28. Memorise every country name and capital city

I’m going to try and make this post as un-dull as possible.  I’ve learnt the countries and their capitals.  The american spiritual song sang I've got the whole world in my hands....well, I've got the world in my head.

I’ve been tested thoroughly by my colleagues at work over the past few days (including at the pub tonight after a few drinks) and have managed to answer their queries (my old school teachers would be proud!)  If anybody does a history search on my laptop you’ll see the number of times I’ve played a variety of Sporcle Geography games and the results from these practices.  Photographic evidence of this feat isn’t really possible so you’ll all just have to take my word for it (and continue to grill me – lets see how long these things stick).

Highlights of this experience are :

1. A capital is defined as a country’s legislative, administrative and political centre.  In some countries this is different cities (e.g. Bolivia has 2 capitals - La Paz and Sucre, South Africa 3 - Pretoria, Capetown and Bloemfontein)
2. a greater understanding of where certain countries are.  Togo is in Africa (not in the Pacific as I thought) and East Timor is in Asia just south of Indonesia (not in Africa). 
3. Many of the Caribbean Islands are countries, many of the Pacific Islands are not (they are territories)

In learning the countries and capitals in particular, I found interesting ways to remember names.  Notable ones are Venezuela’s Caracas and North Korea’s Pyongyang – much to my sister’s entertainment as we drove across SW USA.

I also developed favourites, my number one capital city is Burkina Faso’s Ouagadougou – I mean c’mon, that’s just an awesome place to pronounce

This leaves me with the 1 that I always knew was going to be a hard one.  2 days until I turn 30…..