Geography quiz

[lio45]

Originally Posted by vid

Assuming, in the last case, that these are the cities in Ontario and not the cities in England. As I have no clue where the English ones are, anyway. After a quick Google search I see that my mental map of Africa is tilted about 10° counter-clockwise.

I could've cheated on the last one, used Stratford, QC instead - given that it was left unclear in the question - and answered that Woodstock, ON is further west (by a lot). Then after the exam I'd have argued with the teacher until he'd concede me the point.

[vid]

Originally Posted by lio45

I could've cheated on the last one, used Stratford, QC instead - given that it was left unclear in the question - and answered that Woodstock, ON is further west (by a lot). Then after the exam I'd have argued with the teacher until he'd concede me the point.

He did qualify it with "quirky, artistic gem" though.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by vid

He did qualify it with "quirky, artistic gem" though.

My ex-gf's family had a cottage on Lake Aylmer, I've been to Stratford a few times, I guess you could consider it a gem of a little village without stretching too much, and quirky if you pushed it, and artistic too, there's got to be at least one artist or two living there.

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by rousseau

Next one:

Farther north:
1. Moscow or Edinburgh?
2. Winnipeg or Regina?
3. Hong Kong or Hanoi?
4. Casablanca or Cairo?
5. London or Amsterdam?

Farther west:
1. Athens or Warsaw?
2. Dallas or Houston?
3. Auckland or Christchurch?
4. Tehran or Dubai?
5. The quirky, artistic gem that is Stratford or the blandly meat and potatoes rural outpost of Woodstock?

Again from memory:

Moscow
Regina
Hanoi
Casablanca
Amsterdam

Warsaw
Dallas
Christchurch
Tehran
Stratford

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by rousseau

Farther north:
Madrid or Barcelona?
Tokyo or Seoul?
Mumbai or Kolkata?
Oslo or Stockholm?
Buenos Aires or Montevideo?

Farther west:
Rome or Munich?
Bangkok or Singapore?
Cairo or Istanbul?
Montreal or New York?
Halifax or Caracas?

Barcelona
Seoul
Kolkata
Stockholm
Montevideo

Rome
Bangkok
Istanbul
Montreal
Caracas

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by rousseau

Next one:

Farther north:
1. Moscow or Edinburgh?
2. Winnipeg or Regina?
3. Hong Kong or Hanoi?
4. Casablanca or Cairo?
5. London or Amsterdam?

Farther west:
1. Athens or Warsaw?
2. Dallas or Houston?
3. Auckland or Christchurch?
4. Tehran or Dubai?
5. The quirky, artistic gem that is Stratford or the blandly meat and potatoes rural outpost of Woodstock?

Edinburgh
Regina
Hanoi
Casablanca
Amsterdam

Athens
Dallas
Christchurch
Tehran
Stratford (Woodstock is in NB)

[jonny24]

Wow, so much "vaguely remembering" maps

Farther north:
Madrid or Barcelona?
Tokyo or Seoul?
Mumbai or Kolkata? - straight guess
Oslo or Stockholm?
Buenos Aires or Montevideo?

Farther west:
Rome or Munich? this one has to be pretty close?
Bangkok or Singapore?
Cairo or Istanbul?
Montreal or New York? surprisingly hard to make a guess....
Halifax or Caracas?

[jonny24]

I will admit, I was on google maps checking my first answers, so things are a little fresher in my mind.

Farther north:
1. Moscow or Edinburgh? based on that these are tricky, and the moaning about how dark winter is
2. Winnipeg or Regina? Winnipeg seems far enough from Lake W. that it must be fairly south?
3. Hong Kong or Hanoi? I don't actually have a concept of where HK is other than "not mainland"
4. Casablanca or Cairo? Pretty sure CB is around the side of the continent more?
5. London or Amsterdam?

Farther west:
1. Athens or Warsaw?
2. Dallas or Houston?
3. Auckland or Christchurch? Hmm... NZ is on a goofy angle. Looks a lot like Nova scotia actually... Tough one but I think the angle takes Chirstchurch farther west.
4. Tehran or Dubai?
5. The quirky, artistic gem that is Stratford or the blandly meat and potatoes rural outpost of Woodstock? good lord... I shudder at the thought of living in Woodstock even though it's the closest to work. But his one I'm sure is Stratford.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by jonny24

I will admit, I was on google maps checking my first answers, so things are a little fresher in my mind.

That's kind of cheating for the second round though

I haven't looked at a world map in months, but if you give me five minutes to prepare for the third round, I should be able to be much more accurate.

A few minutes of looking a few "hard points" on maps (relative latitude and longitude lines of major cities on most continents) before seeing the questions, and someone's already super prepared to answer these without looking or cheating.

[jonny24]

Originally Posted by lio45

That's kind of cheating for the second round though

I haven't looked at a world map in months, but if you give me five minutes to prepare for the third round, I should be able to be much more accurate.

A few minutes of looking a few "hard points" on maps (relative latitude and longitude lines of major cities on most continents) before seeing the questions, and someone's already super prepared to answer these without looking or cheating.

For sure, hence why I mentioned it. It definitely helped with the Warsaw question, since I had just been looking at how turkey cut over beside Greece.

w hat can ya do? I guess I'll forfeit the imaginary prize for round two

[rousseau]

Thought I'd put this here.

While looking at satellite images on Google Maps it suddenly struck me how unique North American and Australian cities for how incredibly easy it is to find their CBDs or city centres due to the skyscrapers and the large contrast in density between commercial architecture and surrounding residential areas.

For example, if you weren't familiar with Mexico City, would you be able to zoom in and find the acknowledged centre of the city, the main square aka "Zócalo" aka Plaza de la Constitución?
https://www.google.ca/maps/@19.44152.../data=!3m1!1e3

Go to the menu and click on "Labels on" to turn the labels off to make it easier to see and harder to cheat.

Here's the city in Taiwan I lived in for many years. Can you zoom in to the unofficial but universally acknowledged centre of the city?
https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Chi...!4d120.4491113

Sure, bigger cities are multinodal, and Paris is an exception in how obvious the major landmarks are. Actually, Barcelona's historical centre is easy to see too. And it appears that the CBDs of northern European cities tend to be fairly easy to spot, so there goes my premise, somewhat.

Still, here's another one. If you aren't familiar with Istanbul, can you find İstiklal Avenue, arguably the retail and sentimental heart of Istanbul (if not the most historically important and central part of the city)?
https://www.google.ca/maps/place/Ist...6!4d28.9783589

[MonkeyRonin]

Most of these cities are inherently more multi-nodal even aside from the smaller density gradient, typically with a separate historic centre and nearby modern CBD that serve slightly different functions. Still, in most cases if you can find the big train station you know you're in the centre of town.

[rousseau]

Back with the quiz you've come to know and love.

Farther north:
1. Beijing or Tokyo?
2. New York or Naples?
3. Kolkata or Mumbai?
4. Manila or Bangkok?
5. Paris or Prague?

Farther west:
1. St. John's Nfld or Buenos Aires?
2. Cairo or Istanbul?
3. Berlin or Munich?
4. Vienna or Prague?
5. Edmonton or Calgary?

Bonus question: List the capitals of the three large northern countries to the west of St. Petersburg Russia (two of the three are Scandinavian, the other one isn't) in order of their relative geographical position from north to south.

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by rousseau

Back with the quiz you've come to know and love.

Farther north:
1. Beijing or Tokyo? Beijing.
2. New York or Naples? Naples.
3. Kolkata or Mumbai? Kolkata.
4. Manila or Bangkok? Bangkok.
5. Paris or Prague? Shit, Paris?

Farther west:
1. St. John's Nfld or Buenos Aires? I hope Buenos Aires
2. Cairo or Istanbul? Wow... I don't know, I can see them in my mind but could be either. I'll go... Cairo?
3. Berlin or Munich? Berlin hopefully?
4. Vienna or Prague? Prague, please God. I'm half confident in this one lol
5. Edmonton or Calgary? Calgary?

Bonus question: List the capitals of the three large northern countries to the west of St. Petersburg Russia (two of the three are Scandinavian, the other one isn't) in order of their relative geographical position from north to south.

Oslo, Helsinki, Stockholm, Copenhagen?

Ugh, not Googling at all... embarrassing, but let's see.

[logan5]

Helsinki - Pretty sure that's right.
Riga?
Copenhagen?

[logan5]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Ugh, not Googling at all... embarrassing, but let's see.

That's funny. You did what I was going to do, which is to put the city that comes first alphabetically.

[SignalHillHiker]

Oh Riga! If that's one of them then there's also Vilnius (best city in Northern Europe in terms of inanimate built form, street grid, buildings, etc.) and Tallinn (best city in Northern Europe in terms of people) as well.

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by logan5

That's funny. You did what I was going to do, which is to put the city that comes first alphabetically.

SCREW YOU! I THOUGHT! I literally thinked. lol Didn't even occur to me anything was alphabetical.

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

SCREW YOU! I THOUGHT! I literally thinked. lol Didn't even occur to me anything was alphabetical.

On this quiz (https://www.sporcle.com/games/Chench...find?sc=europe) the way I've come to remember the three Baltic states west of Russia is that they're in alphabetical order from north to south: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

That's my tip for the day.

But the Baltics aren't involved in my bonus question. I was trying to be cute in how I referenced Norway, Sweden and Finland, the capitals of which I want people to guess the north-to-south order of.

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by rousseau

On this quiz (https://www.sporcle.com/games/Chench...find?sc=europe) the way I've come to remember the three Baltic states west of Russia is that they're in alphabetical order from north to south: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

That's my tip for the day.

But the Baltics aren't involved in my bonus question. I was trying to be cute in how I referenced Norway, Sweden and Finland, the capitals of which I want people to guess the north-to-south order of.

That was a good one. Fucking Vatican. I keep forgetting Rome faces that direction. So bizarre to me. It's like Dublin facing the UK. I guess it makes sense, but it's the opposite side from what I'd expect. It's like if St. John's was on the west coast of the island facing Canada. It just feels wrong. I don't think of Dublin and Rome as facing the directions they do.