Lists of weird/fun facts about the countries of the world are always a good time, because hey, they’re weird! And fun! But there’s a twist – I slipped in nine fake facts among the real ones.

Without resorting to Google (you can resort to Google a little), can you pick out the fake “facts” that I invented among the real ones? I’ll give you a hint. This post contains six of the nine fake facts. Part 2 will be posted next week.

Let’s begin.

Thanks to the invasion paranoia of former dictator Enver Hoxha, Albania has roughly 15 concrete bunkers per square mile.

Andorra is the largest country in the world with no airport.

The Sahara Desert takes up more than 4/5 of Algeria’s land mass.

Angola’s capital city, Luanda, is the most expensive city in the world for expats who want to live in “international standards” in an “appropriate neighborhood.”

Antigua and Barbuda briefly renamed the country’s highest point “Mount Obama.”

Argentina had five different presidents in two weeks during the financial crisis of 2001-02.

Armenia is home to the world’s earliest known winery, dating back 6,100 years.

The Australian Alps get more snow than the Swiss Alps.

A small village in Austria recently had to change its name from “Fucking” to “Fugging,” because people kept stealing the sign.

Azerbaijan’s capital city, Baku, is home to the largest KFC in the world.

Bahrain had a prime minister who served for 50 consecutive years.

In Bangladesh, frequent smiling is considered immature.

Barbados celebrates a national holiday called “Rihanna Day” every February 22nd.

In Belarus, the street lights are reversed (red means go and green means stop), because President Alexander Lukashenko thinks the color red is lucky.

Until the 1970s, a light beer (less than 1.5% alcohol) was served at lunch in Belgian grade schools.

The tallest structure in the entire country of Belize is a 2,400-year-old Mayan pyramid.

Benin’s national flag depicts a man being decapitated with a sword.

Bhutan’s topography is 98.8% mountainous.

Brazil has been the largest producer of coffee in the world for the past 150 years and produces 30% of the world’s coffee today.

Teeny, tiny Brunei has the largest residential palace in the world (it’s also the seat of the country’s government), with 1,788 rooms, 257 bathrooms, a mosque, a garage that can fit 110 cars, five swimming pools, a gigantic banquet hall, and god knows what else.

Bulgaria is the only European country that hasn’t changed its name since it was established in 681 CE.

In 2014, Burundi’s president banned group jogging, fearing people would use that time to plan anti-government activities.

There is not now, nor has there ever been, a McDonald’s in Cambodia.

Sixty-two percent of all the lakes in the world (0.1 sq. km or larger) are located within Canada.

Chile has the world’s largest swimming pool, the length of 20 Olympic-sized pools.

Toilet paper was invented in China.

In Colombia, public TV and radio stations are required to play the national anthem at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. every day.

Costa Rica is the largest country in the world with no military.

Croatia invented the necktie.

Cuba banned Christmas from 1969 to 1997.

On Cyprus, the police wear cattle prod-like weapons instead of guns. Each year the police union holds games, including one where teams of two people compete to see who can throw (and catch) a live cattle prod the greatest distance.

People in the Czech Republic consume an average of 43 gallons (160 liters) of beer per person, per year, the most per capita in the world.

There’s no word for “please” in the Danish language.

The Dominican Republic receives more tourists each year than any other Caribbean country.

“East Timor,” translated into English is “East East.”

While Mount Everest is the highest point on Earth above sea level, due to the planet’s bulge at the equator, Ecuador’s Mount Chimborazo is the closest point on Earth to space.

Contrary to popular belief, though the ancient Egyptians had slaves, slaves did not built the Great Pyramids. That work was done by plain ol’ paid laborers.

Equatorial Guinea is not on the equator.

Wife-carrying is a popular sport in Estonia.

Ethiopia’s calendar has 13 months.

Raised eyebrows in Fiji is a non-verbal “yes.”

Finland is consistently ranked near or at the top of the happiest countries in the world.

The French collectively eat 25,000 tons of snails each year.

The people of Georgia don’t refer to their country as “Georgia,” they call it “Saqartvelo.”

In some parts of the former East Germany, they still haven’t gotten around to rescinding a law making it illegal to buy or wear blue jeans, which has a maximum penalty of six months in prison.

Ghana has its own a space program and its first satellite, GhanaSat-1, was launched in 2017 from the International Space Station.

While Greece was planning the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, there was a short-lived proposal which would have allowed competitors the option of honoring the ancient Olympic games by competing naked.

Guatemala is the birthplace of chocolate.

In Yoro, Honduras, about 120 miles from the Atlantic coast, it inexplicably “rains” fish a few days each year.

Hungary’s hyper inflation in the 1940s of its post-war currency, the pengő, led to the printing of a 100 quintillion (100,000,000,000,000,000,000) pengő bank note, the largest denomination bank note ever printed.

Iceland had a 74-year ban on beer which ended in 1989.

According to surveys, India has more vegetarians than the rest of the world combined. However, in practice this probably isn’t actually true. It’s believed many people untruthfully identify themselves as vegetarians on these surveys due to “cultural and political pressures.”

Giving someone a thumbs-up in Iran is the local equivalent of giving them the finger.

The oldest-known system of writing was developed in Iraq around 3200 BCE, which consisted of approximately 600 signs representing syllables or words.

Public drunkenness is illegal in Ireland, or more specifically “it is an offense for you to be so drunk in a public place that you could reasonably be presumed to be a danger to yourself or to anyone around you.”

Israel offered the role of president to Albert Einstein in 1952, no questions asked. He declined.

Italy has a free wine fountain, found in Caldari di Ortona, to fortify hikers on the Italian pilgrimage route of Cammino di San Tommaso.

Cranberry does not grow on Jamaica, but Jamaicans consume more cranberry per capita than anywhere else in the world.

Japan has over 80,000 people over the age of 100.

The oldest known statues in the world were found in Jordan, dating back to 7500 BCE.

Kenya produces a disproportionate number of elite marathon runners, largely from the Kalenjin tribe, also known as “the running tribe.”

Kuwait’s population is 70% expatriates, making the locals a minority in their own country.

Laos is the most bombed country in the world thanks to the United States which dropped approximately two million tons of bombs across the country between 1964 and 1973, 30% of which are unexploded ordinance and an ongoing danger to Laotians to this day.

Latvia has an annual holiday celebrating good dogs.

Lebanon is the only country in the Middle East that doesn’t have a desert.

Lesotho is world’s highest country – in a manner of speaking, because it has the highest lowest point of any other country in the world (4,593 feet or 1,400 meters above sea level), making it one of the few places on the African continent where one can go skiing.

Due to a loophole called the “flag of convenience,” almost 10% of the world’s ships are registered in Liberia (and fly its flag!) to avoid taxes and certain employment regulations.

Libya’s first and last king was King Idris I, whose reign started at the end of Italy’s colonial rule in 1951 and ended in 1969 in a coup d’état led by Muammar Gaddafi.

The entire country of Liechtenstein can be rented for $70,000 per night.

After running some numbers, a French scientist determined that the geographic center of Europe is located in Lithuania.

Luxembourg is the only country in the world with free public transport available to everyone.

Over 90% of the wildlife on Madagascar can’t be found anywhere else on Earth.

Walking backwards is considered rude in Malaysia and can even incur a fine in some parts of the country.

Fourteenth-century Emporer Mansa Musa of Mali is considered to be the richest individual in the history of humanity. Though historians insist that his fortune is “indescribable,” it has been estimated by some to be $400 billion.

The Megalithic Temples on Malta are more than 6,000 years old, making them the oldest free-standing stone structures in the world; older than the Pyramids in Egypt and Stonehenge in England.

Mauritania has the largest ship graveyard in the world, with more than 300 shipwrecks.

Mexico City, the most populous city in North America, was built on top of a lake and is currently sinking at a rate of roughly 15 inches (40 centimeters) per year.

The Milestii Mici winery in Moldova has the largest wine collection in the world, almost two million bottles, stored in a former limestone mine that stretches for 120 miles, though only 34 miles of the tunnel system is in use.

To see which ones I invented, keep scrolling.

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The fake facts in this post are:

In Belarus, the street lights are reversed (red means go and green means stop), because President Alexander Lukashenko thinks the color red is lucky.

On Cyprus, the police wear cattle prod-like weapons instead of guns. Each year the police union holds games, including one where teams of two people compete to see who can throw (and catch) a live cattle prod the greatest distance.

In some parts of the former East Germany, they still haven’t gotten around to rescinding a law making it illegal to buy or wear blue jeans, which has a maximum penalty of six months in prison.

While Greece was planning the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, there was a short-lived proposal which would have allowed competitors the option of honoring the ancient Olympic games by competing naked.

Latvia has an annual holiday celebrating good dogs.

Walking backwards is considered rude in Malaysia and can even incur a fine in some parts of the country.