Fun Foreign Facts

Promoting and reminding people around the planet that today we live in a global multicultural world by tweeting 'fun foreign facts'. #Alliteration

[Fun Foreign Facts @FunForeign]

What does Croatia and Russia have in common? They were both heavily influenced by Turkish culture, especially food. 🇭🇷🇷🇺 'Burek' means 'pastry/pie' in Turkish, while 'Cheburek' means 'raw pastry/pie'. 🇹🇷
#CRORUS #CRO #RUS #WCQ #Burek #Cheburek

[Fun Foreign Facts @FunForeign]

Fish and chips originate in England, with several places popping up around 1860. 🐟🍟 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧 Fried fish was brought over by Jews from Spain and Portugal. 🇮🇱🇪🇦🇵🇹 While 'French fries' came from Belgium. 🇫🇷🇧🇪 #FishAndChips #FishNChips

[Fun Foreign Facts @FunForeign]

Happy Columbus Day from Ireland! 🇺🇸🇮🇪 Kudos to Christopher Columbus for unintentionally helping to give us many great things we have today, most of all, this food which originated in the Americas! #ColumbianExchange #ColumbusDay #Columbus

[Fun Foreign Facts @FunForeign]

Danish pastry in Danish is a 'wienerbrød' (Viennese bread) as the recipe was brought over by Austrian bakers in 1850 during a baker's strike in Denmark. Coincidentally, the coat of arms of Vienna is essentially the Danish flag. 🇩🇰🇦🇹#DEN #AUT #DENAUT #Heraldry #Vexillology

[Fun Foreign Facts @FunForeign]

The Faroe Islands are a Danish autonomous territory, despite this, they are actually located closer to Scotland (UK) than to Denmark. As their closest neighbours, they naturally share a Norse-Gael heritage. 🇫🇴🇩🇰🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇬🇧 #FROSCO #FaroeIslands #Scotland #WCQ

[Fun Foreign Facts @FunForeign]

Although Georgia is playing Kosovo in a football match, it actually does not recognise the country as independent. The Georgians refuse to join the 97/193 UN nations (50.26%) who do so, due to their break-away regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. 🇬🇪? #Georgia #Kosovo #WCQ

[Fun Foreign Facts @FunForeign]

Gibraltar was ceded to Britain from Spain in 1713, under the 'Treaty of Utrecht' (present-day Netherlands). The Dutch, of course, ceded themselves officially from Spain in 1648, under the treaties of 'Peace of Westphalia.' 🇬🇮🇬🇧🇳🇱 #Gibraltar #Netherlands #Utrecht #Britain #NEDGIB

[Fun Foreign Facts @FunForeign]

The new Austrian Chancellor, Alexander Schallenberg, was born in Switzerland. 🇨🇭 The Habsburgs came from there as well, so it does makes sense. 🇦🇹🧀 #Schallenberg #Austria #Switzerland #Chancellor #Oesterreich #Schweiz

[Fun Foreign Facts @FunForeign]

The flags of #Lithuania and #Bulgaria were inspired by Russia. While the Lithuanian colours originate in traditional clothing, the order is based on that of Russia. Bulgarians, on the other hand simply took the Russian flag and replaced blue with green. 🇱🇹🇧🇬🇷🇺 #Vexillology #Flag

[Fun Foreign Facts @FunForeign]

St.Nino was born in Cappadocia (present-day Turkey) to a Greek-speaking Roman family. In the 4th century she came to Georgia and helped to convert it to Christinaity. Her grapevine cross is a major symbol of the Georgian Orthodox Church. 🇬🇪🇬🇷 #Georgia #Sakartvelo #Greece #GEOGRE

[Fun Foreign Facts @FunForeign]

The patron Saint of #Scotland, St. Andrew, is believed to have been born in Bethsaida, on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee, in present-day #Israel. Glasgow's Rangers fans sometimes fly the Israeli flag to counter the Palestinian flag flown by Celtic supporters. 🇮🇱🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 #SCOISR

[Fun Foreign Facts @FunForeign]

The capitals of #Ireland and #Azerbaijan both have 3 flames on their coats of arms. #Dublin has 3 flaming castles (zeal of the citizens). #Baku has 3 flames (countries name, Land of Fire, due to plentiful gas reserves which sometimes leak to the surface). 🇮🇪🇦🇿🔥#AZEIRL #COYBIG

[Fun Foreign Facts @FunForeign]

"Romanian Germans" is an umbrella term for the German minority living in what is now Romania, most notably the current Romanian president, Klaus Iohannis. Various groups of Germans began arriving in 12th century, what was then Hungary.🇹🇩🇩🇪 #GERROU #Germany #Romania #WCQ

[Fun Foreign Facts @FunForeign]

#Gibraltar and #Montenegro are both know for their mountains. 🇬🇮🇲🇪 The former comes from the Arabic "Jabal Ṭāriq" meaning "Mount of Tariq," after the Moorish leader. The latter comes from Venetian meaning "Black Mountain" as large parts were once under their rule. #WCQ #WCQ2022

[Fun Foreign Facts @FunForeign]

July in Polish is 'Lipiec', coming from the Polish and Pan-Slavic word 'Lipa', meaning 'Linden tree'. 🌳🇵🇱 In Croatia, June is the 'month of the Linden' because the flowers bloom earlier there. 🇭🇷 Here is some Polish Linden tea bought in Ireland. 🇮🇪 #Липа #Lipa #Lipanj #Linden

[Fun Foreign Facts @FunForeign]

All roads lead to Rome they say. Well, looks like England and to a lesser degree Ukraine are in their old capital - Rome. Both were part of the Roman Empire, although the Romans only ruled over Crimea and for a shorter time. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇺🇦🇮🇹 #Eng #Ukr #Euro2020 #England #Ukraine #Ukreng

[Fun Foreign Facts @FunForeign]

Denmark won Euro 1992, even though they only came runners up in the qualifiers.🇩🇰 They got in because the winners, Yugoslavia, broke into civil war. Another runner up was Czechoslovakia who also broke up the following year in 1993.🇨🇿 #Den #Cze #Czeden #Euro2020 #Denmark #Czechia

[Fun Foreign Facts @FunForeign]

Legend says the Danish flag fell from heaven during the Battle of Lyndanisse (1219), as God's sign for his support for King Valdemar II against the pagan Estonians. 🇩🇰The Dane was married to the Czech Dagmar of Bohemia. 🇨🇿#Den #Cze #Czeden #Euro2020 #Denmark #Czechia #Vexillology

[Fun Foreign Facts @FunForeign]

Watermelon in Russian is 'arbuz', coming from the Turkish 'karpuz' meaning the same and ultimately from the Persian 'harbuz', meaning melon.🍉🇷🇺🇹🇷🇮🇷 Watermelon in Ukrainian is 'kavun', coming from Turkish where it means 'melon'.🍈🇺🇦🇹🇷 #Watermelon #FunFacts #Арбуз #Кавун #Ukraine

[Fun Foreign Facts @FunForeign]

The name 'Belgium' comes from 'Gallia Belgica', a Roman province in the northernmost part of Gaul which before the Roman invasion in 100 BC, was inhabited by the 'Belgae', a mix of Celtic and Germanic peoples. 🇧🇪🇮🇹🇮🇪🇩🇪 #Euro2020 #Munich #Bel #Ita #Belita #Belgium #Italy