10 Degrees of the World - Part VI Quiz

Answer: Montevideo

Although the Uruguayan peso is the official currency, many products are offered for sale in US dollars in Uruguay and ATM machines dispense both currencies. The city has 14 miles of public beaches on the Rio de la Plata. Montevideo is the southernmost capital city in South America, and Buenos Aires sits upstream. Uruguay is referred to as the "Switzerland of the Americas" because of its solid economy and structured banking system. Sister cities of Montevideo include Mexico City, Paris, and Havana.

Answer: Saint Petersburg

The city was renamed Petrograd, after Peter the Great, in 1914 and then Leningrad, after Vladimir Lenin, in 1924. With the fall of the Soviet empire in 1991, Saint Petersburg was reinstated. Peter the Great founded the city in 1703, looking for a port city in which to build the Russian navy and to Westernize Russian society. Saint Petersburg was the capital of Russia for over 200 years, and today is the largest European city that is not a capital. Situated on the Neva River, Saint Petersburg has more bridges than any European city and features 170 km of coastline. Sister cities of Saint Petersburg include Melbourne, Helsinki, and Rio de Janeiro.

Answer: Manchester

Along with the legendary Manchester United and City teams, The Football League (the precursor to the Premiership) was also founded in Manchester in 1887. With a team of top scientists assembled, Ernest Rutherford first split the atom, a discovery that led to the beginning of atomic weapons. Also in Manchester you can find the UK's oldest public library with over 60,000 books published before 1851.

It was there that Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels began to pen the "Communist Manifesto". Sister cities of Manchester include Wuhan, China, Faisalabad, Pakistan, and Cordoba, Spain.

Answer: Los Angeles

In 1892, oil was struck in the area that now holds Dodger Stadium, and by 1923 25% of American oil was coming out of what is now Tinseltown. But how did the movie industry take over the refineries? Thomas Edison. Edison held most of the country's film patents in his New Jersey home. To avoid getting into intellectual property disputes with Edison, movie makers escaped to the west. Sitting on the San Andreas Fault, LA is actually moving 0.25 inches a year towards San Francisco, meaning it is 15 million years away from reaching the Bay Area's current location. Sister cities of Los Angeles include Taipei, Jakarta, and Vancouver.

Answer: Jakarta

Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia, despite not actually being a city. The province of Jakarta is the actual capital, and roughly 23 million people call the area home, with around ten million calling the city proper, home. According to a "Forbes" report in 2012, Jakarta was chosen as the city with the most active Twitter city, ahead of London, New York City, and Tokyo. Sister cities of Jakarta include Mexico City, Seoul, and Berlin.

Answer: Sydney

The bridge of course is the Sydney Harbour Bridge, constructed in 1932. The bridge took over 272,000 litres of paint just for the first coat. The nearby Sydney Opera House took 14 years and over 10,000 workers to complete. The city originally became known as Sydney after Thomas Townshend, Lord Sydney, who was instrumental in establishing the colony.

A very popular travel destination, the longest non-stop passenger flight in the world operates from Sydney to Dallas. Sister cities of Sydney include San Francisco, Wellington, and Guangzhou.

Answer: Florence

Only one bridge in Florence was not destroyed during the German occupation of the city in the Second World War. Legend says Hitler himself said the Ponte Vecchio was too beautiful to be destroyed. Many key Renaissance figures lived in Florence, including explorer Amerigo Vespucci, astronomer Galileo Galilei, philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli, painters Michelangelo, Rafael, and sculptor Donatello.

The de Medici family was a political dynasty that lasted four centuries through the Renaissance, and produced four popes during that time.

Some sister cities of Florence include Budapest, Taipei, and Istanbul.

Answer: Riga

The coastal city of Riga sits only around 1-10 meters above sea level, and it lies on the Gulf of Riga. It has been the capital of Latvia since the country gained independence during the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The city features over 800 Art Nouveau style buildings, and was named the European Capital of Culture for 2014. If you're looking for a unique meal, why not try the Hospitalis restaurant? Run by Latvian doctors, you can dine in a room similar to an operating room and where the waitresses are dressed like nurses.

Some sister cities of Riga are Dallas, Saint Petersburg, and Cairns

Answer: Warsaw

Warsaw was founded around 1300, and became the capital of Poland in 1546. The doors to the Poland's oldest public library, the Zaluski Library, opened in 1747 and remain open today. If books aren't your thing, Warsaw also has a museum dedicated to posters, the world's first poster museum, which opened in 1968. Over 50,000 are on display daily. If you were to ask for a pizza during your stay in Warsaw, you'd be delivered one without tomato sauce. Tomato sauce comes as a side, and you would have to add it yourself.

The Warsaw Pact was a defence treaty involving communist countries, in operation during the Cold War years. Sister cities of Warsaw include Paris, Toronto, and Buenos Aires.

Answer: Taipei

Taipei is the capital of Taiwan, but the surrounding area, called New Taipei City, is the most populated city in the country. The two cities combined are home to eight million people. Taipei 101 was the world's tallest building from its completion in 2004 until the Burj Khalifa was finished in 2010.

The building is 101 stories tall, plus five more underground. Some sister cities of Taipei include Boston, Johannesburg, and Panama City.