QuickTrips: The Shallow Dive of Traveling

U.K

Attractions: I'm just going to point out, the UK has a wax museum filled with life-size celebrities including Benedict Cumberbatch. You're welcome. Okay so you've got your normal things like Stonehenge, Big Ben, Tower Bridge, Roman Baths, but then you have the other things. Such as Eden Project which collects plants from around the world, LEGOLAND resort, and HMS Victory which is a ship armed to the teeth with 104 guns. Then you've got Loch Ness, which is the supposed home of the Loch Ness Monster, hence its name. You've also got Northern Ireland, who gives a crap, and Scotland. Scotland is... Awesome. It's home to Outlook Tower which is the trippiest building on Earth and Riverside museum which is exactly what you think it is. That's about it.

 

Cuisine: Ask me what I think of when I hear 'UK'. I think of thousands upon thousands of candies, sodas, and more that got banned from the USA because reasons. One of the most famous is Irn Bru which is supposed to be a really good soda that uses an orange food coloring which is banned in the US and Yorkie which got banned for... Obvious reasons.

There's also a bottomless barrel full of chocolates, candies, and sodas that I want but only the rest of the world has. Besides that, Brits mainly eat the same things as we do except, different. Like the fact that for some unexplained reason their fries are different from ours. Also just to show you how much British people think we're fat and rely on fast food, McDonalds UK decided to make a limited time offer called the American Menu where they serve everything we have at McDonalds except bigger which probably means somebody is doing something to our food that we're okay with.

 

Culture: You know that they speak English, Welsh is common in Wales for obvious reasons. That is it.

 

UK gets a...

 

81

 

:/ meh

Dog Thing - Probably A One-Off!

I like dogs and recently my friends have been asking me to make lists of dogs suitable for them and they tend to be typically four pages long. (Because a lot of suitable dogs) Usually this is immediately followed by them asking, "Mommy, can I get *Insert thing they can't afford*?" Which annoys me so much, but I like making those lists so I'll be doing this on my blog. Don't ask. Also this first post will kick off with a bang with the 4 rarest dogs of all time being analyzed to see if it's suitable for you. Let's go!

Norwegian Lundehund
Firstly is the adorable Lundehund (Loond Hoond) which was originally bred for hunting puffins and their eggs. But forget that time for everything else!
Country Of Origin: Norway (Duh)
Height: 12 - 16 in (30 - 40 cm)
Weight: 13 - 15 lb (6 - 7 kg)
Traits:
Okay, this is where it gets weird. So this dog unlike literally every other dog ever has 6 toes and can even have more or less toes than that. Also, its bones are like human bones which gives them incredible flexibility in their bones allowing them to bend their head all the way to their spine and their forelegs at a 90 degree angle. This was done intentionally by breeders because this dog was designed to climb narrow cliff paths where it would hunt puffins. It typically has a blonde and white or ginger and white coat with black freckles on it's tail. The Lundehund has also been described as, "A  small, rectangular Spitz-type dog" Don't ask me what that means. The breed is not hypoallergenic.
Near Extinction Scenario:
They almost went extinct after 1963 because of canine distemper; a disease with currently no known cure. Only SIX dogs survived... SIX!!! *ahem* But thankfully the population is growing steadily and with some careful breeding, the population is estimated to be become stable again.

Assuming you're like me, I'd give this dog a MAYBE. But you're your own person so you decide.

Neapolitan Mastiff
A dog with all the flabs that was popularized by the romans after the conquering of Greece, and they were used in battle!
Country of Origin: Italy
Height: 26 - 31 in (66 - 79 cm)
Weight: 130 - 155 lb (60 - 70 kg)
Traits:
Coat is typically black, blue, mahogany, or tawny. Very, very big. That is literally it.
Near Extinction Scenario:
The dog experienced a life time of popularity in Europe but almost became extinct after WW2, thankfully, a handful of Italian established breeding kennels throughout Italy which brought attention to the dog and pretty much the moment it joined the American Kennel Club, it was saved from extinction.

Assuming you're like me, I'd give this dog a NOPE. But you're your own person so you decide.

Pachon Navarro
An adorable freckled bloodhound-esc dog who was thought to have a superpower but turned out to be a cosmetic.
Country Of Origin: Spain
Height: 19 - 22 in (48 - 57 cm)
Weight: 60 - 73 lb (27 - 33 kg)
Traits:
It's coat tends to be brown and white or orange and white, it is shorthaired, not to forget its big old' floppy ears. It also has a very notable feature; a double nose. A double nosed dog is like a dog with two noses in one nose! :D It was once thought to have superior sensing abilities specifically because of it which made it popular for hunting, but it was soon revealed to be purely a cosmetic (Just for looks)
Near Extinction Scenario:
The height of their popularity was with Spanish nobility during the 18th and 19th century but nearly went extinct during the Spanish Civil War. Thankfully some dedicated dog lovers managed to bring the population to stable levels.

Assuming you're like me, I'd give this dog a YUP. But you're your own person so you decide.

Chinook
A rare sled dog bred during WW2 and is the official dog of New Hampshire.
Country of Origin: New Hampshire, USA
Height: 20.4 - 27.6 in (51.8 - 70.1 cm)
Weight: 55 - 90 lb (24.9 - 40.8 kg)
Traits:
It's coat is described by dogtime.com as ranging from light-honey to a reddish-gold. It's fur is both thick, soft, and rough-ish. That's it.
Near Extinction Scenario:
By 1981, only eleven breed able Chinooks were left but with the effort of breeders from New Hampshire, Maine, Ohio, and California, they saved the dog from extinction. But only 100 Chinook pups are born annually and for scale, compare that to the fact that 1.2 million pups are born, EVERY DAY!!!

Assuming you're like me, I'd give this dog a MAYBE. But you're your own person so you decide.

QuickTrips: The Shallow Dive of Traveling

Welcome to QuickTrips where I take a country and unlike my other posts I review it just like the other posts except as fast as possible. Remember these are all shallow dives, but enough of that, let's go!

ICELAND
Attractions: Plenty of places to go in this country like the Blue Lagoon which is a geothermal spa or Hlíðarfjall (pronounce it how you think it's pronounced) which is a mountain you could go hiking or snowboarding. You could also go to the capital of Reykjavík if you're a city boy like me and do lot's of cool things like visit museums about history or whales, go on a tour on horses with Iceland Ponies which are some of the cutest things right below pandas and my dog, look at the Northern lights which happens like every two weeks or so, go to the Islenka Operan which is for the record not an opera house, or you could take a helicopter tour over the Volcano House, which is a volcano. Finally for this section Iceland Airlines offers free layover to Europe which means immediately after Iceland you could go to any EU country that has an airport! For more travel information, go to this website.
Also Iceland is exempted from certain laws in the EU about fishing so for information about fishing go to this website.

Cuisine: Boy let me tell you about Iceland, it literally revolves around fish! They eat shrimp, haddocks, plaice, halibut, and herrings all year long! THEY EVEN EAT SHARKS, A SPECIAL KIND OF SHARK ON TOP OF THAT!!! (Go to this website to learn about their shark) They also eat domesticated sheep and they drink their milk and Icelandic beef is a thing. They also eat... Puffins, and seals. Also not too hard to forget about is that they eat reindeer for some reason. Oh, and I forgot about WHALES. This may seem crazy but remember, Iceland was once full of only Vikings. That's pretty much it aside from beets, lettuce, and a whole lot of Danish pastries. For more detailed info in foods, go here.

Culture: THANK THE LORDS, this country speaks English. Yes, the majority of Icelanders speak English. That is it for Culture.

Iceland gets a...

97.5

SINT MAARTEN
Attractions: Let's go to Sint Maarten! No that is not a typo, that's Dutch for Saint Martin because this is a Dutch Colony. Firstly you could play a round of Tennis at the American Tennis Academy, then cool off in the ocean, (Click the word 'ocean for more attractions) then jet ski your way to the island of Prickly Pear; an untouched and beautiful nature reserve, and end the day off by going to the highly appreciated Sunset Bar and Grill which serves great food and is next to an airport so while you sit down you can watch the airplanes go right over your head. Sounds like a perfect day to me. Also remember that layover that the Icelandic Airlines were so happy to give you? Well although Sint Maarten is in the middle of the Caribbean's, it's a part of a figure known as the Dutch Kingdom which contains the Netherlands, Sint Maarten, and two other islands and the Dutch Kingdom is in the EU and  the EU has some weird border law, which means you can use that layover immediately after visiting Iceland to go to this beautiful Dutch Caribbean paradise without showing a European airport official your passport!
P.S. Sint Maarten is only the southern half of an island named Saint Martin and the northern half belongs to France which is also named Saint Martin.

Cuisine: French cuisine is very prevalent throughout the island, including the southern half that we're currently talking about. If there is something that is French, it's most likely here. But much like the US, there are lots of restaurants that aren't similar to the cuisine, for example a Thai restraint which is so far all I could find!

Culture: Oh yes! Another country that has an good amount of English speakers! Aside from that, I've got two other things for this section:

1. The nickname of the island is 'The Friendly Island'
2. Since neither side of the island is a part of the Schengen Area, (It's complicated) don't try and cross the border because border checks are almost never made on the Island's border and if you are lucky enough to get checked, they need a passport unlike the whole Iceland to here thing.

Sint Maarten gets a...

94.7

Mexico Part 1

Today I will be focusing purely on the provinces of Mexico, not Mexico as a whole, each individual province.

PROVINCE OF MEXICO
First up is the province of Mexico, which is in fact a province. It is home to the capital of Mexico, Mexico City! Now today's post will be very different from usual, with the fact that cuisine is already world known and cuisine in Mexico really doesn't vary from province to province, cuisine will be replaced by History and Animals, so let's go! P.S. The history part has nothing to do with the score, just a filler. ;)
HISTORY
So there are actually two Mexico Cities, the old one is what is now today known as Tenochtitlan which was founded by the Aztecs. It was on an island in the center of the inland lake system of Mexico Valley. It was claimed to be the perfect land by the Aztecs and was a beautiful place. They knew this where their home would be when they saw (Get this) a hawk standing on a cactus with a snake in it's mouth which just so happened to be the symbol of hope by the Aztec people. So they made the perfect capital for the most perfect country, AND THEN SPAIN CAME IN AND RUINED EVERYTHING. So Spain colonized Mexico and called it 'New Spain' and the Spaniards established a capital in the middle of this land only known as, YOU GUESSED IT, Mexico City. Then the independence came in and then that dictator came in and modernized the country but ruined everything then there was another dictator and then Mexico became what we today know as Mexico then there was the 34th president of Mexico who was in office for like 45 minutes. That's a true story, look at this, Pedro Lascurain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_Lascur%C3%A1in
You thought I was lying, didn't you?

ANIMALS
Okay so I cannot talk about Mexico City WITHOUT talking about the most adorable thing that lives in fresh water aside from beavers, platypus, and bass. Am I the only one finds bass cute? They look like little Opera Singers when they swim near the surface and they want the food that we're carrying, ahem, sorry about that. The most adorable thing in fresh water is the Axolotl.





 

Isn't that just adorable?

 

These cute amphibious creatures live in only one place in the world and that's Mexico City. Sadly these poor guys are critically endangered and need help to sustain a big population. But enough sadness, let's talk about awesomeness. Did you know that the Axolotl is like the Wolverine? If a limb, say leg, were to be cut off the Axolotl, it would take just a couple of weeks to have a fully functional leg again. Best part, this can be done as many times as you like and it will never stop. This surprised scientists and the cell in it's body that allows it to do so. Okay, now try and guess another aquatic animal that lives in Mexico City. If you said any type of fish you are wrong, the answer I was looking for was the West Indian Manatee and just like the Axolotl, they are endangered.

 

ATTRACTIONS

So I'm going to make this one short. First of all is the Great Temple of Tenochtitlan which is a very nice place if you're interested in the Aztec past of Mexico, next is the Angel of Independence which is a statue made by Mexicans celebrating their fresh-out-the-oven independence, and finally for that one luchador in your life is the Arena Mexico!!! Which is a professional wrestling arena.

 

Mexico Province gets a...

98.2

 

 

Israel, South Africa, and Azerbaijan Part 2

Now before I begin this post, I just want to appreciate Azerbaijan. Thank you Azerbaijan for being the most developed Muslim community in the world, thank you for being the first country to make an off shore oil drill ever, thank you for building the city of Baku seriously thank you so much for Baku, thank you for being the home of the world's largest KFC in the world, thank you for being the first Muslim-majority democratic secular country ever and the first Muslim-majority to have theaters, operas, and modern day universities, thank you for building the flame towers, thank you for making flipping monuments dedicated to your love of tea, thank you for Gobustan; home of the most mud volcanoes in the world, thank you for being the first Muslim-nation to allow women to wear whatever they want, not forcing women to wear hijabs or burkas, and allow religious freedom, thank you for being the only Muslim that gets along with Israel, supports Israel, and accepted Jewish immigrants during the holocaust, and thank you for being the Canada of the middle east. As in you're friends with everybody. Okay on with the post!

AZEERBAIJAN

CUISINE
A nice Azerbaijani dish that is considered to be fancy is the Dushbara, which is  small dumplings stuffed with minced lamb and herbs and is also served in broth. A very interesting dish is a type of soup in Azerbaijani, the Dovga. Dovga is a yogurt based soup with sorrel, spinach, rice, dried peas, and small meatballs made from ground mutton; the temperature it is served in depends from season to season. To end cuisine, I'll end it with a beverage, tea. Black Tea is the most drunken thing in Azerbaijan and is also Azerbaijan's National Drink and as I mentioned before they built monuments throughout Azerbaijan in love of their tea which is adorable. My favorite thing is there are Ayran stands along roads which are stands where you can buy tea on the side of a road.

ATTRACTIONSLet's start off with Baku, Azerbaijan's capital. Baku is amazing, it's a shore side city and on the ocean you can see a huge and complex network of oil drills connected by wire bridges which is surprisingly cool to look at. Baku is also the home of the previously mentioned flame towers which were completed in 2011, they are tall buildings which put up an amazing light show at nightsthanks to illuminated windows and LEDs. There is also the previously mentioned world's largest KFC or Gobustan or the tea monuments. There's just too much to do in Azerbaijan, it's amazing!

CULTURE
The people of Azerbaijan speak Azerbaijani, that's it. No exceptions. Azerbaijan has an incredibly low crime rate too!

Azerbaijan gets a...
97.5

Israel, South Africa, and Azerbaijan Part 1

So I apologize for not being able to post much. The main reason is because school but since it's summer now, I've got all the time I need to make a lot of posts again! So I'm now going to focus on Africa, Middle East, and South East Asia for a while, no reason at all. Plus to make posts longer I'll do 3 countries a post and I promise to make 1 post once every 2 days. So let's go!

ISRAEL
Planning on going to Israel? That's ok, but if you are, might want to cross Libya and Saudi Arabia off that list as well. The reasoning is because if you have any Israeli stamps on your passport then you aren't restricted on rights, you aren't supervised, but they don't let you even go in there. So either go to those countries before Israel or just not go there at all. (PS The second option is a better choice because women don't get many rights in either country in the first place and if caught owning of drugs or questionable items is punishable by death.)

CUISINE
So Israel has a very unique cuisine in comparison of it's neighbors like Jordan mainly because almost every single person in Israel is Jewish. (duh) So Israeli cuisine is mainly kosher foods (foods that the Tanakh, which is the Jewish bible, allows a Jew to eat). Taking that in mind that means you may not consume pork or shellfish, also meat and dairy products may not be combined, meat must also be (hilariously) ritually slaughtered and salted to remove all traces of blood, finally some people may not eat any form of poultry or meat.

But enough about food restrictions, let's talk about what you CAN eat. One immediate example that comes to my mind is the ever so famous American-Israeli dish; Bagels and cream cheese with a side of lox. (cured salmon) Most Israelis say this is an Israeli dish with some American influence, specifically the bagel with cream cheese. The lox is a very famous kosher food in Israel, for some reason, and some Americans say that lox is "Like regular salmon, but more like bacon; nice and crispy and dry". A famous kosher snack is fig which is the most mentioned food in the Jewish bible. If you want to know what fig is like listen to this Wikipedia description:
They are lusciously sweet with a texture that combines the chewiness of their flesh, the smoothness of their skin, and the crunchiness of their seeds.
In my opinion, that sounds like a mix of strawberries, pomegranates, and apples. Oh my god I want a fig now. Okay so the next food for Israel is Yaprak, which is stuffed vine leaves. Also I just wanted to do this food because Yaprak is also a feminine Turkish name that means 'leaf'. So the last food is actually a list of the foods eaten on the holiday of Rosh Hashana, (Jewish New Year) and those foods are...

• Apples and Honey - To celebrate the soon to be 'sweet' year
• Pomegranates - For many blessings this year. (Each seed means another blessing)
• Fish Head - For a successful year in which we are the "head," not the "tail."
• Honey Cake
• Tzimmes (Hot Vegetable Cubes served alongside honey)
• Teiglach (Twisted Pastries boiled in a honeyed syrup)
• Challah (Special Braided Bread)

ATTRACTIONS
First of all is the adorable Mini Israel which is a park that contains hundreds of miniature replicas of buildings and landmarks in Israel. Also each figure is surprisingly realistic and accurate and photos of it look like regular cities in Israel until you see the photos of some 5'4" dude towering over a tall building. Secondly is the Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art which is a very rare building mainly because of the fact that it is the only Japanese Art Museum in the entire Middle East. Finally is the number one most popular thing to do in Israel, see the old city of Jerusalem. One person says ,"The Old City is a melange of culture, religion, tradition. Expect to barter and do not walk away unless you get to at least half of the asking price!" Need I say more?

CULTURE
(People from now on is culture) The culture of Israel is predominately Jewish but culture is also largely influenced by the UK and the US. But Arabic culture still plays a tiny role in Israel: language. Israel's 3 official languages are currently English, Arabic, and Hebrew which is the Jewish language, also practically every Jewish citizen knows a bit of English. Crime is also not a problem at all so you don't have to worry about your phone being stolen or something like that.

Israel gets a...
90

SOUTH AFRICA
South Africa is interesting country mainly because it is the world hub of cultural diversity. (Aside from the DRC) Which means that cultural influence could be part Mexican, part Greek, heck even part Turkish! So yeah...

CUISINE
A popular drink amongst the citizens is Amasi, which is just sour milk. Okay, so Bunny Chow is also a popular food, it is curry stuffed into a hollowed out loaf of bread, yuck. Um okay how about Chakalaka? It is... Spicy Vegetable Relish. Um, Mafi? DANGIT!! Just more sour milk. How about, you know what forget it everything here is horrible. The only food here I'd eat is sausage. THAT'S IT!!! NOTHING HERE TASTES GOOD!!!!!

ATTRACTIONS
To start off is Gold Reef City, which is a big amusement park in Johannesburg, South Africa that was built on top of an old gold mine. The park is themed around the gold rush that occurred in 1887 in Witwatersrand, South Africa. Next is the Moses Mabhida Stadium which is a multi-use stadium in Durban, South Africa. It was a host stadium of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The stadium is named after Moses Mabhida who was a General Secretary of the South African Communist Party... Okay, then. Finally (And probably the best of all these) is the Highgate Ostrich Show Farm. Yes you read that correctly and no I did not misspell anything, it's exactly what it is; an ostrich farm. THEY EVEN ALLOW YOU TO RIDE THE OSTRICHES!!!

CULTURE
I'm going to sum up the culture of South Africa with a quote from their website:
"We have groups with different languages, religions, race, customs and traditions e.g. Zulu, Ndebele, Khoisan, Hindu, Muslim and Afrikaner people. All of these people are united by being South African and all of their ways of life form part of our country's identity and culture."
Also, the number of official languages there are is unreal, and they are:

• English
• Afrikaans
• Zulu
• Xhosa
• Southern Sotho
• Tswana
• Northern Sotho
• Tsonga
• Venda
• Swati
• Ndebele

South Africa gets a...
84.3


Azerbaijan is a county that not many people remember that it exists, but I cannot do it in this part so I'll see you soon!

Polynesia - The Biggest Post - Part 3

Back to Polynesia, we go!

NEW ZEALAND
CUISINE
So you know about New Zealand, right? Right. So the cuisine of New Zealand is obviously influenced by the Englishmen of Great Britain. So before I go in depth of the dishes, here's an explanation for why English settlers cried most manly tears of joy. You see, in Great Britain, meat was scarce and was eaten in small cuisine. But when explorers found these two islands, there was bountiful amounts of meat, often to the point where meat was served everyday. So Britain was so happy to see this. But they didn't have the ingredients to make their home favorites so they imported British dishes to New Zealand. That's why modern New Zealand cuisine is a mixture of old English stuff and Maori traditions. So here's a couple of dishes. There's a special dish that is considered distinctively modern Maori is the Maori boil up which is the boil up of pork, potatoes, Kumara, and dumplings which is mainly influenced by introduced and indigenous methods of cooking. Another distinctively modern Maori is Maori bread which is made of fermented potatoes, aka, the same stuff vodka is made of. Also fun fact about New Zealand restaurants is that in virtually every single restaurant, they serve kebabs, couscous, and sushi. In fact, Sushi is considered by many New Zealanders as an adopted dish and that sushi is now a staple dish of New Zealand.

ATTRACTIONS
Okay so I've actually been working on this for a while now so here we go!

·         Visit the incredible Waitomo Caves, a humungous cavern which most notably has walls that glow a bright baby blue. This is because those blue things are glow worms, and everyone knows that glow worms glow but it’s still amazing. If you look close enough though you’ll see glowing string, don’t touch it because that’s a part of the glow worms. This abundance of glow worms occurs because a lot of things glow worms can eat exist in these caves and glow worms need to eat as much as possible because when they become adults they don’t have mouths so they need to eat as much as possible in order to sustain their future selves. The things that they can eat are a number of things ranging from mosquitoes, flies, spiders twice their size, and even other glow worms. This string is there to catch the things they eat. All of this obesity and cannibalism is just to sustain the future generation of glow worms. It may be a horrible and dark thought to think about the glow worms but it sure isn’t horrifying to look at them, in fact it’s the complete opposite. 

 

·         Are you pure-blooded explorer? Are you fearless mountaineer? Or are you a person who just likes to climb stuff? Well then the Franz Josef Glacier is for you! The Franz Joseph Glacier is a 12 km long glacier where if you pay admission, you can explore a glacial attraction that’s rated 4.6 out of 5 with a guide! Seriously, I’m not one for hiking but these guys somehow make it look fun:

• So finally is the incredible natural occurrence that anyone can enjoy, it is... The Hot Water Beach. The hot water beach is a beach on the northern island of New Zealand where under the water is underwater hot springs which rises up to the surface and makes the ocean water surprisingly warm. Also, if you dig enough (you don't have to dig too deep) hot water from the springs rises creating a pool of very hot water.

PEOPLE
Thankfully, roughly 98% the people of New Zealand speak English. The crime rate is also very low. Now that those two are out of the way, I'll end this country with a cute fact. Although people from New Zealand are formally New Zealanders, society has come up with a cute and short name for these people: kiwi THAT IS JUST SO CUTE AND FUNNY AND MAKES ME WISH I WAS FROM NEW ZEALAND SO I CAN BE CALLED KIWI!!!

 

Final score of New Zealand is...

 

99.4%

 

Wallis and Futuna

EXPLANATION

Okay so this really isn't a country per se but it's a Collectivity, of France and there a bunch of islands on this collectivity and there's no real attractions so doing this would require me to do a post on France which I cannot do so here's a website that explains pretty much everything about Wallis and Futuna

 

 



The Soon To Be, Newest Country?!?! Part 1.

First of all, sorry for the delay. I'm busy a lot and I'm also easily distracted. Second of all, here's the explanation for the title: In May of 2015 a group of people planted a flag between Serbia an Croatia and claimed a new nation, no turmoil, no negotiations, nothing. This tiny micronation was titled Liberland and ever since its creation, its population has been growing ever since and is today at 250,000 people. With almost full UN recognition and a constitution in the makings, Liberland is going to be become the youngest nation in history. So I thought this little country was amazing and I got curious and I decided to make a post about it, so withou further a due, I present LIBERLAND!

CUISINE

Liberland's cuisine is that of Croatia, which is Czech cuisine. So Liberland's cuisine consists mainly of schnitzel, the several delicious kinds of pastries, and the endless abyss of meat dishes. One of the most basic dishes is Puding, which is simply just several flavors of custard stacked on layers and typically topped with assorted fruits and served in a cute glass container. Another type of dish is a type of Bruschetta, Obložené chlebíčky. Which I'm not even going to try to pronounce. The toppings of these Czech finger foods can vary from county to county, but here's a list of typical toppings:

 

Instead of marinara: Cream Cheese, Lobster Past, or Italian Potato Salad is used

 

For Toppings: sweet-and-sour pickles, vine-ripened tomato, cooked ham, pepperoni, hardboiled egg (quartered), wedges of brie or camembert, slices of blue cheese or Roquefort, and/or yellow or red pepper sliced into thin strips

 

The Garnish is typically fresh parsley, basil, capers, chives, peas, red paprika, thinly sliced lemon, and/or thinly sliced red onion

 

That took surprisingly less time than I expected to type that all down. Anyways, the last dish is the Czech hot dog. You have no idea how funny I find this. I don't know how to explain this in my own words so I'll just quote Wikipedia:

 

" a street food consisting of boiled or steamed sausage dipped in mustard or ketchup served in a roll with a hole made inside, not in a sliced bun like the common hot dog. It is influenced by German cuisine."

 

That sounds like the kind of stuff Duckin' Donuts would come up with! That was kind of funny, so see you next part!

Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan
CUISINE
Okay, Uzbekistan is like the Chuck Norris of cuisine because they bake bread in this thing:



This is an oven that sticks the bread to the top of the oven and burn till it's golden brown. That's just awesome. (But before we pursue any further, I'd like to mention that this cuisine is similar to the Tajikistan cuisine with all the Palov and stuff, but in this country garlic is often added to many things, okay let's return.) They also have Manti which is Uzbek-style Dumplings which can be filled with anything ranging from pumpkins and lamb to just beef. Palov is just as popular in Uzbekistan as it is in Tajikistan and there are many more dishes such as Oshi Piyozi, (A stuffed onion) Dholeh, (A risotto like-dish) Fried Fish with Garlic Sauce, (Specifically for Friday Nights in Jewish households) and many variations of Palov such as Osh Palov (The Jewish Variation) & Serkaniz. (A Garlic Variation) But one of the more interesting dishes is Boyjon, an eggplant puree mixed with salt and garlic only and is also served on Friday Nights in Jewish households.

 

ATTRACTIONS
First is the Amir Timur Museum, most well known for it's distinctive blue dome and ornate interior. It features the exhibits Timur and President Islam Karimov. It is a very beautiful place and is often given a five out of five stars by critics. Next up is something that has an awesome name; The Ark. The Ark is a MASSIVE fortress built in the city of Bukhara in Uzbekistan. It was originally built and occupied in the 5th century and it has been practically untouched since then. It offers about 9.8 Acres of legendary Islamic history. Finally is Registan, (No that is not a recently made micro-nation) it was the heart of the city Samarkand during the Timurid dynasty. It now lies in Uzbekistan and the word Registan itself means Sandy Place in Persian. It is separated into three Madrasahs, the Sher-Dor Madrasah, the Ulugh Beg Madrasah, and the Tilya Kori Madrasah. They were all built in completely different times (Ulugh Beg in the 15th century, Sher-Dor in the 1610s, and Tilya Kori in the late 1640s) and each Madrasah has many historical legends that come with them.

 

 

PEOPLE

There official language is Uzbek and the currency is the Uzbekistan Som and this currency is just mind blowing because one US Dollar equals, wait for it....... 

 

2496.16 UZBEKISTAN SOMS

 

THAT IS INSANE!!!!! *Ahem* Anyways, as of 2013, all types of crime in Uzbekistan have rose dramatically, and corruption and bribery is at an all time high. That's not a very good factor for helping with your score.

 

Final score is...

 

77.75

Tajikistan

Sorry for the huge delay on posts, just lots of distractions and school and BLEH! Anyways, let's start. We can't do Afghanistan because Americans are not allowed to visit it.

Tajikistan
CUISINE
The most common dish is Plov, a rice dish mixed with shredded yellow turnip or carrot and chunks of meat. It is all fried together in vegetable oil or mutton fat. The meat is cubed and the veggies are finely chopped into long strips. It is eaten with your hands and no utensils. Tajikistan's grapes and melons were often prized by the Soviet Union and their fruits consist of many things such as Peaches, Figs, Persimmons, Apricots, Pears, Apples, and Peaches to list a few. Every meal is also generally served or offered with tea in between meals as a gesture of hospitality to guests and visitors. Because of universal popular tea drinking, the Tea-House (Or the Choykhona) is the most common gathering place in Tajikistan. The Tea-House is very similar to Western-Style coffee shops. Overall, Tajik cuisine is a very normal and nice cuisine. But it still looks and sounds delicious.

ATTRACTIONS
First off is the Fann Mountains, a humungous mountain range in the Sughd province. It is a very beautiful place and contains our next attraction; Iskanderkul. Iskanderkul is a mountain lake in the Fann Mountains formed by glacial activity, it is a bright blue lake and is just north of the Gissar Range in the Fann Mountains. Finally, is the Ayni Opera & Ballet Theatre, it is a very beautiful theatre, it has a mainly Persian influence to it making it look like a Persian building, and to enter you must pay 20 Somoni per person. Speaking of Somoni...

PEOPLE
The currency of Tajikistan is the Somoni (TJS) and 1 USD equals about 6 Somoni, which is really great for Tajikistan. Also, want to hear the best part? All types of crime, as of 2014, have dropped to a 0.01% chance of any type of crime happening. Now time for the final score!

 

 

Tajikistan gets a...

91.2%

 

 

 

 



Turkey

I've decided to take a break from Polynesia, so I thought that I'd do a country that sounds very interesting to me, and that country is Turkey.

CUISINE
Most meals in rural parts of Turkey are eaten on a sini, which is a large tray. This sini is mostly called a replacement for tables. This is because it was once traditional and citizens still live to that tradition to this day. Your average Turkish breakfast consists of cheese, veggies, eggs, jam, honey, and kaymak which is a central Asian dairy product that is similar to clotted cream. Now, time for the dishes, that excludes kaymak of course. A simit is a circular bread covered in sesame seeds and is kind of like a bagel but much more healthier. The Kofta is Middle Eastern meatball/meatloaf, which usually consists of ground beef or lamb and also have some spices and/or onions. Our final dish is the Doner Kebab, which is lamb cooked on a rotating vertical pole. Now if you ask me this stuff sounds really good and these dishes that I just told you about are actually commonly sold at fast food restaurants in Turkey! So this sounds good now let's look at attra- oh my god.

ATTRACTIONS
HOLY MOTHER OF BUTTS THIS IS AMAZING, WHY AM I STILL HERE!?!?!? I WANT TO GO THERE RIGHT NOW!!!!! Okay, there is the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul which is one of the largest and the oldest covered markets in the world. It contains 61 covered streets and over 3,000 shops that sell pretty much everything! Then there is the Temple Of Artemis, an ancient Greek temple dedicated to the goddess Artemis, and did you know it's one of the seven wonders of the world? The final attraction is the Saklikent Canyon and is one of the deepest canyons, people are also allowed to swim in the waters of the canyon!

PEOPLE
Official language of Turkey is Turkish, that's it, with one exception. 17% of the people of Turkey speak English. The currency of Turkey, the Turkish Lira, equals roughly 2.50 US Dollars. But Turkey isn't all chuckles and sunshine. There are many dangers such as pickpockets, tap water that could make you sick, and a big warning for women, you're most likely going to be harassed a lot according to over 100 people.

 

Okay, Turkey's final score is a...

 

52.13

 

 

 

Nope, nope, nope, nope. This isn't that good of a place if you take into consideration the people. Nope.

Polynesia - The Biggest Post - Part 2

Norfolk Island

CUISINE
The island's staple food is seafood regardless of the region, most restaurants, especially in Kingston, serve seafood shortly after it's caught. Although there are some aspects of Tahitian and Polynesian influence in the culture, nearly everything was influenced by the Australians because not many people were there throughout the island's history. Also fun fact about Norfolk Island, this island is one of very few nations outside the US that celebrates Thanksgiving so the dishes here might be typical American stuff. The first dish is the Pilhi Anna, a type of pie from Norfolk Island where you bake milk with Kumera on top and is somehow supposed to solidify the milk in a good way. Another baked good on Norfolk Island is the Coconut Loaf, which is a bread type of thing that contains coconut, and once again your simply baking milk. The person who posted this recipe online said that it was the easiest loaf they've ever made. Also remember how the islanders celebrate Thanksgiving? Well the people don't just eat a feast, they sell produce to raise money for church upkeep which is kind of nice.

ATTRACTIONS
One of the most popular things to do in Norfolk Island is visit Anson Coffee, a place where they make coffee out of 100% Arabica Coffee. You can try their coffee at a local café or search for a Fred's Coffee van at the Sunday Markets. Speaking of which, there's the Sunday market, where there is catering for customers and a local supply of *Takes a deep breath* fresh fruits, fresh veggies, cut flowers, home cooking, craft and souvenir items, books, jewelry, stamps, post cards and so much more! It occurs every Sunday on Burnt Pine, Taylors Road, Norfolk Island! Man, and that was only one fourth of the stuff they said on the Norfolk Island website. Now there are so many attractions on this island I could spend 3 parts just on Norfolk Island but instead, here's a link given by the people of Norfolk Island of what to do in Norfolk Island: http://www.norfolkisland.com.au/things-to-do/attractions

PEOPLE
Okay, before I say anything about the people of Norfolk Island, try and guess how many total murders there where this century... Give up? 2. That's right, in fact, the first murder of the 21st century was the first murder since 1893, now that is some high standards. Anyways, this island has two official languages, Norfuk and English. But don't worry, Norfuk is based off of English and Tahitian so you might be able to make out what some people are saying, but English is the dominant and more common language of the island. The currency of Norfolk Island is an Australian Dollar which is about 1 US Dollar so Norfolk Island is another great place for Americans!

Norfolk Island's final score is...
89.1

Easter Island

CUISINE
To sum up the cuisine of Easter Island, think of a lot of seafood, now add in some Chilean influence which is mostly just Spanish stuff, that is what your average Easter Islander eats almost everyday. But it's not as bad as you think, for example the people of Easter Island really love empanadas, specifically the Tuna Patty. The Tuna Patty is a fried empanada filled with fresh tuna, it is also often stuffed with cheese and/or tomatoes. Certain sources state that you cannot visit Easter Island without trying one of these and more sources say that they make an ideal snack for islanders. After that you might want some cake and what kind of cake do these Islanders love? Sponge Cake, or better yet, the Po'e. The Po'e is a soft, sweet, and spongy cake and it is made of pumpkin, flour, and plantain. The last dish on Easter Island we'll be talking about is similarly cooked as if you were in American Samoa, the Umu Rapa Nui which is fish cooked with many fruits and vegetables to season and let some of the juices enter the fish. It is baked in an umu similar to American Samoa and is just like seafood but more flavors occur.

ATTRACTIONS
You wouldn't be surprised if I told you that every single part of Easter Island except a small portion of it's western side is just a National Park, remember to take that literally because the entire island except for the small city portion in the west is purely the Rapa Nui National Park. Now every part of the island has these stone statues so theoretically the entire island is an attraction. That is all I have to say because, not much is there at all but what is there is amazing.

PEOPLE
The two official languages are Spanish and Rapa Nui. No catches, no buts, that's it. Currency's a different story though. There they use the Chilean Peso, you want to know how many Chilean Pesos equals one US Dollar? It equals 621.50 CHILEAN PESOS. THAT IS INSANE!!! That just took Easter Island down a couple of pegs.

Easter Island's final score is...
72.3

Polynesia - The Biggest Post - Part 1

Ever heard of Polynesia? Well it's commonly referred to as the Polynesian Triangle and is the largest of the three major cultural groups in the pacific, it includes islands ranging from New Zealand to Hawaii. That gives you an idea of how big Polynesia is because New Zealand's northern most islands is roughly 4,606 miles from Hawaii which makes me think that this could be it's own entire continent. Which is why I plan to evaluate every single island of Polynesia excluding Hawaii because that's apart of the US. So let's do this!

French Polynesia

CUISINE
As we all know, the French are very fancy. But before I go on, this country encompasses over 10 different islands just so you know. Anyways, a blog called Countries And Their Cultures described the cuisine of FP as mostly Polynesian Seafood and French-Inspired Recipes. Now this may sound good until take in to consideration that the French kind of like to stuff everything in their mouths. For example this recipe in French Polynesia which was mostly inspired by the French.

Vanilla Scented Sweet Potatoes Cream
Servings: 6
Ingredients:
800 g sweet white potatoes
1 vanilla been
150 g sugar
2 glasses lukewarm water or milk
Cooking Instructions:
Ready all the ingredients and tools. Clean the potatoes and cook them unpeeled in slightly sugared water for 30 to 40 min. The potatoes have to be well cooked (the skin breaks and gets loose). Drain and peel. Mix the potatoes with the sugar and the vanilla (only the seeds inside the vanilla been) and a little water. Add water according to the consistency required and add sugar according to taste. Chill before serving. Serve the cream in cups.

That sounds both appetizing and disgusting, think about it. You're stuffing cups of cream into your mouth hole and that cream smells like vanilla, was made in milk, and mostly consists of potatoes. I want that but I'll regret it, I don't care just give a glass! Now a popular food in French Polynesia is called a Poe and no matter how much I researched, I could not find a single definition of what a Poe was. So I'm going to give it a definition based off of it's ingredients. So a Poe is a bunch of natural ingredients cooked together, it will (Based off of the recipes I have) always contain some form of coconut, 200 g of Manioc Starch, Castor Sugar, and soupspoon oil. I can't make out what it'll be like so here is two Poe recipes.

Taro Poe
Servings: 6
Ingredients:
3 taros
1 banana leaf
1 pineapple
500 g manioc starch
1 soupspoon oil
Castor sugar
1 vanilla been
2 grated coconuts
Cooking Instructions:
Weight and prepare all ingredients. Wash and peel the taro and the pineapple. Cut the taro into cubes and cook in sugar water (1 soupspoon). Coarsely grate the pineapple. Prepare the banana leaf in passing it rapidly over a flame to soften it, brush with oil. Press the out the coconut mild and put aside. Drip the cooked taro and mash. Check the quantity of the taro � for 2 volumes taro, add 1 volume starch and ½ volume sugar. The quantity of sugar can be adjusted according to taste. Mix well and add the vanilla (inside of been only). Spread the �poe� in the middle of the banana leaf. Fold carefully and put on a slightly oiled baking sheet of in a mound. Bake in the oven at 150o to 175o  (Pos. 5-6) for about 45 min. Careful, the banana leaf will smell burnt however the �poe� might not be cooked yet. Check the cooking. Once baked remove from the oven and unfold the banana leaf carefully. Put the �poe� on a service plate and cut, pour the coconut milk. Serve with coconut milk to add.

Banana Poe
Servings: 6
Ingredients:
6 cooking bananas
1 banana leaf
200 g manioc starch
1 soupspoon oil
Castor sugar
1 vanilla been
200 ml coconut milk
Cooking Instructions:
Prepare all ingredients. Wash and cook the bananas with skin in water for 15 min. check the cooking. Prepare the banana leaf in passing it rapidly over a flame to soften it, brush with oil. Drip the cooked bananas, peel then mash. Check the quantity � for 2 volumes banana, add 1 volume starch and ½ volume sugar. The quantity of the sugar can be adjusted according to taste and ripeness of the bananas. Mix well and add the vanilla (inside of the been only). Spread the �poe� in the middle of the banana leaf. Fold carefully and put on a slightly oiled baking sheet or in a mould. Bake in the oven at 160o to 175o  (Pos. 5-6) for about 45 min. Careful, the banana leaf will smell burnt however the �poe� might not be cooked yet. Check the cooking. Unfold the banana leaf carefully. Put the �poe� in a plate, cut into large dices and pour ¾ of the coconut milk. Serve with the remaining quarter of the coconut milk.

ATTRACTIONS
Okay, I am not kidding there literally only 5 points of interest and 3 of them are museums and those three museums are the Robert Wan Pearl Museum, the Paul Gaugin Museum, and the one museum I'll be focusing on, Musée de Tahiti et des Îles. Which is something for a language that I don't know. It is a museum that was made to conserve and restore Polynesian artifacts and cultural practices. It's purely an ethnographic museum meaning that it focuses on, well, people and culture. Sorry for the short attraction part but there's not much to cover here.

PEOPLE
No joke, official language is French. That's it. The only minorities there are lower than 1% and you'll probably never encounter these like 5 people that speak Tahitian or something. The economy there isn't as simple as everybody does this though. The currency of French Polynesia is the CFP Franc which is the worst possible currency you could have right now because 1 US Dollar equals about 100 CFP Franc, so it's a good idea to bring your own money there because you'll probably be the richest person on the island you're on. Oh, and thank the lord that the murder rate is 3.4, to give an idea of how amazing that is, the US's murder rate as of 2010 was a 9.8 which makes no sense because French Polynesia  has no competence in justice, education, safety, and defense. That should mean that the streets should be running rapid down the street and yet there isn't.

French Polynesia earns a
44

American Samoa

CUISINE
Okay so Sunday is a day of rest of the people of American Samoa, where many families would congregate and share a umu which is a hot oven of rocks, they place foods on these rocks to cook the food, together and have a Sunday afternoon meal. Sometimes for this meal, they place entire pigs in the umu along with mushrooms. But the most popular ingredient in Samoan dishes is coconut, for example the palusami, a parcel of coconut cream wrapped in taro leaves and they then bake it in the umu. The palusami is eaten whole including the leaves and is rich in taste due to the coconut filling. So after some research I found that somebody in the US made Keke Puaa which is little dough balls filled with a filling made of pork, onions, garlic, and soy sauce. In fact you may find Keke Puaa in many Chinese restaurants. A popular drink among American Samoans is the Vaimeleni, a watermelon drink made of mostly fruits and coconuts.

ATTRACTIONS
There is a park called the National Park Of American Samoa, it shows you mainly what an everyday south pacific island would look like in the wilderness, it contains sights, sounds, and experiences you could never experience in the US. A famous beach in American Samoa is the Ofu Beach which is described by many as a true paradise and by others as a marine version of the National Park of American Samoa. Our final attractions is another popular beach, the two dollar beach. One person went to the beach when it was raining but the beach was still amazing! Another person went snorkeling their and the water was very shallow and was just the perfect snorkeling level! The two dollar beach is very famous for it's snorkeling and marine life, there always schools of tropical fish around and with the right equipment, you might want to bring a camera or get water proof case for your phone!

PEOPLE
The currency is, duh, the US Dollar, so that's good for us. The official language is English and 80% of this territory speaks English so that's even better for us. So for the US, American Samoa is worth living in.

American Samoa earns a
97.6

Papua New Guinea

CUISINE
According to Recipe Wiki, Papuan cuisine is extremely varied but the staple foods are rice, sago which is a starch found in sago palms, and sweet potatoes. Each of these food are often served with seafood, game, pork, and even several greens. But almost all the time the basic foods that Papuans eat are what I call light foods, as in foods that are simple and tend to not be heavy on the calories or any sort of thing you'd see on the back of a box of chocolates or orange juice. Some of these foods are every type of rice, some sort of starch, chicken, fish, and foods that have a light color. So first off for the dishes is Muli Wara, which is a Papuan styled lemonade. Sadly I could not find a recipe for Muli Wara but Wikipedia says that muli means citrus, so, got that going. Next up is Papuan Style Baked Sweet Potatoes, here's a recipe!

Ingredients

Nutrition

Servings 4-6 Units US

• 3 cups cooked sweet potatoes, mashed
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons finely sliced onions
• 3 eggs
• ¹⁄₂ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon milk
• salt and pepper (to taste)

Directions

1. After mashing the cooked sweet potato, mix in the butter, onion, milk, cinnamon, salt and pepper to taste.
2. Separate the egg whites from the yolks.
3. Beat them separately. Fold the egg yolks into the mashed potato followed by the egg whites.
4. Place mixture in a greased baking dish.
5. Brush the top with butter and bake in the oven with the dish placed in a pan of water for 30 to 35 minutes at 325°F

Lastly is the Yam Patty, a deep fried mixture of ingredients including flour, eggs, and even but obviously yams!

ATTRACTIONS
Roughly 99% of the attractions in Papua New Guinea are actually natural and the 1%? It's just a show performed by a tribe which we'll start on! The Goroka Show is the largest and most well known tribal gathering in Papua New Guinea, it's a Sing-sing held every year near the country's independence day in the town of Goroka. Next up is the Milne Bay, a GINORMOUS bay of water in the Milne Bay Province. It is roughly 35 kilometers long and over 15 kilometers wide! The bay was the site of the Battle Of Milne Bay during WW2 and the Milne Bay became the major support base for Japan's New Guinea Campaign. The biggest reason why the US won the battle and prevented Japan's expansion in Papua New Guinea was because Malaria spread incredibly quick throughout the country and Malaria was a very severe case in the Milne Bay and the US kept their troops sanitary while several Japanese soldiers died of disease making a big turn in the fight between Japan and the US. So this big and beautiful bay has some dark yet interesting backstory. Finally, is the stratovolcano known as Tavurvur. One second, a stratovolcano is a volcano that tends to explode quite often. Anyways, it lies near Rabul on the island of New Britain and is quite amazing. Unless it happens to erupt. Which it did in 1937 leading to the death of 508. It's only safe to visit when there are no clouds around or when it's not about to erupt.

PEOPLEPapua New Guinea's 3 official languages are Tok Pisin, Hiri Motu, and thank the lord, English. But there is a catch, only 1 to 2% of Papua New Guinea speaks English. That is it for language, currency is also simple. 2.64 US Dollars is 1 Papua New Guinea Kina, simple as that.

Okay, final score time.

Papua New Guinea earns a...

 

67.29

 

You see Papua New Guinea didn't fare so well in any of the categories which is why is was about to give it a 50 but then I remembered the cool attractions which made me want to give it an 80 but only two attractions were actually cool, everything else was just a volcano or something you could see in like Mississippi or somewhere in the US. Which is why I gave it a 60. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Papua New Guinea, our first Purple!

Netherlands

CUISINE
So after some research the three most popular foods in the Netherlands is bread, potatoes, and cheese. In fact, the Netherlands loves cheese so much that there is a cheese market that sells cheese and only cheese by the wheel. No kidding.

I am just dying right now. This is just too funny. I can't even, I CAN'T EVEN, I CAN'T EVEN!!! This is just too good to be true. Okay, ahem, Wikipedia describes Dutch cuisine as simple, that is it. I'm in heaven right now! Okay so three dishes, first off is Bitterballen which sounds so cute and it is because it is just a deep fried ball of tender and savory filling and is typically served with beef, chicken, or mushrooms. It is so cute you just want to kiss it. Next is a treat that represents Holland; one of Netherlands' cities: Stroopwafels. Everything here just has an adorable name! Okay, Holland is considered the land of cookies and the Stroopwafel might as well be on the flag of Holland. A stroopwafel is 2 cookies with a creamy caramel center. Need I say more? So the final dish is no exception when it comes to cute names, it's the worstenbroojes! A worstenbrooje is basically bread bake around meat so it's like a corn dog but it has the meat already in the bread! Chefs from the Netherlands are GENIUSES!!!

ATTRACTIONS
Remember when I said China was the country of COLORS? Well Amsterdam is the city of COLORS. Because this, is Amsterdam:

Yeah, beautiful isn't it? Oh I shouldn't ask BECAUSE THAT IS UNDENIABLY AWESOME IT'S JUST SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPYALIDOCIOUS!!!!!! *cough* Sorry. So aside from being FABULOUS, it is home to the Van Gogh Museum which is called an extraordinary experience by one critic and a cool museum by another. A really cool music hall in the Netherlands is the Heineken Music Hall which has a capacity of 5500 people and is 3000 square meters! It is located in, you guessed, Amsterdam! The music hall was also specifically designed for amplified music which is the formal name for ROCK AND ROLL!!! Finally is a theme park in Biddinghuizen, Netherlands called Walibi Holland which consists of rides such as the speed of sound, el condor, Xpress, goliath, and robin hood. It is ranked on average 4.5 out of 5 according to Google Reviews.

PEOPLE
Now the average person from the Netherlands would speak Dutch but there are other languages such as French, Papiamento, and luckily, English. But unlike every other country that only has one area that speaks English or there are very few of them around but English is an exception in the Netherlands. You see someone in the Netherlands will most likely be able to answer simple questions like "Which way to the bathroom?" and "How for this taco?" because English is considered an official language but Dutch is the highest priority language in the Netherlands and English is the highest spoken foreign language with a whopping 87%, but there is once again an exception.  Although not many people will be able to speak English fluently, but if you're in Saba and Sint Eustatius which are two of the Netherlands' colonies in the Caribbean, then kick back and relax because the majority of those islands speak English.

Okay so I thought about this and I need to add something to People, currency. You see it's not easy living or even visiting a country that is in debt or experiencing inflation which is why I now need to stress the importance of knowing what is going on in the country. Thankfully, there are two currencies used in the Netherlands; the US Dollar and the Euro. Now that makes things easier for Americans and certain Europeans because they can use their home land's currency. But if you start to think a lot then you start to think of the confusion of calculating a US Dollar to a Euro or vise-versa if you've only worked with one currency and a sign says 1.2 Euros or US Dollars. Don't worry because one US Dollar equals 0.89 Euros, which is slightly easier to calculate than the fact that 1 US Dollar equals over 100 Yen in Japan, whatever, the Netherlands is great for Americans and it's territories too.

 

Okay, this is an easy one.

The Netherlands' final score is...

 

99.12

 

Holy crap this was a great one, I love the Netherlands. I want to go there so bad right now.

India

CUISINE
Indian food is actually very different from anything you've seen because of it's geography and history. To explain why it's so different, I'm going to give you a crash course on India. So during the continental drift, India was just a huge island and the reason why it's a part of the mainland is because it SMASHED into Asia. It smashed so hard in fact that the pure pressure of it caused the Himalayas to form and the Himalayas is home to Mt. Everest. What does that have to do with food? Well islands tend to have different animal, different plants, and different soils right? So the soil of India allowed exotic plants to grow and exotic animals to eat on the mainland when it would've been stuck on an island. So anyways, vegetarianism is currently a popular trend in India so meat lovers beware. Also, Indian cuisine is highly influenced by many countries such as Canada, China, Nepal, everywhere in the Middle East, South East Asia, UK, and the US. Which is why Indian cuisine can vary HEAVILY. So here are three dishes from Northern India, just take note that literally everything in Northern India is vegetarian. No joke:

1. Bhatura, a vegetarian, all-purpose flour, bread that is often served in Northern India.
2. Baigan Bharta, eggplant that is with tomatoes and/or onions.
3. Rajma Chaval, bean curry with rice.

Now I'm only doing Northern India for cuisine because I'd have to do four parts and the first two parts would only showcase cuisine. Just remember to do your own research and see what interests you!

ATTRACTIONS
First off is a very nice one for animal lovers, the National Zoological Park in New Delhi. To describe the zoo, because there is this truck with a cage behind it and it drives around the park so the animals aren't caged so they just look at you and you look at them. It is roughly 176 acres of animals to observe. Next up, Taj Mahal. This one is pretty obvious I mean you can't mention visiting India without thinking about Taj Mahal, it's like the sole reason for many. But guess what, this building's construction was finished in 1648 which means the Taj Mahal is over 300 years old, it is incredible that this thing is still up today. I mean several parts of the Great Wall of China are just hills now and yet this temple still looks like it was finished just a couple of days ago, and even the Pyramids of Giza are crumbling today and somehow Taj Mahal is keeping up with the fashion trends. Speaking of Taj Mahal being FABULOUS, there's a Taj Mahal themed hotel on an island west of India called Taj Lake Palace and if you were in it, you'd think you where in heaven. Because every building is made of white marble and looks like they built 12 different carbon copies of Taj Mahal and it has a spa and 4 different and elegant restaurants. Take note this is in Southern India where they actually eat meat, so, lucky you! Also, the trip  to the island isn't that long. In fact, you can see the mainland when you're on the porch. Also did I mention this looks like heaven? BECAUSE THIS IS HEAVEN!!!

 

PEOPLE

Okay, the people of India obviously speak Indian but another main language is Hindi. Now, thanks to the British, a large portion of India speaks English, in fact, one could argue English is one of the main languages of India due to it being the primary language of government, business, and education. Which is why sometimes I cry that I'm not British because of everything they've done for the world such as make everybody of all other countries seem stupid in comparison to the British, Doctor Who, Sherlock Holmes, colonizing what today is the US so the we could be who we are today, Canada, Australia, and allowing us to make fun of your dental work and funny accent. Off topic. So luckily for the US, some people speak English.

 

Alright final score time again,

India scores a...

 

94

Okay so the more I think about it, the more I love Indians. I mean they're like Canadians, they're just so nice and so awesome and when we make fun of them they're like, "Hey thanks for mentioning us! In thanks we booked you an all expense trip to Lake Palace." they're just so awesome and their country is awesome and it's just- COOL. Take note I didn't even mention Western India that's like a whole different place. Anyways, see you next time!

Estonia

Estonia isn't on the list but I felt like I'd tackle the list every once in a while, so I just chose a country and now we're going to dive right in!

CUISINE (I REGRET THIS)
Oh my gosh this is disgusting, BLEH! Why would anybody think that Black Pudding cooked with LINGONBERRY SAUCE, would be a good idea!?!?!? UGH! I guess I have to deal with it. Okay so Wikipedia describes Estonian cuisine to be and I quote, "Based on meat, potatoes, and fish and is highly influenced by Russia, Germany, and Scandinavia." to me it sounds like they just threw whatever they could find into an oven. I mean Cabbage and Mushrooms? Estonia must also love mushrooms because so far in all the photos I could find of Estonian favorites contain mushrooms. Now remember as a kid not wanting dinner but instead wanting dessert? Well experience all of that over again with Estonia! So far, the dessert is the only good course I can find. So I'm going to list two famous desserts and try and find a good non-dessert dish. So first off there's kissel which is described by Wikipedia as fruit soup, which sounds bad in theory but when you look at how critics like it you realize most critics give it a perfect 5 out of 5 stars. Now you want kissel, don't you? If you do then here's a recipe for Russian Kissel. Next up is the most famous dessert of Estonia, Rhubarb Pie. Something that you don't think any country in the world would like except for the United States. Once again, this pie is very famous among critics and also make mostly perfect scores. Okay, I'm going try again at regular dishes. OOOOOH! Soda Bread! That sounds nice! Okay so soda bread is a bread that doesn't use yeast but instead uses Baking Soda. So I found this Estonian Soda Bread Recipe and I'll leave it right, here:

Estonian Soda Bread
Ingredients:
200 g ricotta or curd cheese
2oo ml milk
1 egg
200 ml (115 g) barley flour
100 ml (70 g) plain/all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
Cooking Instructions:
Combine ricotta/curd cheese, egg, salt and sugar in a bowl. Combine barley and wheat flour with baking soda, then fold into the ricotta and egg mixture. Pour in the oil and mix until combined. Butter a spring form with butter, or line with parchment paper (I use 23x23 cm skillet, lined with paper). Spoon the batter into the form and bake at 200 Celsius for about 25-30 minutes, until the bread is lovely golden brown. Add 2 Tbsp sour cream, if using ricotta cheese.

Now take note that several other sites state that Estonian cuisine is only for the adventurous but we found the best foods were the desserts, breads, and sweets. But they also state that the smoked meat and smoked fish is also amazing so if you're the picky type, stick to sweets.

ATTRACTIONS
Got a special little child who just LOVES toys? Well come on down to Tartu, Estonia! Where we have the BIGGEST toy museum in the Baltic States! It displays over 5000 different toys along with many interactive toys and as well as a playroom for children! But seriously, even if you're not a child, the Tartu Toy Museum is still an amazing museum for all to visit.

I don't know about you but I love lighthouses, they're so vintage and old-timey and they seem so cool. Well I found Kõpu Lighthouse, the most well known symbol of the Estonian island Hiiumaa. The lighthouse has been in use since 1531 and is still used to this day to warn ships away from the coastline. It is a very cool light house.

Okay, so apparently museums are famous in Estonia because I found at least 5 other popular museums and I chose this one because it's, interesting; the Estonian History Museum. It's a museum about, well, Estonian history. It's very interesting in my opinion because you couldn't save your life if it depended on you knowing the major historical events of Estonia without looking it up. It's earned many good reviews and in my opinion is a must visit.

PEOPLENow the people obviously speak Estonian. But thankfully, 40% of Estonians speak English which means us Americans are quite lucky because not many Americans are going to devote themselves to learning Estonian. Now take note I suck at typing the people section and it's just repetitive so don't expect too much from this section.

Alright, final score time...

78.92

 

Now what I really didn't like about Estonia is the cuisine section. Honestly, barely anything interested me in that section which is why Estonia is the first country below green. Also here's a chart representing what I mean.

 

GREEN means "What are you waiting for!?!?"

BLUE means "It's nice!"

PURPLE means "Meh."

PINK means "I wouldn't recommend it."

YELLOW means "It's kind of bad"

ORANGE means "Man, that that is horrid."

RED means "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?!?!"

DARK BLUE means "You're gonna die."