39 Travel Facts From Around The Globe

If you happen to pass away in Amsterdam with no one to take care of the funeral or see you off on your last journey, members of the Lonely Funeral Project will take care of you. They will even arrange for a poet to write and read a poem at your funeral. Originating in the city of Groningen, this idea has also been adopted in several other places in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Which is pretty natural, come to think of it, given the population of penguins in this area.

Over 70 years ago, Costa Rica decided to abolish any kind of military formation, and now the country lives without an army.

If you take all the lakes on the planet and compare them to the number of lakes Canada has, the rest of the world will still have fewer lakes. The largest Canadian lake is called the Great Bear Lake and has an area of 31,153 square kilometers (12,028 square miles) and a maximum depth of 446 meters (1,463 feet).

The reason why it still stands so strong is that in the Ming dynasty, when a section of the wall was built, workers used sticky rice flour and slaked lime. This building plaster bound the bricks together so tightly, weeds have a hard time growing in between them. 

One of the most common beliefs behind throwing coins into a fountain is that you will come back to that place again. Some particular fountains are said to grant wishes for some small change. To prevent attempts to steal money from the Trevi fountain, in 2001 the mayor of Rome decided to collect the coins and give the money to a local charity.

If you ever find yourself in the small Italian town of Ortona, make sure you taste some wine from their free public wine fountain that is open all year round. It was mainly intended for the pilgrims of the Cammino di San Tommaso, but anyone is welcome to have a glass. The Dora Sarchese Winery that opened the fountain wouldn’t reveal the sort they serve to travelers, but so far all reviews have been positive.

In most people’s minds, pyramids equal Egypt. While this is understandable, the fact is that the largest pyramid by volume is on the opposite side of the world, namely, in Cholula de Rivadavia, Mexico. Covered in soil and vegetation, it is not as easily detectable as the desert pyramids. And even though the Great Pyramid of Cholula is only 54 m (177 ft) tall, its base is four times larger than that of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Because of this, the Mexican pyramid has a volume of 3.3 million m³ (166k ft³), while the volume of the Egyptian pyramid is only 2.4 million m³ (84k ft³).

One of the most unforgettable things you can do in the state of Victoria, Australia, is travel along the Great Ocean Road. The breathtaking views you’ll encounter throughout the trip will be worth every minute of it. The road was built by soldiers to commemorate those who lost their lives in WWI and is the largest war memorial in the world.   

This is, in fact, done for safety purposes. If one of the pilots gets food poisoning because of the food they ate before the flight, rendering them unable to fly the plane, the other pilot who had a different meal will be able to take over and reach the destination safely.

Japan is famous all over the world for its technological progress and a ton of useful inventions. Yet, in the 2000 poll conducted by the Fuji Research Institute, most Japanese citizens named instant noodles as the nation’s best invention, closely followed by karaoke in second place.

The Aleutian Islands that belong to the state of Alaska are located west of the 180th meridian, which means they are geographically in the Eastern Hemisphere. Every other US state is located in the Western Hemisphere.

The value of each rock is determined based on its size and where it came from. Other items used as official currency are turmeric, shells, and cloth. Recently, US dollars started being circulated in daily transactions, but rocks are still used for ceremonial exchanges, such as weddings.

If you ever needed any practical example of how certain materials, for example, steel, expand in the heat, the Eiffel Tower is happy to inform you that it “grows” by 15.24 centimeters (6 inches) during the summer for this very reason.

Back in 1943-1945, the Australian airline Qantas offered a service called “Double Sunrise,” where the passengers traveling from Australia to Sri Lanka would see the sunrise twice. This flight lasted over 30 hours. In the modern day, the longest commercial flight is provided by Singapore Airlines for those traveling from Singapore to New York. You will have to spend around 17 hours and 50 minutes aboard the plane.

Japanese trains have the reputation of being the most punctual in the world. However, technical issues causing delays may still occur, and for this reason, the railway authorities will issue “delay certificates” if your train was late for more than five minutes. You can show these papers to your boss or teacher to explain why you were late for work or school.

If the “pineapple on pizza” argument has lost its freshness, here is another controversial food choice for you. To make it even spicier — pun intended — curry powder is often used in combination with the banana.

Iceland is full of natural wonders that are definitely worth a trip. An additional bonus comes in the form of an absolute lack of mosquitoes.

For comparison, that’s the entire population of Australia. When you are the second most populous country in the world, it is probably not so surprising. Besides, the railway connection is rather extensive in India. If you laid out all the tracks in one line, they would circle the world one and a half times.