(no subject)

[hnpcc]

Mostly for sardonic_otter and astrocave - there's a town named Festus in Missouri. They have an airport (Festus Memorial Airport). I have no idea whether they have a Fester though yet. You'd think they'd kind of have to, right?

In other, non-related news: the Australian SmartTraveller website has five levels of security warning, from "be alert to own security" through "exercise caution", "high degree of caution", "reconsider your need to travel" and finally "do not travel". So far the only country I've found with the lowest level of warning is New Zealand. The UK, Belgium, Canada, US, Sweden and Fiji all have the second highest level; Mexico is on the third highest; Zimbabwe the fourth and Afghanistan the fifth.

Ooh! Tonga's at the lowest level too!! I'm sensing a Polynesian theme here... although Fiji kind of blows that out of the water come to think of it.

And so's Portugal, which apparently has a low terrorism threat, mostly because people forget it exists I think.

Hm, I may have to do more research for vicarious travel, these random warnings are interesting.

Comments

[undergroundsea.livejournal.com]

"Malta has a low incidence of serious crime. However, petty crime, including bag snatching and pickpocketing, can occur, particularly in areas frequented by tourists. You should maintain a high level of personal awareness when visiting nightclub areas late at night.

You should drive with caution as the country's roads are poorly maintained. Larger regional roads have been improved in recent times. The standard of driving is generally poor, and particularly erratic in wet weather. "

Hehe yep!

[hnpcc]

Also apparently a low probability of terrorism, which is the only reason I can see for Sweden ranking higher than Malta in terms of alerts. Heh.

You know travelling overseas gives you a much better appreciation of why driving in Melbourne frequently is like it is - I go with the Dave Barry quote: "Everyone drives according to the laws and customs of their country of origin". With the exception of the right-hand drive thing, that actually sums it up quite well. You can always pick the rural drivers for starters... ;-)

[undergroundsea.livejournal.com]

:) We've had enough bombs thanks very much! Malta does have crimes though, like rapes and Arabs ending up dead in backstreets and the like. Perhaps we kill our terrorists before they do any harm ;) But to be honest I think we're just too insignificant! On trips abroad my parents trained us to carry both passports so if we ever got hijacked (1970s & 80s legacy) we could give over our Maltese passport with arabic script running through it, and maybe they'd be nicer to us and not think us prize booty like Australians :)

I think if I drove in Melbourne I wouldn't cope with all the lanes/hook turns and probably crash into a tram :)

[ataxophile.livejournal.com]

According to legend (ie, Wikipedia), the town was named after Porcius Festus, the Judean governor. Why would you have a memorial airport for a Judean governor? I guess that's why it's only a 4th class city.

(Thank you Jimmy Wales.)

[hnpcc]

And more to the point - why on earth didn't they name it Porcius? They could have had a Porcius Fester!! With appropriate products!