Far Away Places with Strange Sounding Names

I'm not sure if anyone reads my boring-little-blog anymore, I have been away for so long, but just for fun I have decided to hold a contest, with the prize being a box of Purdy's chocolate hedgehogs.  They deliver anywhere in the world, so there are no restrictions.  The rules of the contest are this: correctly identify each of the four cities I have posted here.  For some folks, it should be very easy, for others ... not so much.  The relevance of this post is that each of these cities has a fairly high profile, and each of them is newsworthy in its own way.

The first person to correctly identify all four cities will receive the prize.  There are no clues, and no hints.  The prize is waiting to be awarded to the first person who guesses correctly.  Have fun, and good luck.

City No. 1

City No. 2

City No. 3

City No 4.

Far away places with strange sounding names
Far away over the sea
Those far away places with the strange sounding names are
Calling
Calling me
Goin' to China or maybe Siam
I wanna see for myself
Those far away places I've been reading about in a
Book that I took from a shelf
I start getting' restless whenever I hear the whistle of a train
I pray for the day I can get underway
And look for those castles in Spain
They call me a dreamer
Well maybe I am
But I know that I'm burning to see those
Far away places with the strange sounding names
Calling, calling me Me ~~ Willie Nelson

 

Winners:  In just a few short hours, we have two winners:  Leslie and Hilary.  Congratulations!

City No. 1 is Baghdad, Iraq.  City No. 2 is Damascus, Syria.  City No. 3 is Tehran, Iran.  City No. 4 is Nairobi, Kenya.  The reason is posted this is because all four cities have been in the news lately, and I have actually been hearing people say things like, "Does the Middle East have running water and electricity?" or "Where do people tie up their camels?"  Regarding Nairobi, I have heard people say, "Do they have malls made out of grass huts?"  These people were serious.  Tehran is twice the size of the city of New York, and all the other cities are larger than most North American cities.  How will we ever have peace and tolerance in this world, while we still have so much rampant ignorance?  These far away places with strange sounding names are actually sophisticated cities.