Tahiti can be found in the South Pacific – Haiti in the Caribbean, on the island of Hispaniola. Photo: srt
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From Gerd Otto-Rieke
Wif he is planning his vacation, it would be wise to know the difference between Bayreuth and Beirut. No joke: errors in geographical information occur more often than expected, everywhere.
Beach vacationers should know that the Algarve is not on the Mediterranean, but on the Atlantic. City travelers who want to see Antwerp will find themselves in Belgium, not Holland. Andalusia is in southern Spain, while Anatolia is in Asia Minor. Cantabria is in northern Spain, while Calabria is in southern Italy. Galicia is also part of Spain, not to be confused with Galicia, which formerly belonged to Austria, now to Ukraine and Poland.
Granada is in Spain, Grenada in the Caribbean. Dominica and the Dominican Republic are two states; the Domrep extends over the eastern half of the island of Hispaniola (in the west lies Haiti).
The Baltic states essentially include Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, while the Balkans in a broader geographical, political or cultural sense means south-eastern Europe. These include the Republic of Slovenia and Slavonia, a historical region in eastern Croatia. The Slovak Republic, on the other hand, was formerly part of Czechoslovakia. It’s tricky: Monegasque are the inhabitants of Monaco, Madagascans are those of Madagascar. Welsh people come from Wales in Great Britain, Valais from the Swiss canton of Valais.
Neusehland in Marburg. Foto: srtIslands are both: Cyprus and Ceylon (Sri Lanka). But they are separated by around 5700 kilometers as the crow flies. The Maldives in the Indian Ocean near the southern tip of India are also surrounded by water, but Moldova is a landlocked country in south-eastern Europe. The island nation of Tonga in the South Pacific is ruled by a friendly king. The former German colony of Togo in West Africa is considered a republic.
Hawaii is not a South Sea island, but is roughly on the same northern latitude as Cuba. Tahiti, on the other hand, is found in the South Pacific – Haiti in the Caribbean, on the island of Hispaniola, see above. Do not confuse the Caribbean island of Aruba with Arusha, otherwise you will end up with the Maasai in northeastern Tanzania. Dar-es-Salaam is also located in this African country. Brunei Darussalam, on the other hand, is the official name of the Sultanate of Brunei in Asia.
Und so on: Benin City is in Nigeria, not in Benin, the former Dahomey. Dhaka (formerly: Dacca) is known as the capital of Bangladesh, Dakar as that of Senegal. The Zócalo is a famous square in Mexico City, Zamalik is a district on the Nile in Cairo. Kampala is the capital of Uganda, Kinshasa that of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Confusing in America: The Colorado Desert, a desert, is located in the state of California, the Florida Mountains can be found in New Mexico, and the Wyoming Valley is part of Pennsylvania. Virginia City is located in Nevada, Nevada City in California. The US state of Nevada was named after the Sierra Nevada mountain range, which is mainly located in California (but also in Spain). Palm Beach is part of Florida, Palm Springs part of California.
Indianapolis is the capital of the US state Indiana, but Kansas City is not in Arkansas at all and only partially in Kansas, but mostly in Missouri, but on the Kansas River. The border river between the USA and Mexico is called Rio Grande in the north and Rio Bravo in the south.
The computer and semiconductor stronghold of Silicon Valley is south of San Francisco, while Silicon Beach can be found in Southern California and Silicon Prairie in the American Midwest. And the center of the porn industry in San Fernando, near Hollywood, is nicknamed “Silicone Valley” or “San Pornando Valley”.
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