I take geography quizzes for fun

And, yes, I know that makes me a nerd.

My current favorite way to unwind is to play the Traveler IQ Challenge on Facebook. It's basically...a geography quiz. The map is small and blank, the borders are hard to see, and the clues get harder and the timer gets faster as the game goes on. With each clue, you have to place a flag where you think the location is. There are several iterations of the game - my current favorite is the Photos of the World challenge of locating famous buildings and monuments on the world map after seeing only a picture.

Many of the famous places fall into the I Should Know That or Everybody Seems To Know That But Me categories (there are many places I know, of course), but I broke the ones I decided to read about into other categories for my own amusement.

In the I Only Know Their Names Because I Play Rise of Nations category, there's Angkor Wat (a religious temple in Northern Cambodia built around the 12th Century) and the TerraCotta Warriors (life-size and unique warriors modeled in clay that guard the mausoleum of the ruthless Qin, first emperor of China).

In the I Only Knew Where This Was Because I Play Around In Google Earth category, there's Easter Island (2000 miles west of Chile) and Christ the Redeemer.

In the I've Heard of These Places Somehow, but Never Knew What They Looked Like or What Their Significance Was category, we have the White Cliffs of Dover (referenced by Julius Caesar and Shakespeare, and a historical point of British defense against neighbors due to their location along the English Channel) and the Rock of Gibraltar. The UK got Gibraltar from Spain in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht. Its a little strip of land on the southern tip of the Iberian peninsula that borders the (get this!) Straight of Gibraltar. Also, it was one of the pillars of Hercules.

In the No Matter How Often I Take The Quiz I Can't Keep These Straight category you'll find The Galapagos Islands (a volcanic archipelago and province of Ecuador considered part of the Ecuadorian national park system), Antigua and Barbuda (part of the Caribbean Leeward Islands (so named because they are away from the wind)), and Seychelles, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, northeast of Madagascar.

In the I Knew What These Were But Had Never Seen a Picture category, there's the Blarney Castle and The Hague.

In the I'm right and my husband's wrong category, we have The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao Spain. There is MORE THAN ONE Guggenheim Museum. (We've been debating this for years, but he won't let me show him the proof). :)

In the I can place the flag within 70 km every time because I've been there category we have Chichen Itza, The Pantheon, and the CN Tower, and the Hofbrauhaus.

Man, I want a vacation.