Tour the World in Texas
Visit Palestine, Egypt, and Florence all without leaving the Lone Star State
By Michael Corcoran Illustrations by Nick Lu
Texas is perhaps the most self-contained state in the union, with the mindset of an island continent: Anything you need, you can get right here. That includes the itinerary of a world traveler. To visit Paris, London, Palestine, Athens, and Dublin, your gas card is the only passport needed. Borders crossed: zero.
Oh, you’ll rack up more miles than Willie Nelson’s bus driver in this ironic sojourn. The French and British cities of Paris and London, respectively, are actually closer together than their Lone Star counterparts. But Earth, just north of Lubbock, is only 470 miles from Mars, in Van Zandt County. Planet Earth is about 34 million miles from the Red Planet on the other hand—and not a Buc-ees along the route.
Sometimes the Texas towns were named by homesick immigrants. Berlin was a German settlement, for instance, while Praha (Prague) continues to show its Czech influence. The Ector County seat of Odessa was named after the city in the Ukraine, which also has a short-grass prairie landscape. The biggest difference is our Odessa puts goal posts on some rectangles of grass and uses an inordinate amount of electricity lighting up Friday nights.
It’s tough finding fresh names in such a huge state, but some of our ancestors maybe just got a little lazy. Internationally named Texas burgs often use alternate pronunciations to give it their own twist, so Italy is “It-lee” and Palestine is “Pal-es-TEEN” and Moscow is “Mos-COE” and Oxford is “Ox-erd.”
The Paris in Texas presents a replica of the Eiffel Tower sporting a cowboy hat, and our Dublin is best known for producing an iconic beverage the color of Ireland’s Guinness Stout, but many of our Euro-named townships don’t reflect the originals. There’s not a single four-piece rock band with killer harmonies in Liverpool, Texas, and nobody plays hockey in the Panhandle town of Canadian, where “eh” is how you pronounce the first letter of the alphabet, not something to tack onto every other sentence, eh?
With just under 100 residents, Geneva, in Sabine County, isn’t big enough to host any convention. Meanwhile, check out pizza’s second billing at Good Time Video and Pizza in Naples, Texas. The cries of “Mamma Mia!” can be heard all the way from the three-syllable Italy.
Other Texas towns that share names with countries include China, Scotland, Ireland, Egypt, and Turkey. But Bob Wills’ hometown is named after the bird, so “Turkish” food there comes with stuffing and cranberry sauce.
Let’s take a closer look at some of our internationally named towns. They may not have world-famous attractions, but they each have their charms.
