Posted on 21. Oct, 2009 by Flauwy

Europe in Your Head

The waiting is over: Today you will learn how to memorize the countries of Europe. I will give you many examples which will help you to understand the process. But enough with the pretext – let’s roll!

Preparation

I wrote an entire article about the proper preparation for this task. Please have a look at it before you proceed.

Make sure you have your wardrobe and your keyword ready. You will need both to memorize the countries my way. Of course you can use one of the other techniques I described in my previous article. But today I will show you how to use the locked wardrobe system to memorize the countries and capitals of Europe.

I will use my personal wardrobe for all my examples. Please don’t get confused by the persons I use. They evolved over time. You will only see occasionally the relation to the Major System. What you should do for yourself is to replace them with your own pegs from your own wardrobe. Maybe you will even create your complete own stories. I will only show you one possible solution to associate the information with each other.

The Countries & Capitals

In the table above you can see four different columns. Each column is one fourth of the stories we will create. The numbers will be replaced with the pegs from our wardrobes. The keyword I use is the bull because of the greek myth of Europa. She was abducted by Zeus in the form of a bull. This horned little buddy will follow us through all our stories. It is the representative of all our associations for Europe. Of course you can replace it with any other keyword you prefer.

I left out the following countries:

• Russia
• Armenia
• Azerbaijan
• Georgia
• Kazakhstan

They will all be in the upcoming article “Asia in Your Head” because their location is critical and more adequate in the Asian continent.

Examples

I will dissociate myself from any possible connections you might have with these associations. They are all for memory purposes only. I am not preaching any political or religious thoughts.

The stories will be colored as followed:

• Pegword = red
• Keyword = green
• Country = blue
• Capital = purple

1. Dad is riding on a bull over an icy land.
2. When the heavy bull asks Noah to enter the arc he says “No way! We would be too slow with you.”
3. Naruto wants to make a blond Swedish girl a present: Because he is too shy to give it to her himself, he attaches a valuable stock to a bulls horn using a holm.
4. A Deer and a bull want to settle their differences in a final race over land and water. The looser will sink and go to hell.
5. Bruce Lee is fighting with a bull: in one hand he is holding a stone, in the other one he is using a talon.
6. Cpt. Jack Sparrow is whispering latently into a bulls ear that he needs Viagra to get rigid again.
7. The Cow is making a lithographic print of a bull in a wellness center lying on a massage bench.
8. The Fairy is looking for the stolen copper bull. She marks a den where she expects the thief Hagen of Tronje hiding from her.
9. J-Lo is pole vaulting over a crazy war-bull with a chainsaw
10. Bart Simpson is pursuit by a wild bull whereas walking an American mink on a russian belt.
11. The Grim Reaper is sitting in a small crane with a bull hanging from the cable rope. With his bony index finger he points at Kiefer Sutherland and says: “YOU“. Then he drops the bull above Kiefers head.
12. Santa Clause is staring at the mold of a bull in front of the river Vltava. Slowly he starts Tai Chi to overcome his terrible nausea.
13. The Beagle Boys are dressed like roman legionnaires. They are all sitting on a wooden bull and pose for a marble statue. Together they are holding a huge book above their heads. This is so exhausting that they need a rest every couple minutes.
14. The fat Construction Worker is so hungry that he is dreaming of a roasted bull. But all he got is a disgusting black Budweiser contagioned with the pest.
15. Odie is sleeping. A warm breath is puffing in his ear. Slowly he is waking up wondering what the brat Garfield wants. When he blinks he is starring in the angry eyes of a bull which are looking like glowing lava.
16. My girlfriend Joanna is playing chess with a bull. She is two moves away from being checkmate. She is praying for a miracle but she guesses that it will not help her.
17. Myself is playing king. The only subject in my monarchy is a loyal bull who bows before me.
18. The Pope has been announced leader of whole Italy and moves with his stuff to the Colosseum in Rome. He is celebrating this event with sacrificing a bull single handedly.
19. Since the Vatican is now empty its only inhabitant is a Dove of peace. But instead of an olive twig it is carrying around a bone of the sacrificed bull all over Vatican City.
20. Pinocchio’s son (a tiny version of Pinocchio) wants to go to the marines. But only if he is able to ride a bull through the whole city, Pinocchio will agree to that.
21. Angelina Jolie is slowly cutting her veins with a bulls horn because Brad forgot about their jubilee.
22. A Nun is watching how a bull is fed to a bunch of crocodiles in an Asian crocodile farm. According to a saga she must grab herself a piece of the bull and eat it to sanctify herself.
23. Cpt. Nemo wants to be the boss with all his heart. So he is going to become Governor of the Sahara. In a ceremonial devolution the former owner, the white bull of the desert, is empowering him.
24. The Fool is working as a mount for a negro bull. But the bull is listening to very aggressive music on his iPod so he gores the poor fool.
25. Cleopatra is calling for her bull-butler with a bell: “Sir, I want a beer.” An instant later she is getting a fresh bottle with the highest grade available.
26. In Darwin’s office is chaos: He attempts to dress a bull like a soviet soldier. It is a question of prestige because Tina Turner is coming and she demands to ride a Russian bull.
27. The bull has got a bulge in one of his horns. He tried to sing an aria but Michael Jordan punched him for this awful attempt. Now he has to lie down on a sofa because he is dizzy.
28. The nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie are wearing a feathered headdress made out of turkey feathers. They are dancing around a bull strapped to a heavy anchor.
29. Jan Ullrich, Cypruss Hill and the white bull are chilling together. They seem to be on another level and they feel extremely cozy. Maybe they have smoked something?
30. Micky Mouse is greasing a statue of the goddess Athena in her armor sitting a bull. It looks new and shiny after he has finished.
31. Samson and the white bull are fighting against a giant scorpion. Samson is armed with a mace but his bull is acting like a prima donna, hiding behind Samson. He hadn’t got his breakfast today.
32. Osama bin Laden and the bull are flying on a huge Albatross. The bird is making such an annoying tirade that they are holding their ears.
33. The bull is making the Mummy a war paint with malt. They are preparing for a vendetta against their enemies.

I think you got it by now. It took me about five minutes for each story. Sometimes it is very difficult to come up with something good. Then you have to search for anything that reminds you of the country or the capital. So far I haven’t created any associations for the missing countries because I know the Western-Europe countries very well. But now you now how to do it.

Repeat your stories

Although these stories are great to help your memory they are still kind of complicated. You will forget many of them if you don’t train them. A very good way to do so is by using a flashcard system. I recently introduced the readers of memory-Sports.com to an excellent free programme Charles suggested to me. It is called the Mnemosyne Project. You will have to repeat those stories from time to time. But this is still so much more effective than learning all the countries and capitols without this help.

Please let me know if you found this helpful or what I should add/change for all the upcoming articles about “The World in Your Head”.

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Tags: Europe, Locked Wardrobe Method