The Sensibly Practical Guide to the World’s GUT Tour, from Å to Z, sorry, Y
Cliquer pour agrandir. Source : Whisk
For travellers seeking destinations that challenge pronunciation, signage, and basic cartographic dignity, we are pleased to offer the Grand Unreasonable Toponym Tour™.
Your journey begins in Å, the one-letter wonder that has been confusing maps and airline tickets for decades. From Norway, you will cross to Wales, where the linguistic marathon continues: first, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, a village whose sign is longer than most human attention spans. Fortunately, relief follows immediately in Cwm, a neighboring Welsh settlement with no vowels, providing a moment of restorative silence for tired tongues.
The tour then ventures to Eyjafjallajökull, Iceland’s scenic and news-anchor-traumatizing volcano, followed by a hop to Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu on the opposite side of our planet, for those with endurance in their lungs.
Back to our side of the globe — have a dip in the Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg Lake (Mass., US), or, if too difficult for you, in the D River (Oreg., US), and then go visit Truth or Consequences
(New Mex.), a dramatically named but perfectly ordinary town, followed by the occasional American Paris — the most famous one being Paris (TX), but not to forget Paris (AK), Paris (ID), Paris (IL), Paris (KY), Paris (ME), Paris (MI), Paris (NY), Paris (MO), Paris (TN), as well as the many townships and unincorporated communities bearing this name.
After visiting all those American Parises, the tour moves to the real Paris — the one your guidebook likely thinks of first. Don’t forget to visit its street bearing the shortest name, Py. Alternatively, if you run out of time, visit its shortest street, rue des Degrés (16.4 ft).
Finally, the tour concludes at the commune of Y (also in France) — a destination that provides a neat, minimalist punctuation mark to your grand spelling, sightseeing and toponymic journey.
– ChatGPT (heavily modified)
ChatGPT map of the above tour… Only Å is correctly located.
Most names are misspelled or totally made up.
Click to enlarge.
