Places with Quirky names I have visited

 

Human settlements including cities, towns, villages and even countries have acquired names that are funny, quirky, at times downright offending, weird and even unpronounceable. Why these names were picked up by the city planners or the town council is a subject worthy of contemplation. The most common being that they wanted an uncommon name for their resident locality and with hope that merely an odd name would attract tourists. Alas, most such places are also among the least visited. As I traveled around the world in search of mountains to climb, I did visit many such places with uncommon names.

 

Here for the sake of this list and my English speaking readers I have only mentioned English sounding names, which has an English meaning (barring one exception that I couldn’t resist with good reason as you would discover). Therefore many weird names in local vernacular language got left out, for example Kala Kutta in India, which in English transliterates to Black Dog. Or the island of Lesbos in Greece, which basically means an island of/for/by Lesbians.

 

Here is my list of places with quirky names (in English and in alphabetical order) that I have personally visited, with a brief about my visit; and before I forget, if we have to find one country which has the most number of odd, funny and offending place names then the trophy goes to… the United States of America. USA also happens to be the topmost country in the world that has the maximum number of duplicate place names. If you type out your city or town name in Google, there is a 70% probability that Google will first show the same name place in USA than the one you intended.

 

Accident (USA): a tiny little town in Maryland boasts under 500 population and is as boring and featureless as the shell of an egg. It is said that it was named Accident because it was found by accident, which I tend to agree, since I too reached here purely by accident without any purposeful design from my side.

 

Adventure (Guyana): Latin America, being my most favorite and second most visited continent, has always been in my radar. Yet the tiny coastal country of Guyana was always missing from my travel list. An erstwhile British Colony, Guyana has many things going for it though. Firstly being the only English speaking South American country followed by one of the largest unspoiled and unexplored rainforests in the world and one of the least infrastructure-developed nations on Earth, it is indeed a lost world even today. I found no reason to visit Guyana till one day I read the excellent book Three Singles to Adventure by the hilarious Gerald Durrell. And much to my surprise learned that there indeed is a place named Adventure, which happened to be in Guyana by the Atlantic shore. The opportunity to visit Guyana finally came when I lead a National Geographic sponsored trip to Suriname from where it was merely a hop into Guyana. Adventure is a riverine settlement village at the mouth of the Essequibo River. It is a dirty ramshackle village by any standards, yet full of surprises and quirky adventures if you care to follow Gerald Durrell’s footsteps, which I did. Though he had walked upon those shallows, forests, rivers and wildlife over half a century ago, I relived many of his adventures, even found an octogenarian hunter who remembered the funny English naturalist always poking his nose where he had no business to. And yes while you wonder, I must confirm that I did climb up to Mt Roraima tripoint (albeit from the Venezuela hiking trail) it being Guyana’s highest point.

 

Batman (Turkey): yes, it seems that besides Gotham, our caped crusader indeed has an eponymous city all to himself. I am not sure if DC comics got the name idea from this oil rich city of Turkey but there’s nothing to remind you of the superhero or any of his gadgets in this flat modern city at the Southeastern region of Anatolia. It has interesting history and relics though having been inhabited for over 2500 years. I got to Batman purely by chance for an assignment I am not at liberty to disclose. There’s not a thing I can boast about this city trip except to snigger and claim: yeah I have been to Batman, have you?

 

Boring (USA); Dull (Scotland) and Bland (Australia): these three cities are often referred to as the Trinity of Tedium as they all signify non-interesting states of existence. Who on earth would want to visit a place that is boring, dull and bland! Quite a few if we are to believe the statistics. Well, I have been to the first two while passing through the first (en route to the Cascades and by design to the second, I never visited Bland). Dull has lovely dale walks, river side idling spots and quaint churches and forests, which should be interesting to any nature lover not to mention the happy go lucky village folk always willing to indulge in dull conversations and offer a tot or two of the local ale.

 

Darling (South Africa): Located in the Western Cape region, about 70 odd km from Cape Town, I happened to be in this darling town along with a darling girl I had befriended during one of my several trips to the country. Perhaps she thought I would call her darling in Darling though she was a darling to the eye and heart, but I never did. And there ended my Darling adventure.

 

Dildo (Canada): yes there indeed is such a place and it is in the Newfoundland island of Canada. This beatific fishery village in the North Atlantic has a bunch of happy fishermen who claim it is the happiest place on Earth. Though this claim is arguable, I do not deny that they all seem extremely happy (especially the ladies) and proud of their village name. While taking part in a world race of tall ships in the Great lakes I learned of this village from one of the participants who also happened to be from Dildo. After the race, I ditched my team mates and visited Dildo for two days. It’s truly a beautiful place, though nothing much in terms of vertical challenges. So if you have a lady friend, especially a coy one tucked somewhere, you might think of heading to Dildo along with her. I am sure she would be one happy lady thereafter. Btw there is not a single adult store in Dildo where you can buy a Dildo.

 

Fucking (Austria): well if you visit this tiny Austrian township near Salzburg in the hope that it’s a frivolous society then you would be disappointed. People are sober, somber and stiff upper lipped yet tolerant and flippant at times. It’s most famous sight used to be the name road signboards ‘Fucking’ that was a popular steal-away memento for the British tourists and self-picture seekers. The town folks finally got sick of the vandalism and from 2020 end it has been renamed as Fugging in English though it is still pronounced fucking in the local German dialect. Once the travel restrictions lift, it is to be seen if the erstwhile British tourists still flock to steal the new name road signs. How and why did I go there? Well it is near Salzburg!

 

Hell (Norway): forget paradise but if it is hell you aspire for (since they have all the fun) then you can head to this tiny little village in central Norway with an approx population of 1500 spread across 1 sq km area. Besides being a picturesque Norwegian village like any other, it doesn’t really have anything remarkable save the moniker. Tourists visit this village to take pictures in front of the village name plate or at the train station which is also called God’s Expedition. And that was precisely my reason too, to visit Hell during one of my numerous visits to this amazing country.

 

Hindu (Estonia): surrounded by the Baltic Sea, Hindu is a tiny village at the western periphery of Estonia. Why this village is named after a religion, no one could explain. I have no idea or any conjectures. I was in Tallinn on a bicycle trip through the Baltic States and finding few days of respite, headed to Hindu along with my Estonian friend. It was quite an effort though as we had to ferry hop, and it was beautiful like the rest of the country and flat too.

 

Howlong (Australia): located along the Murray River around the border between NS Wales and Victoria, the first thing I asked my friend was how long is Howlong? To which I still don’t have an exact answer. During my only trip to Australia I did many weird things and several not so weird ones. Visiting Howlong was one such trip.

 

Kissing (Germany): a lovely town in the Bavaria, there’s a road trip one can do through four towns at the borders of Germany and Austria starting from Kissing, passing through Petting, Fucking (Austria) and reaching Wedding all in about 8 – 9 hours of a smooth ride. I don’t think anyone can progress from Kissing to Wedding in any shorter time. I went to Kissing, then proceeded to Petting, took a breather at Fucking and skipped Wedding. And please don’t ask the obvious question if I kissed in Kissing since you should know the answer.

 

Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch (Wales, UK): yes this indeed is a proper official name of this Welsh village and there are even few individuals who can actually pronounce this mouthful of a name. I have met one. She was my local guide. During one of my Snowdonia mountain trips I decided to visit this village for the larks. Had befriended a Welsh lass during my climb who offered to be my guide. I tried and tried but couldn’t go beyond the first dozen syllables. Btw if you are wondering, this name was officially adopted purely as a tourism gimmick and it succeeded in attracting people. And the meaning of the name in Welsh roughly translates into: St. Mary’s Church in the hollow of white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of St. Tysilio near the red cave.

 

Lost (Scotland): well, it is hard to get lost in Lost, so tiny is this village and so devoid of human presence. I tried, but I failed. No one gets lost in Lost. Located near Aberdeen and under the shadows of Cairngorm Mountains, it is as pretty as they come. Its claim to fame is the name. I visited this village along with my Scottish friends one winter after the international winter climbing meet at Cairngorm.  

 

 

Nowhere Else (Tasmania, Australia): though I have been to Australia only once, I have been to Tasmania twice, which is way more interesting and beautiful than the mainland. During one such visit, I drove from Hobart to Nowhere Else. It has been said that when someone visits Nowhere Else, he is actually going somewhere else. Officially only 40 people live in Nowhere Else. So our group of four represented 10% of the local population. You could visit Nowhere Else with no one else and find yourself at somewhere else with someone else. Oh did I tell you that it has lovely hilly landscape!

 

No Place (UK): there is no place like No Place because no place has the name No Place. This is what my host at No Place greeted me with and I had to nod in agreement. It is such a tiny village on A693 near Stanley in Durham County, UK, that most people just go through it without even realizing they are at No Place. I almost did. But on noticing the name I pushed the brakes of the truck I was driving and helped myself to an excellent vegetable tuna sandwich at the local pub. It’s not every day that I can declare that I have been to No Place.

 

North Pole (USA): now if you wish to visit North Pole without risking your life and limbs and spending upwards of 50K US$ then please head to the tiny Alaskan town of North Pole. It is perhaps the most famous of all the quirky place names in the world. As Santa Claus has an official residence here and often greets visitors on the streets. Btw it is around 2700km south of the geographic North Pole. My search for Santa Claus took me to North Pole and I had excellent hot chocolate with the old man and his grand lady.

 

Poo (India): there you have it. There is this place in India but lest you wrinkle your nose in disgust let me assure you it is a pretty rugged village in Indian Himalaya. Located in the Kinnaur Region of Himachal Pradesh, it can be reached by a landslide prone road from Shimla. I have been through this village many times.

 

Sad (Oman): Located within the Muscat municipality this tiny village has no distinction other than its sad name. I had no reason to go there except that my Omani host insisted that a happy go lucky soul like self must go to a sad place. Not sure if the inhabitants of Sad were sad but they looked somber enough.

 

Sauce (Uruguay): several years back I suddenly realized that in all of South America, I was yet to visit Uruguay so on my next trip to Argentina (to climb in the Andes) I took a flight to Montevideo for a week long debauchery, what else could one do in Montevideo after all. My local hostess suggested I visited this and that and Sauce. Nothing much happened in Sauce during my day trip but I did try the local salsa sauce with an excellent wrap of burritos.

 

Silly (Belgium): once upon a time I visited Belgium for all of five days with my base at Brussels at my friend’s lacustrine villa. My aim was to climb all the hills and castles in that country, which I did in four days and then my friend suggested I get silly in Silly. Well, besides being a picture postcard pretty municipality like many others in Belgium it is a great place for walking, biking and horse riding. People are friendly and perpetually smiling and I didn’t notice even a single silly person doing anything remotely silly. So I ended up doing headstand at a road crossing much to the amusement of locals and visitors.  

 

Whynot (USA): well, why not go to Whynot? Thus started my road trip to Whynot. The tiny settlement in North Carolina apparently takes its name from the southerner spirit of saying ‘why not’ one too often. It seems once while possible names were being debated upon, with each opinion offering gentry uttering why not, an exasperated farmer uttered angrily, why not name it Why Not and let’s get on with our lives! And the name stuck, shortly the two words joined into one as Whynot. So when you are in USA next, why not go to Whynot and upload a video on social media saying: when someone asked you why you went to Whynot, you said utterly baffled: WHY NOT!

 

With that I would end this post, though several other quirky name places I have visited are left unmentioned. But I think you would get the drift from the above list and try to make one of yours. After all traveling has many purposes and you can find one for yourself. I travel for the sake of travel since I have an itchy feet and an ever curious mind that refuses to satiate. Bon voyage.

Note: picture courtesy Creative Commons License