See the World

A while back, my son introduced me to this online game called Geoguessr. It was something that he had done in school on days that it was too cold or rainy to go outside for recess. On their website, they give you one free game per day. We did that for about a month before purchasing a one-year membership for somewhere around $25, which in my opinion, is totally worth it.

The premise of the game is that it drops you somewhere in the world using Google Streetview, and then you have to figure out which country you're in. Personally, I think it's really cool to see what these random locales look like, as a vast majority of them are places that I have never been. Many are in parts of the world that I knew very little about but now want to visit because of this game, countries like Slovakia, Uruguay and Sri Lanka. 

Please note that I am not being compensated in any way to write this, not by Geoguessr, nor by the Ministry of Tourism in the beautiful nation of Slovakia. I just genuinely think this game is a hell of a lot of fun. It's not for everybody, of course, but on some level, it does fulfill at least a little bit of my wanderlust while also keeping me from going completely stir crazy. Considering that we've barely left the house for this entire pandemic, between this and playing video games are about the closest that we have come to actually traveling. 

In the time that we've been Geoguessing, we've developed a few strategies. Usually, the first thing we do is try to narrow it down to a continent. License plates are a good place to start. Even though they're blurred out, you can usually see their shape. In North and South America, the plates are boxier, as they are in Japan and some other places as well, whereas European and Russian plates are wider and shorter. We also take note of which side of the road they're driving on, as that can help narrow it down considerably. Models of the vehicles are sometimes worth paying attention to as well. We like to look at any graffiti we find, too, even though it doesn't usually help all that much in figuring out the country. We just happen to find it interesting.

Once we've narrowed it down geographically, we primarily search for words on signs and vehicles. It helps to be able to recognize and distinguish between languages, but this can certainly provide a useful exercise in that regard as well. It's good to know the difference between Spanish and Portuguese, for example, or Korean and Japanese, Italian and Romanian, or Icelandic and Danish, etc. Also, with countries that essentially have their own alphabets, it can be helpful to memorize at least a few symbols from each. You might be surprised to learn how many countries still use the cyrillic alphabet, too. I didn't expect to see it in North Macedonia or Mongolia, among other places. Unofficially, in our house, we have a rule where we don't look things up while we're playing, although I suspect that most people probably don't play it that way. These are the same people who helped to ruin online Scrabble. 

While we're looking for all these types of clues, we're also looking at the landscape. Are there palm trees? That can be a pretty big hint that you're not in Canada. Are there mountains? Then you are not in Belgium. More to the point, are there any flags? That can also be a tremendously useful clue, but it requires that you memorize a lot of flags. I've also made a point to learn website country codes. Outside of the US, most of them end in something other than .com. For example, RU is Russia, MK is North Macedonia, DE is Germany, Switzerland is CH (for Confoederatio Helvetica - i.e., Swiss Federation), LV is Latvia, etc. As you may have noticed, some are more obvious than others. Knowing these are useful when playing Geoguessr, because a lot of billboards and company vehicles have web addresses on them. 

As far as pre-game strategies are concerned, it is also helpful to know where the various European powers held colonies in Africa. If you see women carrying baskets on their heads, but all the signs are in French, then there's a good chance that you're either in Senegal or Tunisia. If it's in English and they're driving on the left side of the road, you might be in South Africa or Kenya.

Incidentally, when we lived in Micronesia, the cars all drove on the right, but most of the steering wheels were also on the right, as it was generally easier to import them from Japan. I think this is somewhat of an anomaly, though. Either way, this is one of the places that the Google car has yet to go. Knowing stuff like that can be useful, too, as is knowing that you're probably never going to get placed in Saudi Arabia, Iran or North Korea, either. There are certain places that the Google car either cannot or will not go. Every once in a while, we do get one in China, but it seems to be limited to approved tourist destinations.  

Is playing this as good as traveling? Of course not. For one thing, you don't get to sample the local cuisine, which is part of the fun in going to new places. On the other hand, you're way less likely to get your wallet or your camera stolen this way, plus you can do it all without even putting pants on.