User blog:Marina Moreau/Contemporary European geography

Europe's landmass is a lot bigger than people actually tend to think- it finishes where the Ural Mountains and the Caucasus Mountains are. The centre of Europe is located in Lithuania. Still, there are adjusted cultural boundaries - for example Central Europe tends to be expanded to Luxembourg and Switzerland culturally, but generally not include Belarus and Ukraine. Simple? Yes. Ignored? All the time!

There are a lot of misconceptions. Number one - people confuse the European Union with Europe which is not the same. Western Europe (geographical term written with a miniscule) [[Western Bloc with Western Europe (relating to Western European Union, now defunct). Eastern Bloc is being confused with eastern Europe (which is a sore point in Central Europe, which suffered a lot from the USSR (located in Eastern Europe). The term Eastern Europe was created to respond to the Western Europe. In fact cultural Eastern Europe is occupied by only one country-Russia, which territory in Europe (called European Russia) is about 40%, leaving little room for other regions).

In addition, the terms Eastern Europe and Western Europe are quite controversial to use, since they relate to the Cold War, so wherever it is possible, it is necessary to change it not only due to political correctness but mainly because of a more geographical and/or cultural terminology. Europe is very perplexing. --Marina Moreau (talk) 09:32, January 13, 2013 (UTC)