Related - here’s our look at the #geoweirdness of Australia

https://en.osm.town/@opencage/109732227501825315

12/ We hope you can join us at one of the upcoming Geomob events

That's it for this week's geothread. Thanks for reading and boosting.

We have more threads about the #geoweirdness of specific countries, border disputes, geocoding, etc on our blog. Enjoy: https://blog.opencagedata.com/geothreads

11/ That's it for our look at 🇵🇱 Poland's #geoweirdness.

Thanks for reading and boosting. What did we overlook?

We have more threads about specific countries, border disputes, geocoding, etc on our blog. Some are still on twitter, but week by week we are moving them to mastodon (and writing new threads).

Enjoy: https://blog.opencagedata.com/geothreads

10/ Final bit of #geoweirdness: Polish 🇵🇱 postal codes consist of five digits, but there is a dash between the 2nd and 3rd digits (example: "12-345"), which is good fun for software that assumes postcodes contain only alphanumeric characters.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_codes_in_Poland

See our guide to common misconceptions about postal codes:

https://opencagedata.com/guides/how-to-think-about-postcodes-and-geocoding

#geoweirdness

9/ While Poland 🇵🇱 has no territorial exclaves, there is a massive Polish diaspora, especially since Poland joined the EU 🇪🇺 in 2004.

As an example Polish is the second most spoken language in 🇮🇪 Ireland, with Poles making up >2% of the population.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_minority_in_Ireland

#geoweirdness

8/ The border shifts leads to some odd situations like a Polish 🇵🇱 train line that crosses back across a strip of Germany 🇩🇪 between two Polish stations.

#geoweirdness

7/ The different historical backgrounds of the various regions of modern Poland 🇵🇱 continues to have cultural and political implications today.

Some commentators refer to "Poland A" and Poland B" roughly corresponding to the formerly German parts of Poland (A) and the formerly Russian and Austrian parts (B).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poland_A_and_B

here is a map of 2020 election results which roughly mirrors the divisions from a hundred years previously

#geoweirdness

6/ The modern borders were (with a few minor tweaks) set after WWII, with Poland 🇵🇱 transferring a large chunk of territory in the wast to the Soviet Union (now Lithuania 🇱🇹, Belarus 🇧🇾, and Ukraine 🇺🇦) and gaining German territories in the west.

The border with Germany 🇩🇪 was not fully finalized until 1992 following German reunification.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German%E2%80%93Polish_Border_Treaty

#geoweirdness

5/ Central Europe has of course been a region of great change over the centuries even into the modern era: not a single country that Poland 🇵🇱 bordered in 1990 still exists!

#geoweirdness

4/ The borders of Poland 🇵🇱 have changed many, many times over the years.

Wikipedia has a great guide full of maps:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_evolution_of_Poland

#geoweirdness

3/ Poland 🇵🇱 is famed for its sandy beaches, 1000s of lakes, and deep forests.

So you may be surprised to know it also has a desert.

The small Błędów Desert is not far from Krakow, and is jokingly refered to as the "Polish Sahara"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C5%82%C4%99d%C3%B3w_Desert

#geoweirdness

2/ At first glance you might think Poland 🇵🇱 does not have much #geoweirdness

The country has no exclaves or overseas territories.

Indeed, Poland is the 9th most rectangular country (Egypt 🇪🇬 is first):

https://pappubahry.com/misc/rectangles/

but there are a few bits of oddness

The last few weeks our weekly threads have been about OpenStreetMap, but this week we get back to #geoweirdness

Join us as we consider the geographic oddities of the Republic of Poland 🇵🇱

1/n

14/ We hope you enjoyed this thread about staying informed about OpenStreetMap. Thanks for reading and sharing, and have fun mapping and otherwise celebrating OSM's recent 19th birthday 🎂 🍾

We have many more threads about the #geoweirdness of specific countries, border disputes, geocoding, #geoeducation and more linked on our blog.

Enjoy: https://blog.opencagedata.com/geothreads

14/ We hope you enjoyed this thread about our OpenStreetMap community interviews. Thanks for reading and sharing, and have fun celebrating OSM's birthday 🎂

We have many more threads about the #geoweirdness of specific countries, border disputes, geocoding, #geoeducation and more linked on our blog. Some still on twitter, but week by week we are moving them to mastodon (and writing new threads)

Enjoy: https://blog.opencagedata.com/geothreads

14/ Thanks for reading (and sharing), we hope you enjoyed this #geoeducation thread.

We have many more threads about the #geoweirdness of specific countries, border disputes, geocoding, etc on our blog. Some still on twitter, but week by week we are moving them to mastodon (and writing new threads)

Enjoy: https://blog.opencagedata.com/geothreads

Time for this week's geothread, a dose of #geoeducation rather than #geoweirdness

Today we thought we'd cover a common geocoding use case: extracting the coordinates from images 📸 and geocoding the location the image was taken.

1/n

10/ Thanks for reading (and sharing). Let us know your favorite examples of #geoweirdness.

We have more threads about specific countries, border disputes, geocoding, etc on our blog. Some still on twitter, but week by week we are moving them to mastodon (and writing new threads)

Enjoy: https://blog.opencagedata.com/geothreads

#geoweirdness

9/ All of this weirdness is the “salt in the soup” (as we say in German) that makes geo interesting, though at times it can also make it very difficult for a geocoder to give the answer people expect (rather than the technically correct answer).

What's your favorite example?

#geoweirdness

8/ Another point of confusion is placenames that everyone knows and uses, but that have no official basis.

For example, tell anyone in London 🇬🇧 to meet you for dinner in Chinatown, and they know exactly where you mean. But it is not an "official" placename in any sense. But that's a topic for another thread

#geoweirdness