Disastrous Geography

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The world is big place and so there are thousands and thousands of place names to remember. It would be impossible for anyone to know the name and whereabouts of every place on earth. This can lead to potential difficulties for travellers and with many destinations having similar or identical names there is plenty of potential for confusion. Geographical misconceptions can be hilarious but they can also be very costly.

The Wrong Woollies

Imagine if you were looking forward to a trip to the beautiful Scottish Island of Arran. You would be very disappointed when you toured around in search of one of those famous jumpers because you wouldn’t find them on this island. For one of those distinctive hand knitted sweaters you need to head to the islands of Aran which are situated hundreds of miles away off the west coast of the Republic of Ireland! Aran jumpers are often misspelt just to add to the confusion.

Another County

I was very amused the other day when a potential buyer of a dress I had advertised on eBay asked if she could come to see it. I invited her to visit my home but she later cancelled her trip as she had thought that I was located close to her home but then discovered that I was actually 100 miles away. At first I thought that this must be a case of terrible geography but it transpired that there was a village close to the lady’s home with the same name as my home town but in a completely different county.

Another Country

Years ago when I worked in distribution I realised that identical place names and a poor knowledge of geography could lead to many annoying errors. For instance, one of my customers was under the impression that Helsinki was in Japan and that Essex was a region of Maryland, USA. The poor women was American and hadn’t travelled much before starting work in the UK!  Her erroneous database entries led to many a parcel being sent to completely the wrong country much to the annoyance of the people waiting for their packages. There are probably still parcels circulating around several countries which will never find their rightful homes.

Another customer of mine was vexed when one of his subscribers kept complaining that they had not received their magazine. I was told that the person concerned lived in Monza, Spain. I pointed out that the delivery issue might be related to the fact that Monza is, in fact, in Italy and then suddenly the long suffering subscriber started receiving his deliveries. Other customers were surprised to discover that Lugano was in Switzerland, not Italy and that the last time I saw it, Zagreb was in Croatia and not Serbia. Zagrab is also no longer in Yugoslavia! I thought addressing a parcel to a country which doesn’t even exist anymore was really daft.

You can’t know every place on earth or if there is another town with the same name as the one you are looking for but it does help to check your facts before you act. No matter how good your geography is, there is always potential for disasters.

Article by Sally Stacey