Small is Mysterous & Fascinating.

I just learned a new word today: "Manx"
yep, Manx is A word.
Can you guess what "Manx "actually is ?

I know it sounds more like something from some Sci Fi novel or maybe from a fantsay story à la Narnia but in fact Manx is a (real) Gaelic language from the Isle of Man - not that it helps most of us. The Isle of Man is one of those tiny countries that nobody really knows much about. Until today, I didn't know it even existed (you learn something new everyday). It is a self-governing democracy with a parliament, a flag and everything...

It's older than, say, Latvia, which is another of those small countries. There it is easy to guess what they speak - Latvian of course! Latvia is one of those nations that re-emerged after the breakdown of the USSR. And its capital is..... yes, very good, Riga.

But my favorite "small" country is still "Micronesia". The name has fascinated me for years - it sounds like it comes straight from one of Gulliver's Travels (although I have yet to find a name as weird as "Houynhnmland"). Micronesia is a soverieign state in "free association" with the US and it is located in the Pacific Ocean and that in itelf is enough to make me want to go there.