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How Many Countries Has Pie & Bovril Been To?


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1 hour ago, DiegoDiego said:
3 hours ago, Highland Capital said:
Actually we could count Mariehamn not as part of Finland (even though it is) but as the Åland Islands.  They're essentially de-facto independent.

They're not de-facto independent though, certainly not in the way Abkhazia or Pridnestrovie are. They're very much a part of Finland.

I always thought their status was more akin to the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands.

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I always thought their status was more akin to the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands.
I'm not that in the know on the IoM or Channel Islands. Aaland has a lot of autonomy but has no control over foreign affairs, most areas of civil and criminal law, the court system, customs and state taxation. They also have representation in the Finnish parliament.
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9 hours ago, DiegoDiego said:
17 hours ago, Highland Capital said:
I always thought their status was more akin to the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands.

I'm not that in the know on the IoM or Channel Islands. Aaland has a lot of autonomy but has no control over foreign affairs, most areas of civil and criminal law, the court system, customs and state taxation. They also have representation in the Finnish parliament.

They sound a bit like Greenland in that they had a separate vote about EU membership which they chose to join, but they secured exemptions, like on VAT and customs and being able to bar EU citizens, including other Finns, from buying property or starting businesses, and insisting that anyone who qualifies has to be able to speak Swedish.

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1 minute ago, DiegoDiego said:
4 hours ago, Ingo ohne Flamingo said:
Seen Transnistria mentioned above (using the local name for it), curious if anyone from here has been there. Its on my list to check list! 

Aye.

How's you find it? Did you stay overnight or go back to Chisinau after it? 

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Me too, albeit only for a day.  Took an hour to get through the border controls.  It's like an alternate reality, the signs are all Cyrillic, you don't see any Western brands.  Booze is cheap but one of the startling things is that they have plastic coins that look like casino chips.

 

It's still very Communist, Lenin statue outside Parliament, propaganda about how they only want peace and unification for Moldova with Russia, the South Ossetian and Abkhaz flags outside their embassies.  And they still have the hammer and sickle on the flag.

 

Sherif Tiraspol play in the Moldovan league solely because they can't get into Europe via the Transnistrian.  And you see a lot of cars in Moldova with Transnistrian number plates cos there's no road tax in Transnistria, and it's cheaper to tip the rozzers in Moldova than to buy your road tax.  Technically Transnistrian cars should not overnight in Moldova.

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Oh, and Turkmenistan.
I was there a few days after they reopened the borders following the death of@Turkmenbashi I really enjoyed it.

As for Transnistria that's a long story involving sex addicts, Italian mafia and a Eurovision winner. I've written it up, I'll maybe post it here when I get some time like I did with my Karabakh tale.
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  • France
  • Germany
  • Belgium
  • Italy
  • Switzerland
  • Norway
  • Iceland
  • Denmark
  • Holland
  • Croatia
  • Czechoslovakia 
  • Spain
  • Gibraltar
  • Morocco
  • USA
  • Canada
  • Falkland Islands
  • Ascension Island
  • Iraq
  • Kuwait
  • Jordan
  • Saudi Arabia
  • UAE
  • Oman
  • Bahrain
  • Qatar
  • Australia
  • Cyprus
  • Kos
  • Malta
  • Isle of Man

Think that covers it. 

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13 hours ago, bluearmyfaction said:

Me too, albeit only for a day.  Took an hour to get through the border controls.  It's like an alternate reality, the signs are all Cyrillic, you don't see any Western brands.  Booze is cheap but one of the startling things is that they have plastic coins that look like casino chips.

 

It's still very Communist, Lenin statue outside Parliament, propaganda about how they only want peace and unification for Moldova with Russia, the South Ossetian and Abkhaz flags outside their embassies.  And they still have the hammer and sickle on the flag.

 

Sherif Tiraspol play in the Moldovan league solely because they can't get into Europe via the Transnistrian.  And you see a lot of cars in Moldova with Transnistrian number plates cos there's no road tax in Transnistria, and it's cheaper to tip the rozzers in Moldova than to buy your road tax.  Technically Transnistrian cars should not overnight in Moldova.

Was always curious about the whole Transnistrian car plates in Moldova, I'm sure I read recently they are now banned from the Ukraine. 

I really fancy going to Tiraspol, do you think it would be worth having an overnight there? Or is a day trip more than good enough? 

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I really fancy going to Tiraspol, do you think it would be worth having an overnight there? Or is a day trip more than good enough? 

For somewhere like that you're not going for things you can see, you want to understand what the place is like so you'd need a decent amount of time to experience it and meet folk, find out what life there is like; I'm not sure you'd really get that from a day trip.
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Seen a few people on this thread have been to Jordan.  I see Easyjet and Ryanair fly there which made me quite intrigued to go.  Worth it?
For me it's the least interesting country in the region. Petra is incredible and there's some decent scenery but I didn't feel there was much more to it than that.
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Just now, Highland Capital said:

Worth it?

I thought Petra was stunning and consider myself lucky to have experienced it. 

It's not the sort of place I would have gone but I ended up in Jordan for three weeks with work. On a long weekend we managed to escape the base and visit Petra. Stayed in a nice hotel, decent beer and food. Chilled out by the pool and spent a day in the old city. I was dragged reluctantly there by my mates. I thought I'd be ok just chilling by the pool. I'm glad they did drag me out.  

1 minute ago, DiegoDiego said:

Petra is incredible and there's some decent scenery but I didn't feel there was much more to it than that

That too. From what I saw, the rest of Jordan is pretty much a toilet :icon_puke_r:

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4 hours ago, Highland Capital said:

Seen a few people on this thread have been to Jordan.  I see Easyjet and Ryanair fly there which made me quite intrigued to go.  Worth it?

For our honeymoon we were looking at El'at in Israel or across the border in Aqaba. Both looked lovely! 

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