5 Random Things You Never Knew About 5 Different Countries

In a few weeks, I’ll be setting off to visit three new countries 👀 which has me reflecting on what I’ve learned from the 34 I’ve visited so far. While you can do your research before your trip, there are some things you can only learn once you arrive somewhere — and that’s one of my favorite things about traveling!

So, here are just five little quirks I’ve learned from visiting five different countries.

Ireland: There’s A String You Have To Pull for Hot Water

I’ll start with Ireland, because we’re fortunate to visit our friends Sarah and Kelan in Dublin a few times every year. And so the Water String is something we have become quite familiar with. 

In the guest bathroom at Sarah and Kelan’s house, as well as in many other places we’ve stayed at in Ireland, there’s a long string hanging from the ceiling that you have to pull before you take a shower — this turns on the electric shower/water heater. Then, you have to remember to pull it again to turn off the hot water when you’re done.

But why?

From my understanding, a lot of houses in Ireland traditionally had weak water pressure and small tanks, meaning that hot water ran out quickly. So the electric shower was invented, which instantly heats water within the shower. But since this system uses a lot of electricity, it would be dangerous to have a regular on/off switch on the wall, since bathrooms are known to be wet places, and you don’t want to accidentally get electrocuted. Thus… the water pull string.

Certainly this must exist in other places in the world, but Ireland is the only place I’ve personally experienced it!

Spain: One Name Is So Common It Has A Unique Abbreviation

Fun fact: If you live in Spain, you’re guaranteed to meet someone named María. Most likely, multiple someones.

You might not always know someone is named María. That’s because María is often a double-barreled name, so it’s commonly followed by a second name. María Dolores, María Ángeles, María Carmen… the list is seemingly endless.

And since there are so many Marías, a lot of people turn those two names into a portmanteau. At the school where I taught in Madrid, it took me more than a year before I realized that the teacher named Maribel was actually “María Isabel” and the teacher named Marisa was actually “María Luisa.” 

That being said, with all those Marías floating around out there in Spain (and even men can have María as part of their name) — Spain even has a legal abbreviation for the name. M with a superscript a: Mª

People use this as their signature, as their name on LinkedIn, and apparently it’s even used on birth certificates. This is so interesting to me!

Thailand: We’re living in 2026. They’re living in 2569.

Back in 2017, I took my first trip to Asia — a solo trip to Thailand (and Cambodia). I’ll never forget settling into my hostel bed in Bangkok, recovering from the 36+ hours of travel, and starting to do some research about what I might want to do the next day. (That’s the beauty of traveling solo, lol. No plans and I liked it that way.)

But as I browsed the Google search results page, I saw something that made me wonder if I was more sleep-deprived than I thought — all the dates on the articles I found said they were written in the year 2560. 😵‍💫

So then I made a quick pivot on my Google search: “What year is it in Thailand?” And I learned that Thailand, as well as Cambodia,  Laos, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar use the Buddhist calendar instead of the Gregorian one that most of the world uses.

The Buddhist calendar is based on the date of Buddha’s passing — 543 years before the year 1 A.D., so that’s why it’s 2569 BE in Thailand and it’s only 2026 here. Interestingly, I’ve learned that while Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos use one Buddhist calendar, Sri Lanka and Myanmar use a slightly different one. 

Honestly, it makes sense to me that different countries/cultures should use their own religious traditions to mark time throughout history!

South Korea: You’re Older Than You Think You Are

Similar to how Thailand and other countries use a different calendar, South Korea has until very recently used a different system for determining your age.

Here’s how it worked: On the day a baby is born, they are considered to be 1 year old. Then, when January 1 comes around, they move up to age 2. So actually, the whole country would celebrate their “birthday” on January 1 as everyone turned a year older! My friend Hannah, who lived in South Korea, told me that it felt like everyone was partying that day — both for the Gregorian New Year and those celebrating milestone birthdays.

Since I was born in mid-December, it’s kind of crazy to think that I would be considered 2 years old on January 1 when I was really only 2 weeks old. 😂

However, just a couple of years ago, South Korea decided to adopt the international age system used by most other countries in the world. Surprisingly, North Korea switched to the international system back in the 1980s.

Calculate Your Korean Age!

Ecuador: Doesn’t Have a Postal Service

One of my favorite things to do when I travel is send postcards.

In 2022, when it became safe to travel again after a couple of years of the pandemic, Matt and I set out on our first big trip since: two months in Quito, Ecuador. Of course, I couldn’t wait to buy some postcards and start sending them to my friends and family.

It was my first-ever visit to South America, and it didn’t take me long to realize that, in Quito, many things functioned differently from what I was used to in Europe — there wasn’t a grocery store on every block, like in Spain. People would drive most places instead of walk. And a post office didn’t seem to be the kind of place you could just stumble across.

So, one day, I decided I was going to the post office to finally get some stamps and mail the postcards I’d been accumulating for a couple of weeks. The nearest post office was *only* a 30-minute walk away, and I set off.

When I arrived, I found a building that could not be said to resemble a post office by any stretch of the imagination — other than the fact it had a sun-faded, barely discernible “Correos del Ecuador” logo on the door. I stood there in confusion and asked some nearby construction workers if that was the post office. They shrugged.

Well, come to find out… Ecuador abolished the postal service back in 2020 as a result of the pandemic. Apparently, Correos del Ecuador had been slow and unreliable for years, and COVID became the perfect excuse to do away with it altogether. And ever since then, everyone has just used third-party delivery services like FedEx, UPS, and DHL to send mail!

(A “new” government-owned postal system, Servicios Postales del Ecuador, was established recently, but it only services 3 offices in Guayaquil and 1 in Quito — not the whole country.)

Did you learn anything new from this post, or did you already know about these? What random facts or travel quirks have you learned from the places you’ve visited? Let me know in the comments!

-Cathy

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