Left-over places

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Flying_Monkey

Recyclist
Location
Odawa
Fab Foodie's travels to Kaliningrad got me thinking about 'left-over places' that don't really fit in with the modern world, or which just persist despite everything.

One place I really love like this is the Aland Islands (the A should have a little circle over the top which makes it pronounced 'err' or 'o' depending on whether you're a Swede or a Finn).

These are a magical series of hundreds of islands between Sweden and Finland. The people are largely Swedish, but under nominally Finnish rule, and they are still governed under a mandate from the League of Nations (which dates from when Russia stopped claiming them) which makes it them semi-independent. They have their own government and stamps and sense of identity. They are also stunningly beautiful lumps of granite rock with pine trees and a sparse population of fisherman and retirees. If you've read Tove Janssen's The Summer Book (which I really recommend), this is where it's set. If I could live there, I would.

What other 'left-over places' are there to which been you've been or want to go?
 

Fnaar

Smutmaster General
Location
Thumberland
Been near there, but not to yer actual islands themselves. Really lovely, but the blimming mozzies would drive me nuts ;)
 

gbb

Squire
Location
Peterborough
Carmelo (pop. circa 5000) and Nueva Palmira (pop. circa 10,000) in Uruguay.

If it was'nt for the lovely people, you'd never want to go there ;) yet there's a charm about them. Backwaters on the River Plate, lots of the buildings dont look as though they've seen a coat of paint in 30 years, then you see occasional houses that'd make you think you were back home ;)

And the beaches are out of this world....on the river ? You see dead Piranhas and all sorts of wierd fish on the beach...

Loads of parakeets squarking in the trees, many many large birds of prey...and surprisingly, countryside that's make you think you were back home.

A few pics...
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Maz

Guru
The Faroe Islands must be quite unique. Especially during the annual pilot whale killings.
 
The Outer Banks off the coast of North Carolina are kinda weird. The wild horses on the beaches there can be traced back to the Spanish and there was a story that the inhabitants used to speak Elizabethean English.

And Alabama. 'Left over' but not in a good way - just the most backward, scarey people I ever came across.
 
OP
OP
Flying_Monkey

Flying_Monkey

Recyclist
Location
Odawa
We went to those islands last year - there is a fantastic hotel/restaurant there called the Locanda Cipriani, where we had a superb lunch in gardens full of lavender looking out towards the old Byzantine church (no way we could afford to stay there!)... and that is really almost all there is there - once there were thousands of people living there but now it is deserted and quite eerie.

BTW, great pics, gbb.
 
U

User482

Guest
Knoydart, western Scotland. Despite being on the mainland the only way to get there is by ferry, or shank's pony. Is there any other community in mainland Britain that can't be reached by road?
 
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