Travel Archives – Page 6 of 37

April 7, 2026April 9, 2026

G is for Georgia

Fast Facts

Named for: It’s a long story, but probably Greek, γεωργός Georg, tiller of land, from Gaia + ergos. Although it could be Persian, Gurj; or gurgan, land of the wolves. The Georgians call their country Sakartvelo (საქართველო; ‘land of Kartvelians’).
Capital: Tbilisi (თბილისი)
Long/Lat: 41.4 N/44.4 E , 6900 mi or 14 hours West of Castro Valley
Population: 3.7 million, 56x Castro Valleys
Size: 27,000 sq mi, 1588 CVs
Avg temp in April: 65 F/20 C (similar to CV)
Median household income: $8500 annual
Ethnicity: 87% Georgians, rest Armenian, Azerbaijani, others nearby
Main industries: Mining, transport, ancient wineries

The ancient region between the Black and Caspian Seas was called Colchis,

The ancient Greeks called it Colchis (Κολχίς) which was their version of what they thought people said, now Anglicized. They told a famous ancient story about a golden ram, whose pelt hung on a tree guarded by a dragon. The mythical explorer Jason sailed the Argo across the Black Sea and, after seducing the king’s daughter, took the golden fleece and daughter back home. Later, he cheated on her, and Medea was not pleased. She ended up poisoning the paramour and killing the children.

Coins from the Laryssa region of Greece, @700 B.C., depicting Jason and the Golden Fleece.

April 6, 2026April 9, 2026

F is for Fiji

Courtesy Countryreports.co, Fiji is east of Australia. (Islands are not as close together as they may seem.)

Fast Facts

Named for: Fiji is the Anglicized pronunciation of the Tongan pronunciation of the indigenous’ name Viti.
Capital: Suva
Long/Lat: 18.1S/178.3 E (almost in the West), 5500 mi, 10 hours west
Population: 926,000 (14 Castro Valley’s worth)
Size: 7000 sq mi of land (411 CVs) but 75,000 sq mi total territory, 332 islands
Avg temp in April: 89 F/31 C, tropics!
Median household income: $6000 annually
Ethnicity: 57% indigenous Fijians, 38% Indo-Fijians
Main industries: Tourism, sugar cane, gold

Fiji is not a particularly small island, compared with others that we’ll see later, however, it is the smallest country beginning with F. It’s actually two big islands, plus 330 other small islands, some with and some without people. Plus, technically, a lot of water in between.

Beaches and mountains on the two largest islands, Viti Levu and Vanau Levu.

We might, perhaps, be tiring of the pronunciation issue. Fiji is called that because that’s what Captain Cook heard the Tongans call it, i.e., the name is not what the people who live there call it. But since their language isn’t ours anyway, they may not care how we butcher their name. They know who they are. Also, it always pleases me to remember that the arrogant colonizer Cook ended up clubbed to death because he opened fire on indigenous Hawai’ians who thought he had given them his boats. He said, “No, I take them back, you savages,” and they said, “Yeah, well you shot one of us, but while you’re reloading your fire stick, we avenge all our island brothers.” *whomp*

April 5, 2026April 9, 2026

E is for Eswatini

Fast Facts

Named for: King Mswati (formerly Swaziland, also KaNgwane after King Ngwane)
Capital: Mbabane (executive); Lobamba (legislative) interesting that they differ
Long/Lat: 26.3 S/31.3E, 19 hours/ 10,000 miles East of Castro Valley
Population: 1.3 million, 20x Castro Valley, concentrated in cities.
Size: 6700 sq mi, 370 CVs
Avg temp in April: 74 F/21 C, but 50 F at night. Multiple climates.
Median household income: $2,800, very poor
Ethnicity: 84% Swazi/10% Zulu
Main industries: Sugar, agriculture

Eswatini, formerly called Swaziland, is almost an enclave. An enclave is a territory surrounded entirely by another territory. Lesotho—also in South Africa—and San Marino are enclaves. An exclave, by the way, is a piece of a territory stuck inside someone else’s, like if you built your castle walls all around the barn outside my house. The Nakhchivan region in Azerbaijan is an exclave, but we’ve already passed “A.”

How could an enclave—or even just a small country—exist among all the big ones? We saw this before with Andorra: tension. And there is a lot of tension in Eswatini.