I don't have any trouble with the little countries of West Africa, except that the last time I took the Sporkle test I blanked for a minute on the name of Burkina Faso. The only areas that sometimes make me a bit nervous are ex-Soviet Central Asia, and the clusters of smaller island countries.
What all these have in common is that they weren't independent and/or under these names in my childhood. I spent endless hours upon hours poring over maps when I was around ten years old, and that's why I know this stuff so well. It's what's happened more recently that I'm sometimes more shaky on, although one of my other parlor tricks is to guess the date of a globe from its political boundaries and names.
That doesn't explain why I know which one is Slovakia and which one is Slovenia, but I guess that's because I've always been particularly interested in Europe.
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What all these have in common is that they weren't independent and/or under these names in my childhood. I spent endless hours upon hours poring over maps when I was around ten years old, and that's why I know this stuff so well. It's what's happened more recently that I'm sometimes more shaky on, although one of my other parlor tricks is to guess the date of a globe from its political boundaries and names.
That doesn't explain why I know which one is Slovakia and which one is Slovenia, but I guess that's because I've always been particularly interested in Europe.