I knew that! But only because I had a date in Constantinople, and she was waiting in Istanbul.
Even old New York was once New Amsterdam - but the name change there is pretty readily comprehensible, as it came with a change in ownership.
I’m guessing it may be because the Welsh name, like most Welsh placenames it seems, sounds like someone’s chocking on a piece of food.
Or the name of the Civil War / The War of Northern Agression itself …
Hm! Ignorance fought! I used to tell people I’ve been to both Gatineau and Hull, referring to the same trip where we visited my uncle in Ottawa, then drove across the bridge to what I thought was Hull, only to leave Hull and go up into the hills to Gatineau Park (named, I thought, for the nearby town I heard about that I assumed was between Hull and the Park and I figured we must have driven through if so) for a picnic lunch (with a great view)
I think it is still largely segregated but you’d have to ask a local about whether it has become more integrated in recent years. Walking around the walls, there’s a clearly visible Protestant enclave festooned with flags and murals.
You misspelled Doire.
I don’t know if an airport counts, but there’s a small percentage of fools who think that “National Airport” near Washington, DC has been re-named for Ronald Reagan. These people are idiots.
At some point I started calling it Gatineau-Hull, and generally find it easier to continue doing so (in the rare occasions it comes up - the fact is I don’t know the area well enough to even know which original town I’d be in anyways!) Was that popular for a while? I wonder where I picked it up?
My friend wants me to pick her up at “Trudeau” airport this weekend…I hope she means Dorval, since that’s where I’ll be! 
Unfortunately, the news media seem to have gone along with this “Reagan Airport” nonsense.
Yeah, she has family living nearby in Froncysyllte and Rhosllannerchrugog - I feel like a cat with a hairball trying to pronounce them!
Unless I’m being whooshed (which is a very real possibility with me - I’ve been whooshed so much Transport Canada has installed a runway on my scalp!) and this is sarcasm, isn’t the proper names of the respective airports Reagan National Airport and Montreal-Trudeau? (Or, as I fear, this is Doper intransigence against renaming for a political figure they don’t care for)
Am I right that Bangkok is known to its inhabitants as Krung-thep?
It’s intransigence, perfectly justifiable intransigence. Congress changed the name of Washington National Airport against the wishes of the overwhelming majority of the local residents as a political fuck-you. They also forced the constantly underfunded Metro system to incur unnecessary expenditures in changing all the signs in the subway system from “National Airport” to “Reagan National Airport.”
And “proper names”? Fuck that.
"Montréal- Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport / Aéroport international Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau de Montréal ". The name “Montréal-Trudeau” distinguishes it from “Montréal-Mirabel”, which is closed to passenger traffic but is still run by the ADM.
Trudeau used to be called Montréal-Dorval International Airport, and most people I know who grew up in the province still call it Dorval (the name only changed in 2004). I think it will eventually shift to the new name, but it’s going to take a while.
Correct. Krung Thep means “City of Angels” and is short for the full name: Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Yuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Phiman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit.
That means: “The city of angels, the great city, the eternal jewel city, the impregnable city of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukarma.”
Yes, schoolchildren have to memorize it. Then they forget it later on, as many of the words are archaic, and the children don’t even know what they mean. They’re just repeating sounds (like with the Pledge of Allegiance. ;)).
“Bangkok” means “place of olive trees or groves.” A few people think it’s from the word for “island,” from when the city was crisscrossed by rivers and canals, but that’s a decidedly minority viewpoint. Only foreigners Say “Bangkok” now, but the Thais all know the word. However, they pronounce it more like “Bahng Gawk.”
It was used before the merger because, as said, Hull was the central city while Gatineau was the larger city in the region. Today I don’t hear it much.
What’s ironic is that as prime minister, Pierre Trudeau was largely responsible for the building of Mirabel Airport, which was intended to become Eastern Canada’s main airport. The westward shift in Canada’s economic centre, as well as the excessive distance between Mirabel Airport and Montreal, led to its decline and eventual closure to passenger transport. And then they named the other airport in Dorval for Trudeau.
The Montreal central bus station uses a vocal system with pre-recorded messages to call passengers to the boarding gates. They’ve all been recorded several years ago by a female speaker. When the airport was renamed they re-recorded its name on the boarding message, with a male voice. So for a few years the message they played was this one:
<Female voice>Passengers traveling to</Female voice><Male voice>Trudeau airport</Male voice><Female voice>please proceed to door #…</Female voice>.
More recently they went back to what I assume was the original message, so the same female voice now says Dorval airport.