Top 3 Cities I Would Love To Live In
Brno, Czech Republic
This is the city I was born in. It's my home. It's the place I will always love to return to. I'm one of those people that love to travel, but I would have a big problem if I had to live anywhere else than here. There are not many cities in the world as beautiful as Brno. It has also been voted as the #70 in the quality of life ranking done by numbeo.com surpassing cities like Detroit, Miami, Chicago, New York or London. I think this is a great feat and I'm very proud to live here.
picture is my own
Canberra, Australia
Ironically, I've never been to Canberra. The fact that it scored #1 top city to live in according to the quality of life, however, is a sufficient argument for me. I've heard it's a great place for a programmer to live, so that's a plus. There is the ever-present danger of being bitten by a snake, a spider, or something along those ugly lines, but I think that's not much of a problem in the cities.
Portree, Scotland
You're probably asking yourself: why? I just love Scotland. I love the nature and the landscapes. There is just something so mesmerizing about the landscapes there. Also, I just love the idea of living in a secluded house in the Scottish Highlands. Ironically, I've never been to Portree itself. I have been to the Isle of Skye, though. Also, note that the following picture isn't Portree. I just couldn't find any good royalty free pictures of it. Now I know the picture does not make justice to the view, but just enjoy it for a while. It's just so soothing to look at.
This article has been written as a part of May 30 Days Writing Challenge proposed by @dragosroua.
My previous posts in the challenge
Day #12: What Is The One Crypto That Will Rule The Market In 5 Years?
Day #10: H20, My Favourite Morning Drink
Day #8: May 30 Days Writing Challenge - Day Eight: What’s Your Most Consistent Hobby For The Last 5 Years?
Day #6: You Wouldn't Guess What My Reason To Staying On Steemit Is
Day #5: Do you know the difference between investing and speculation?
Day #4: What Are My Top 5 (More Like 3) Witnesses On Steemit And Why Should You Care?
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Day #2: May 30 Days Writing Challenge - Day Two: If You Had 1000 STEEM, What Would You Do With It?
Okay, so it sounds like you're fortunate to be living in the place where you live, since you like it there. That's as about as good as it gets. So Brno is pronounced 'ber-no' according to an entry on YouTube, which is probably how most English speakers would try it just based on the spelling.
Does the word brno mean something? Or was the city named after someone?
I guess I could look that up too, but I'm testing you. :)
I'd like to visit Australia one of these days, and my wife would probably like to make it to the UK if not Scotland in search of castles. Maybe one day.
Brno is indeed a great city to live in.
Truth to be told, I don't really know the origin of the name. I could have just gone and googled it ass well, but that's just not me. So, you can do it for yourself.
I am going to provide you with some different information you maybe would not have found on yourself. As in any city, there are many parts of the city that have their specific names. In Brno, we have for example Žabovřesky (žabo, which is derived from the word "frog" and vřesky derived from the word "scream") which essentially means "a place where the frogs scream". Other examples might be Královo pole (king's field), Židenice (žid - jew, enice - doesn't really have a meaning) making up "a place where the Jews live".
Also, if castles are your, or your wife's thing, then you should definitely consider visiting Czech Republic. There are more than 1200 castles spread across the country. Granted, some of them are just ruins, but many of them are actually in great condition and are interesting to visit.
Reporting about castles is one of the things me and my wife are planning on doing. , as she enjoys them very much. Either for our Instagram accounts, or for Steemit or any other platform we could use to monetize the content.
I hadn't even thought of the Czech Republic as a place with castles, let alone so many. We'd probably need to spend a few months wondering around castles to try to get through all of Europe. Maybe we'll just move and live there for a year or two, just to make sure. :)
It's interesting how different places get their names. A lot of the times it has to do with the natural environment, or the people who move into it, either as a whole or individual last names, which is why I asked about Brno. Here, at least in the residential areas, the contractor building the homes can end up being the one who names the streets. Over where we live, they're all names of rivers, but in other parts, their the names of members of the contractor's family. The neighborhood I grew up in the streets were named after trees.
Many of the towns though here are named after the towns where people came from or for the settlers, or in an attempt to preserve the names the tribal people (Calapooia, etc.) had for names. So the English equivalent of tribal names.
Ah, great. This is exactly what I was looking for. Can you give me some funny examples as well?
I do know English quite well, but village and town names are usually made up of various different words, so can't really picture the combinations. One of them that pops into my mind immediately, though, is Springfield.
We definitely have a Springfield. It's right next to Eugene, which was named after Eugene Skinner, though, I don't know the history of Skinner. I grew up in a town called Junction City, which was named after, I believe, the one in Kansas.
I'm not sure about funny names. I'll have to think a little bit. The one that comes to mind is Boring, Oregon. It was named for the act of boring into the earth, but since it never really grew, it is pretty boring.
Some of the names that I believe are unique to here are places like Lake Oswego, Tualatin, Clackamas. Those are all in the Portland greater metropolitan area. Tualatin is probably a tribal word but they can't seem to decide if it means sluggish/lazy or a treeless plain. Big difference, I would say. It's a nice place, regardless.
If you head out east through Central Oregon, you'll go through a town called Sisters, which is pretty nice. Some time after that you'll get to Brothers, which isn't very nice.
Looked some up. Aside from Boring, there's Drain, Riddle and Remote. Some more tribal words for names of towns or areas, Umpqua and Tillamook, both of which are very good varieties of ice cream, too.
Even though there are many funny names in English, I just feel like Czech does a better job of giving funny names. I've mentioned some, but there surely are better ones. I don't think they can ever propagate through translation, as the pronunciation really is something. Like "Pičín" [Pecheen], "Šukačka" [Shukachka] or "Štěrbina" [Shtierbina], for example. You'd have to hear it, though. I'm not going to translate them, however, as they are rather nasty words, which I'm not really fond of. I'm just going to say they are derived from either woman's intimate parts or the act of making love.
To me, Springfield is one of the funnier ones. Eugene sounds like the kind of guy nobody wants to hang out with, though.
Tualatin sounds more like somebody lazy to me, rather than treeless plain.
I like Riddle and Remote. Remote sounds like "Onen Svět", which would be translated as: "the end of the world".
It's probably best you don't translate them then. :) I can't think of the American English equivalent when it comes to naming towns or cities, so maybe the Czechs have a corner on that.
Spanish probably has all kinds. I've got one stuck in my brain. I've never been there, but I'd love to go to Boca Raton, Florida just to see what it looks like. Boca means mouth and Raton is a mouse. So mouse mouth. :)