World Geography, It's Cultures, It's People

It is obvious that most of the chatter on this site is a devotion to partisan politics, and that is justifiable given the "new" name for the site, but IMO it is in sore need for a thread that is educational, entertaining, and partisan-neutral.

With that in mind, I've decided to start this thread, with a focus on specific localities around the World. My intention is to go into detail on a specific area, with the focus being on the people there, their lives in general, their views on their area and the World, etc.

The intent is specifically to expanding our understanding of the World in general, as it's obvious to me that people here tend to be too self-centered, and are in dire need of expanding their understanding of how the World actually is.

Another goal is to provide an opportunity for members... like De Orc and Recussant...to share some stories of their own. Perhaps an area they vacationed in, and fell in love with...or never want to visit again, Kind of a "Head's up, this place was awful!" thing.

I myself want to focus on areas I have never been to, in order to understand the culture of the area, it's history, etc. I'm insanely curious, and this will give me more incentive to stay away from the ridiculous back-and-forth that is all too prevalent here.

I've decided on a specific country for my first post, but it may take some time to put together, as I intend to go into some detail. I'll likely break it down into multiple posts, highlighting specific areas in the target country. In the meantime, if any of you want to share your knowledge, please do.

 

I've decided to begin by giving information from a very old atlas of mine. It was the first one I was able to afford and, although it is horribly mangled, I am still very much in love with it. It provokes in me the desire to know more about the areas, areas that I'll never be able to visit, and is the driving force behind this thread.

The information is quite dated, so I've decided to break my posts down to a "past & present" kind of thing. The "past" part will be quite limited, as the atlas I have does not really go into much detail, delving into generalities of the region and not too many specifics.

The "present" part will be information gleaned from the internet.

Please feel free to comment at will, in any way you choose, as long as it's civil in nature. Any personal attacks here will be reported, not that I expect any though...it's just a warning to keep the uncivil behavior in the "Politics" section.

 

The area I've chosen for my first educational post is.....drum roll please....in honor of De Orc's silly editing of a silly word I wrote wayyyy back....keep that drumming going....Middelfart, on the Isle/County of Fyn, Denmark.

Ok, you can stop drumming now. That's what happens when I hire desperate non-union people who have no sense of timing.

There really isn't much information that I can glean from my ancient atlas, but I think I'll start with the alternative spellings for "Denmark" found on the map.

I actually see two alternative names, which I take it is regional and/or cultural in nature. They are: "Jutland", which is the more bold of the two, and to which I assume is how the surrounding regions view the Isle/County and "Jylland", which I assume is more a local-language/spelling thing.

It should also be noted that I may be misinterpreting this information. If so, please correct it. I'd expect Europeans to have a better grasp of that than I do, so any information, any corrections they can make, will be appreciated.

As to Middelfart, the information is severely limited, consisting of it's population back then (1989), which was very similar to Houghton, Michigan (which I live near), and some resource info.

In 1989 the population there was...(drum roll begins)...Look, you guys don't have to do that, as I....Yeah, I know it's all you get to do but....(sighs).... fine, fine...."Drum roll, please".............13,315 souls. OK guys, pack it up, that's all I need for today....tell your mom I said "Hi"...(underbreath)...you little sons of...

The only other information I have is that of resources. Being an Island, I'm sure there's fishing involved. There may be Oil as well, there, but the atlas kind of goofed on the placement of the icon, as it's obscured a bit by borders. Another general resource appears to be "Dairy, Cattle, Hogs", which I'll look into more in the "Present" part of this city.

I may as well compare the general information on Denmark while I'm at it. The information in my atlas consists of the following:

AREA: 16,629 square miles (43,069 sq. km)
POPULATION: 5,124,000
CAPITAL: Copenhagen
LARGEST CITY: Copenhagen
HIGHEST POINT: Yding Skovhøj, 568 feet (173 meters)
MONETARY UNIT: krone
MAJOR LANGUAGE: Danish
MAJOR RELIGION: Protestantism

Anyway, that info is extremely limited and I'm really curious to find out more, not just in the selected city, but for population growth and general culture as well.

Denmark's flag:

Or, with border:

 

From Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middelfart

So right off the bat I made some judgement errors, though nothing serious. I consider it a "city" for one, but that is arguable. I also used the Danish spelling for the Island. Again, big whoop lol ...As an American with Finnish roots, I like the Danish version better.

In 23 years, the population rose somewhat, by about 1,400 people. That's about what I expected, btw, so no real change there, IMO.

 

More, from the Wikipedia link in the post above (see post #4):

I was wayyyyy off!

It's interesting to me to see such histories in Europe. The towns and cities that I've lived in are so new in comparison, and as such haven't had much time (or reason) to change much.

As expected, fishermen.

(see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phocoena_phocaena for more info)

An extremely effective tactic still in use today, in many many countries. I used to believe this to be cruel, but as I've learned more and more about Life and Death, I'm less inclined to be so judgmental about things like this.

Again, this is intended to inform, so bear with me. For interesting photos of Middelfart's harbor, including one of the whale memorials there, but I doubt it's one of the "stones":

http://global-mariner.com/index110Melfar3.html

Very cool pics, btw. I have no idea on copyrights for these, so the link is all I'm willing to share here.

 

Apparently, more whales are unintentionally caught today near Middelfart (in fishing nets) than back when it was actually hunted.

No numbers on the mortality rate from my source, but from what I know of nets, it's likely they all died.

If it's an intentional "accident", I'd hope those fishermen don't see a profit out of it, considering the whales are a protected species now. That said, I would also rather they not go to waste. I may look into that...

But, moving on...

 

It's occurred to me that I haven't provided a map of Middelfart's location. Here you go:

The licensing indicated this map originated from the CIA.
They needed a map too, apparently!

NOTE: For whatever reason...(looks around suspiciously, for "spooks")...the dot showing Middelfart isn't appearing. Look for the Isle of "Fyn". Middelfart is on the Western edge of the island, across and a hair South of "Fredericia".

 

A Google image:

Showing the area in general.

 

For more images of this stunningly beautiful city, try a search using the words "Images of Middelfart, Denmark", or similar phrase.

 

I finally found a mention of Middelfart's dairy culture, at:

http://www.smartertravel.com/photo-...s-funniest-town-names.html?id=136&photo=24693

It's also the first to address the funniness of it's name lol

Funny that wasn't included on Wikipedia.

OK, enough with the "Middel"-joking!

 

Well not visited Denmark as of yet but we are hoping to do a Xmas market cruise in late december and one of the ports of call is Copenhagen It will be a 9 day cruise taking starting at Southampton then on to Oslo/Copenhagen/Hamburg /Bremerhaven and back Southampton.Quite happy to post pics and a report when I get back

 

Sounds wonderful, and yes, please post pics....but keep 'em tame...no shirtless photos or whatnot!

You must have to travel up the Elbe to get to Hamburg. At first I was thinking, "Isn't Hamburg in the Interior of the country?", but realized there's probably a river/sound/port and looked it up in my atlas.

Have fun!

 

Shirtless in Northern Germany in late December !!! Not a hope in hell