 by Thor Bjorklund, a furniture maker from Lillehammer who adapted a carpenter's plane to slice brown cheese thinly.
Author not specified in the imported source
Norway · Europe
External reference (site language): Norway ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
We missed the last ferry by ninety seconds and watched it pull away in flat grey light. Then a fisherman untied his boat, said one word we did not understand, and pointed at the bow. He dropped us on the island an hour later and vanished before we could thank him.
Author not specified in the imported source
Lofoten, Norway · Europe
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
The Laerdal Tunnel runs 24.5 kilometres under Norwegian mountains and is lit with blue and yellow caverns every six kilometres to keep drivers alert.
Author not specified in the imported source
Laerdal, Norway · Europe
External reference (site language): Laerdal ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Nobody in the lakeside sauna spoke English and we spoke no Finnish. For forty minutes we sat in silence, then somebody handed round a bucket of ice and everyone laughed at the same time. It turned out we had been arguing about football using only eyebrows.
Author not specified in the imported source
Savonlinna, Finland · Europe
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Sweden recycles or recovers energy from the vast majority of its household waste, and for years it imported rubbish from neighbouring countries to keep its plants running.
Author not specified in the imported source
Sweden · Europe
External reference (site language): Sweden ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
With roughly three million saunas for 5.5 million people, Finland has more steam rooms than automobiles, including one inside the parliament building.
Author not specified in the imported source
Finland · Europe
External reference (site language): Finland ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
I stopped in the wrong lane and a woman in a suit rang her bell without slowing. Then she circled back, explained the hand signals, and rode beside me for six blocks until I got it right. She was late for something and never mentioned it.
Author not specified in the imported source
Copenhagen, Denmark · Europe
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
The Dannebrog has been in continuous use since the 14th century, making it the oldest national flag still flown by an independent state.
Author not specified in the imported source
Denmark · Europe
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
More bicycles than cars cross central Copenhagen every day, and the city installed traffic lights timed to a cyclist's pace of about 20 km/h.
Author not specified in the imported source
Copenhagen, Denmark · Europe
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
A bakery window in Kazimierz opened at midnight and sold the first loaves straight from the oven. There was no sign and no menu, just a queue of taxi drivers and one traveller who had followed the smell for four streets.
Author not specified in the imported source
Krakow, Poland · Europe
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Estonia treats internet access as a social right, runs almost all public services online, and lets citizens vote in national elections from a laptop.
Author not specified in the imported source
Estonia · Europe
External reference (site language): Estonia ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
More than half of Latvia is covered in forest, and the total forested area has been expanding for decades as farmland returns to woodland.
Author not specified in the imported source
Latvia · Europe
External reference (site language): Latvia ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
We arrived at the astronomical clock two minutes before the hour and found the square full. A boy on his father's shoulders counted down out loud in Czech, and a hundred strangers joined in without agreeing to.
Author not specified in the imported source
Prague, Czechia · Europe
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
The Hill of Crosses near Siauliai holds well over 100,000 crosses left by pilgrims. Soviet authorities bulldozed it repeatedly; locals rebuilt it every time.
Author not specified in the imported source
Siauliai, Lithuania · Europe
External reference (site language): Lithuania ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Two men played chess in the hot pool at Szechenyi as if the water were an office. When I sat down to watch, one of them turned the board a quarter turn and pointed at a piece. I lost in eleven moves and stayed for three more games.
Author not specified in the imported source
Budapest, Hungary · Europe
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
In the Crooked Forest near Gryfino, some 400 pine trees all bend sharply north at the base. Nobody has ever proved why.
Author not specified in the imported source
Gryfino, Poland · Europe
External reference (site language): Gryfino ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
A trumpeter plays the Hejnal from St Mary's tower every hour, cutting off abruptly to commemorate a medieval bugler said to have been shot mid-warning.
Author not specified in the imported source
Krakow, Poland · Europe
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
We boarded the wrong regional train and only realised at the fourth stop. The valley it climbed into had a glacier at the end of it and a hut selling apricot dumplings. We told everyone afterwards that we had planned it.
Author not specified in the imported source
Tyrol, Austria · Europe
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
Czechs drink more beer per person than any other nation, and the pilsner style itself was born in the Bohemian town of Plzen in 1842.
Author not specified in the imported source
Czechia · Europe
External reference (site language): Czechia (disambiguation) ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
The Orloj has been keeping time since 1410, making it the oldest astronomical clock still operating, complete with a parade of apostles on the hour.
Author not specified in the imported source
Prague, Czechia · Europe
External reference (site language): Prague ↗
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
My ticket was for the wrong day. The conductor examined it for a long moment, looked at the rain outside, punched it anyway, and moved on down the carriage without saying a word.
Author not specified in the imported source
Bern, Switzerland · Europe
Imported text; story or fact not individually verified. A reference may provide background only.
The missed ferry. The stranger who handed over a key. The meal that ran until midnight. If something happened to you on the road and you still think about it, send it - a few sentences is plenty, and we do the tidying up.
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