Some random European travel finds

~ Some random European travel finds ~

• Danish Krone coins have hearts on them.
• I met a girl in Vilnius, Lithuania, who was named Santa. It means "Holy".
• In 2010, David Byrne and Fatboy Slim made a concept album and rock musical called "Here Lies Love" about the life of the former First Lady of the Philippines - Imelda Marcos.
• Some cataphiles use old-school calcium carbide lamps instead of electric torches. The chemical reaction is: calcium carbide + water -> ethylene + calcium hydroxide. It's exothermic, which is convenient. The ethylene is what's burned to produce light.
• The Dieveniškės appendix or "Stalin's Pipe" is a sort of 'appendix' extending from Lithuania into the territory of Belorussia. There's a legend that in 1940, when the Baltic territories were being carved out, Stalin left his pipe on the map. People were too scared to move it and ended up tracing the border around it, which explains the appendix-like boundary of today.
• You can find bacon sushi in Riga, Latvia.
• There's a district called Uzupis in Vilnius, Lithuania that has declared itself an independent republic. There's also a self-proclaimed autonomous neighbourhood in Copenhagen called Freetown Christiania.
• There's a Devils' Museum in Kaunas, Lithuania.
• Try pronouncing "ice-cream on Thursday" in Slovak: "zmrzlina vo štvrtok"
• Finns drink the most coffee per capita.
• Luxembourg is the world's only remaining Grand Duchy.
• "Pozor" means "shame" in Russian and "attention" in Czech.