Have you ever counted the number of countries you have ever visited? I haven’t, it’s never been important to me. Perhaps it’s because I don’t have an impressive number? I do not have the need nor desire to see every country in the world, so perhaps the idea of tracking such is pointless to me? Now, I do have a map of the world on my wall at home (see picture below), where I have marked most of the places I have visited with dates, but I have never counted them. How many countries in the world are there anyhow? Do you know? More on that soon, so don’t bother to google it.
the world map I have on my wall
After saying all that, I decided to start listing all the countries that I have visited in Europe. I had the passing thought that it might be nice to have it in my bio somewhere, as I am often asked. Doing so, could at the very least be an alternative to saying “I dunno.” But, could it have been triggered by the fact that I am just getting back from visiting 5 new European countries in 12 days!
Anyhow, as I was pulling this list together, a few questions came up for me that required some fact verification and in some cases research. While doing such, I thought, hey, it would be fun to test your basic knowledge of Europe. Wanna? Vamos!
1. Firstly, how many countries are there in the world?
Believe it or not, I didn’t know the answer to that one! Now, it has and will change over time, as we all know, but as of right now, at the time of writing this, 195. One hundred and ninety five! Wow.
Oh, and speaking of “countries” did you know there is a difference between a country and a nation? I confess to using them interchangeably, but I will never do that again. Have you done that, too? If so, don’t fret, allow me to explain the difference: a country is a self-governing political entity and a nation is a group of people who share the same culture but do not have sovereignty. For more information on this, click here.
2. How many countries are there in Europe?
The title of this blog post might have given that away: 44. Do you want to see a list of them? Click here.
3. Which country straddles the border of Europe and Asia?
Turkey.
This maybe a leading question.
4. Is Turkey part of Europe?
No.
Now, this one messed me up. I had actually included it in my European countries I have visited count, only to have to remove it.
To add to the confusion, Turkey is in the process of joining the European Union, but it is not formally considered to be part of Europe from a political standpoint.
5. What is the most populated country in Europe?
Russia with 144 million. That makes it the 9th most populated country in the world! That now begs the question, what are the 8 countries that are more populated than Russia? Click here for that information.
Here is a few interesting things on Russia and the former Soviet Union.
On my recent ferry ride from Helsinki/Finland to Tallinn/Estonia, I struck up a conversation with a lady from Estonia and she asked me what brought me to Estonia. I told her that as soon as I had learned more about the “singing revolution” during my research, I had to come. Singing revolution? From 1987, demonstrations featuring spontaneous singing eventually collected 300,000 Estonians in Tallinn to sing national songs that were strictly forbidden during the years of the Soviet occupation. She then proceeds to tell me that they were about to celebrate 25 years of formal independence on August 20th. That is 20 days from now!
Do you know it will be 25 years (December 26, 1991) since the former Soviet Union dissolved? See the map below.
Post-Soviet states: 1. Armenia / 2. Azerbaijan / 3. Belarus / 4. Estonia / 5. Georgia / 6. Kazakhstan / 7. Kyrgyzstan / 8. Latvia /9. Lithuania / 10. Moldova / 11. Russia / 12. Tajikistan / 13. Turkmenistan / 14. Ukraine / 15. Uzbekistan
image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_of_the_Soviet_Union
6. Which country in Europe has less than 1,000 people?
Holy See.
Huh? Where is that? Have you even heard of it? Well, for those that have, it is often confused with Vatican City. The Holy See territory includes both Rome and Vatican City. It’s a sovereign entity and dates back to early Christian times. Vatican City is a sovereign city-state that came into existence in 1929 and is located inside the city of Rome.
7. How many and which countries make up Scandinavia?
Three (3) countries make up Scandinavia: Denmark, Norway and Sweden. And, no, Scandinavia is not a country.
8. What is the difference between Nordic and Scandinavian countries?
Nordic countries include the Scandinavian countries plus Finland and Iceland.
Scandinavian countries in red compared to Nordic countries in red and orange
image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandinavia
9. Is Greenland a country?
No! It is a territory of Denmark. Yeah, most people think it’s a country, ’cause it’s huge! I can vouch for that, as I just flew over it a few days ago. Stunning! Check out my shots out the window from my aisle seat. Huh? Yes, the shots below were taken while awkwardly stretching my arm over my window-seated-mate as he slept through the spectacular beauty.
Did you know that it’s the world’s largest island and almost eighty per cent of it is covered by an ice cap and glaciers?
10. How many and what countries make up the former Yugoslavia?
Six (6) countries make up the former Yugoslavia: Bosnia/Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia.
Below is a map of the former Yugoslavia as of 2008.
2008 Map of the former Yugoslavia
image source: http://www.icty.org/en/about/what-former-yugoslavia
11. Is the UK one or four countries?
England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland make up the UK to form one country.
What does the UK stand for? The UK stands for United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. How did it come about? England and Wales joined in 1536. Scotland then joined in 1707, to officially form the Kingdom of Great Britain. Ireland decided to join up 94 years later in 1801, at which point the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was formed. However, 121 years later, in 1922, many of the southern counties of Ireland decided to remove themselves from the union and the UK changed their name to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
British Isles versus UK versus Great Britain versus England versus Ireland explained
image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Isles
12. What is the European Union (EU) and which countries are in it?
The EU is a politico-economic union of 28 member states. Click here for a list of them.
13. Is the Euro currency used throughout all of Europe?
No!
There are nine (9) EU countries that do not use the Euro. They are: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
14. What is the oldest country in Europe?
San Marino.
That was a hard question! Can you even find it on a map? It is the second smallest country in Europe and one of the oldest countries in the world! It was founded in 301. Yes, three hundred and one. That is 1,715 years ago.
15. What European country has the oldest border?
Portugal.
Not only is it one of the oldest countries in Europe, it has the same defined, stable border since 1139. It is at that time, Afonso I, the Conqueror, King of Portugal achieved the independence of the southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia, the County of Portugal, establishing a new kingdom. That is almost 900 years ago!
Guess who was my 22nd great grandfather? Afonso I, the Conqueror, King of Portugal! Yup, that’s what happens when you work on your family tree and do DNA testing, you find these things out and end up learning not only more about your ancestors, but about history in a personal way! Absolutely incredible.
16. So, how many European countries have you visited?
17 for me thus far, but whose counting 😉
Here is my list below as of July 2016. What does your list look like? Comment below!
European countries that I have visited
There are obviously more interesting bits of basic European knowledge that has not been included here. Is there anything you want to share? Use the comments below to do so.