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Which "off the beaten track" countries have you visited?

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Comments

  • Moderators, Category Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,063 CMod ✭✭✭✭Ten of Swords




  • Posts: 18,749 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    The usual dig at teachers by you 😂

    I would advise getting a new job, I'm not a teacher, I get 34 days annual leave a year.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,708 ✭✭✭corks finest


    Romania 🇷🇴 in early 90s , Ukraine 🇺🇦 and Moldova 🇲🇩,former Yugoslavia 70s


    to this day there’s parts of Transylvania cut off from civilisation for a few months of the year, villages io in the mountains without running water or electricity, quaint but not in January- our mode of delivering aid was oxen , basically peasants living in the Middle Ages ,

    caulking their wooden cabins against the winter chill with straw and dung,

    country-of extreme contrast - you may pass 6/7 combine harvesters in an area and a few km down the road a chap on his own with a pair of oxen/ water buffalo ploughing a field, worked there 12 years and count my blessings as met really beautiful ppl,

    only downside was and is endemic corruption be it from the cops/ local director of the orphanage , local mayor etc etc, we had to bribe everyone to be allowed deliver aid/ money/ material’s, ALL the county’s natural resources of oil, gold , silver have been sold Yeats ago, natural oak forests being stripped for German businessmen and Italian,

    haven’t been over in years but Transylvania is well worth a visit, not Brasov or Sibiu etc etc but remote villages etc, it’s stepping back in time .

    (they still hide their SIDA ( aids) problem,clinics in Iasi are hard to find , we had great difficulty in delivering aid as the locals wouldn’t even give us directions ( pre google etc)

    Romania wants the world to see it as progressive- it is in many aspects but they still hide their problems, and export their most important assets - ppl as the corruption is off the wall and regularly jail ministers and judges/ cops etc but the EU bank roll train keeps going



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,580 ✭✭✭jmreire


    You will find everywhere in the former Soviet Union massive concrete constructions celebrating everything.... LOL🙂



  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 24,420 Mod ✭✭✭✭robindch


    Bit late to the party but I've been to around 75 countries. Oddest ones were definitely Abkhazia (the bit of Georgia which Russia helped local separatists carve out; now, essentially a banana-potato-vodka republic), Transnistria (the bit of Moldova which Russia helped local separatists carve out; now essentially a banana-potato-vodka republic), and North Korea.

    Funnest times which spring to mind just now were in Lebanon (arrested by paramilitaries for taking photos), Ukraine (threatened with arrest for not bribing cops), Russia (stand-up, finger-pointing argument with a lawyer who insulted Ireland while lecturing me about the need for legal compliance in Russia), bumping into a friend of a friend from West Cork while roaming the streets of Bucharest, wearing a tee-shirt emblazoned with "West Cork".



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,203 ✭✭✭partyguinness


    I suppose Brunei.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,203 ✭✭✭partyguinness


    I was strolling though Lima about 15 years ago and there I see a lad in a Cork City jersey window shopping.



  • Registered Users Posts: 1,494 ✭✭✭JackieChang


    Burundi and Rwanda



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,256 ✭✭✭Ubbquittious


    Just applied for a jobbeen there hope I get it. Did you go there just for funsies or were you working?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 24,357 ✭✭✭✭Larbre34


    Been to a few OTBT Countries and I've decided they are that way for a reason. They tend to be kips and they give you the shyts or make you a political prisoner.

    I stick now to the EU, NATO or countries of the British Commonwealth. A minimum standard of civilisation is pretty well guaranteed.



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 823 ✭✭✭Liberty_Bear


    Kosovo

    Azerbaijan

    Georgia

    Jordan

    North Macedonia

    Japan

    Ukraine

    South Korea

    Belarus


    Was meant to be in Moldova but that got put paid to by Putin


    Im heading to Albania in May, people are more than welcome to join me...



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 823 ✭✭✭Liberty_Bear


    Been to Tijuana, makes Roscommon seem like an inviting place even...



  • Posts: 18,749 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    I love Albania!

    Just be careful of the drivers😂.But you're probably used to it if you have been to Kosovo and Macedonia!



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 823 ✭✭✭Liberty_Bear


    Kosovo they didnt care lol! You could cross the road and they wouldnt stop..I didnt encounter much in North Macedonia, thought I do remember all the bars were on the Musliim side of the city if memory is correct!!



  • Posts: 18,749 ✭✭✭✭ [Deleted User]


    There are bars everywhere in Kosovo and Macedonia, I never seen religion getting in the way of a good time!

    Crazy driving though! Absolute madness, I can't believe I got away with being there for so long and I never got into an accident!



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,484 ✭✭✭✭MEGA BRO WOLF 5000


    I was in Londonderry a few weeks ago, it's only strange because nobody in Ireland recognizes the place even exists.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 823 ✭✭✭Liberty_Bear


    You sound like an adventeroous type! There are now loads of airlines going to Romania - Iasi, Sibiu included. Like your recommendation about the villages



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 823 ✭✭✭Liberty_Bear




  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,449 ✭✭✭wolfyboy555


    Iran for me. Fascinating place and hands down the nicest people you will meet.


    Also a mention for Georgia and Galapagos that were already mentioned.



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