We're Celebrating Eurovision With Fun Facts About Europe (& Australia)

This week is all about Eurovision, with the grand final taking place in Turin tomorrow. To celebrate, we’ve picked our favourite fun facts about the 25 finalists. Plus we take a look at how Stikins are packed and despatched for delivery to your door!

Our Favourite Facts About This Year’s Fantastic Eurovision Finalists

To celebrate the finale, we’ve picked our favourite fun facts about each of the 25 finalists. Did you know that…

1. There are over 2,000 castles and stately homes in the Czech Republic. This includes Prague Castle, which is the largest ancient castle in the world.
2. Romania’s Palace of Parliament is the second largest administrative building in the world (by volume) - only the Pentagon is larger. It is also the heaviest building on the planet at around 4 million metric tons).
3. Portugal’s Praia do Norte beach is famous for its giant waves. Six of the ten biggest waves ever surfed occurred at this beach. This includes the current world record, which saw Rodrigo Koxa surf a 24.4m (80ft) wave.
4. Each year the UN produces a World Happiness Report, which ranks countries by national happiness. Finland has been named as the happiest country in the world for five years in a row (2018-2022).
5. Switzerland has “quiet hours” (including the whole of Sunday) when noisy or disruptive activities are banned. This includes mowing the lawn, vacuuming, loud DIY, washing cars, or hanging out washing!
6. The most popular country in the world to visit is France! According to recent World Tourism rankings (2019), France receives over 89 million international tourists each year.
7. Colonel-in-Chief of the Norwegian King's Guard is a Scottish penguin called Nils Olav III. The King's Guard adopted the original Nils Olav as a mascot in 1961 after visiting the Edinburgh Military Tattoo.
8. An Armenian cave is home to the earliest known winery (6100 years old) and the oldest known leather shoe (5,500 years old). Both are older than Stonehenge and the Pyramids of Giza!
9. Italy may be home to the world’s most haunted island. Poveglia was used as a quarantine zone for plague victims for hundreds of years and over 100,000 people died there. It is now illegal to visit the island.  
10. Once a year year, Spain hosts La Tomatina – the world’s biggest food fight. 20,000 participants gather in the little town of Bunol to throw over one hundred metric tons of over-ripe tomatoes at each other!
11. The Netherlands are home to more bikes than people. Recent estimates counted 22.9 million bikes for a population of 17 million (or 1.3 bikes per person).
12. Ukraine is the produces the most sunflower seeds in the world. In the crop year from 2021-2022, they produced around 17.5 million metric tons of sunflower seeds.
13. Germany is home to the largest pet shop in the world. Filling a 130,000 square foot warehouse, Zoo Zajac houses over 250,000 animals from 3,000 different species. Tours are available and take 2-5 hours.
14. Lithuania has more hot air balloons per person than any other country in the world. The capital, Vilnius, is the only European city where you can fly directly over the city in a hot air balloon.
15. The city of Neft Daşları in Azerbaijan is also the world’s first offshore oil platform. Begun in 1949, the city is made up of artificial islands and sits 34 miles into the Caspian Sea. The islands are connected by trestle bridges, which are supported by metal stilts.
16. Belgium is home to over 2,000 chocolate companies and shops. Pre-pandemic, its biggest seller of chocolates was Brussels Airport, which reported sales of about 800 metric tons of chocolate each year (2 metric tons per day or 1.5kg per minute).
17. In Greece, name days are often considered more important than birthdays. In Greek Orthodox tradition, most days are dedicated to a saint; your name day is the day dedicated to the saint with whom you share your name.
18. Iceland was the last part of Europe to be settled and populated by human beings (around 874). It is also the youngest country in the world to have formed (it is approximately “just” 25 million years old).
19. Moldova is home to the largest wine cellar (over 1.5 million bottles are kept in 34 miles of underground galleries) and the largest bottle-shaped building (at 28 metres tall it houses the Strong Drinks Museum).
20. Sweden has the most islands of any country in the world. It is made up of 267,570 islands; around 24,000 are open to the public but only 984 are populated.
21. 80% of Australia’s animals are unique to Australia. This includes koalas, dingoes, wombats, emus, platypuses, quokkas, Tasmanian devils, lyrebirds, sugar gliders, thorny devils, and bilbies.
22. The UK is the nineth largest island in the world but you are never more than 75 miles from the sea!
23. Poland doesn’t use dubbing for foreign films and television shows. Instead, they use “lektoring” where one actor reading the parts of all of the characters over the top of the original soundtrack.
24. Serbia is home to the most expensive cheese in the world. Pule costs $600 - $1700 per pound (£450 - £1300) because it contains a special ingredient – milk from Balkan donkeys living in the Zasavica Special Nature Reserve.
25. Estonia is home to the pretty unique sport of Kiiking. Competitors are strapped into giant swing sets that allow for a 360 degree spin. Whoever completes a spin over the swing set to the greatest height wins!

Despatch & Delivery Of Stikins ® Name Labels To Your Chosen Destination

Over the years, we’ve honed our packaging and delivery services to ensure that your name labels arrive safely and securely at your chosen delivery address – and all as quickly as possible.

We pack each set of name labels into a storage bag with a parent information leaflet. Our bags are pre-printed with instructions for use and will keep your labels safe during delivery and storage at home.

Your order also comes with a VAT receipt detailing the item(s) you have purchased and a VAT breakdown.

We pack most orders in a small C5 envelope. We use an A4 envelope or small box for larger orders because this prevents the labels getting damaged. These envelopes have our brand name printed across the front in purple so you'll know when your name labels have arrived!

We use Royal Mail’s first class service as standard and delivery is free of charge! Royal Mail aim to deliver first class items on the next working day but items can be delayed. We advise that orders may take up to seven working days to arrive. If you need your labels urgently, please contact our Customer Service Team for further assistance.