Fifty, Plus Four: Country Counting

As I crossed the border from Montenegro to Croatia last year, I reached my 50th country.

According to the map program above, I have now visited 24% of the world, being 54 countries.

In the past 12 months, I have added the Solomon Islands, Greece, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, the United Arab Emirates, and Taiwan.

The challenge now will be to keep the momentum of visiting new places each year, as I face the prospect of getting a job in one place, without so much time to travel!

You can check out the progress of this map this the beginning of this blog, 10 years ago now, here through my Visited Countries tag.

Just One Fifth Of The World Visited

This year I have added two new countries to the map for my annual Visited Countries post, by visiting, collecting a stamp in my most treasured possession - my passport - slept the night, spent the currency and seen a touristy thing.

visited 46 states (20.4%)

Create your own visited map of The World

So that's 20% of the world's countries I have been to! Just a fifth of the whole world!

This past 12 months, I have added Nauru and mostly recently, Tonga. Two Pacific islands, which not too many people get to!

I also went back to New Zealand, and toured around South Africa again.

What about you, beloved reader? How many places does your version of the map show? Share with me in the comments below!

Reviewing The Country Map

visited 44 states (19.5%)
Create your own visited map of The World
44!

In this past twelve months I completed my 3.5 months in Canada, with several trips into the USA. Then I returned home for a little bit to save for the next travel stint. The New Year saw me return to Cambodia, and Thailand, via Malaysia, before visiting Burma, Nepal and India for the first time. 8 countries in 12 months, 4 new ones to me.

When I was travelling with Fi and Dave, and after we had completed our amazing visit to Agra and the Taj Mahal, I checked out their running list of the Wonders of the World they had visited. The Natural, the Ancient, the Man Made, the Industrial, the Modern. Fi is also working through a list of countries with every letter of the alphabet. She is streets ahead on the country count, and hasn’t yet been to Europe! Ahh, there will always be lists!

This is an annual post I have been doing since I was living in London, and I am pretty pleased each year to see a little more red on that map, a few more pages used up in my passport, and to have a host more travel stories to share and remember, and ultimately, a greater understanding of the world.

How many have you managed to experience, to date? Where are your wanderlust plans aiming for next? I think I need to target one of those continents that is lacking some red coverage!

Country Count

My trip to Dominica last month had the number of countries in my travel career (!!) to forty. 40! I am pretty impressed with that, even though there are still so many places I want to visit. I think I have made a decent start in seeing the world and experiencing all that I can.

There is always constant banter among my travel mates about our country count, and what really constitutes the ability to count a country. I think last discussions have concluded that you need to have slept in the country, spent the currency, and been to a touristy thing. Although what list of countries you base this on is a whole other discussion! All in fun, with people who love travel and experiencing new places - and challenging each other!

I have been doing this post every year since this blog started, and it usually finds me either just back from travels or about to start some - I am at the latter today! Tomorrow, in fact! Can't wait. Although these particular plans are not going to add to the map below.

So in the past 12 months I have added places that haven't made a huge red impact, due to the actual size of them, but have included New Caledonia and Vanuatu, and then Trinidad and Tobago and Dominica. I have revisited the USA, Sri Lanka and Barbados during this time too.


visited 40 states (17.7%)

I am thinking that 60 by 40 could be an achievable goal for me! How many places have you visited around The World?

A Great Travel Year

visited 36 states (16%)

I know in January I was making comment about how good 2010 was for me, but come mid-May and this annual post, all that new red on the map just spells out how amazing it was!

Adding Czech, amazing Russia, surprisingly special Mongolia and mindblowing China. One of the best trip I've ever done, with some of the top experiences of my life.

I also visited France, New Zealand and Ireland again in the last 12 month span...AND managed to go to most of the Aussie capitals for the cricket, and drove across the country! Bloody awesome year!

How many have you been to?

Getting Back On The Long Haul

Whilst a couple of my mates are currently fighting it out over their very impressive and highly competitive country count, as a physical challenge, my annual Visited Countries post is the same as last year.


visited 32 states (14.2%)

But there is no room for despair, because if I can finish off this final essay for uni, and get my caseload organised, and get someone to drive me to the airport on Friday night, I am off again to colour in a major area of this map. Very exciting, and something I have wanted to do for years and years.

So, I have had to retire my well loved and much traveled passport, and my new little blue book with it's chip in it has been sent off for 3 page-sized new stickers, ready for this trip. I have been in discussions with my GP, and I have my clexane injections at the ready. With my flights, I will have before and one after my big long haul flight, fun. And then one on the way back, which is just a 10 hour flight. And some up my sleeve for any leg cramp niggles....when in doubt, jab, I guess! Plus the peg legs, I will also have to try to remember not to sleep for the whole first flight, and get up and walk around. One of those annoying people, but I'll do anything not to have another DVT!

I have also just paid for my travel insurance, with my pre-existing coverage for DVT, ohhhh, the Carribean cricket trip that keeps on giving!

A Year Ago

This time last year I was sitting in Melbourne International Airport, awaiting my flight for my "trip of a life time". A whole year ago. Blissfully unaware of DVT, and hanging for cricket in the Caribbean.

That trip meant that calculating my Visited Countries annual map, I got to add Jamaica, Antigua, amazing Cuba and Barbados to the count.

My trip last year allowed me to catch up with Talia in NYC, and everyone in London too. Plus introduced me to a whole bunch of top blokes and sheila's through Waving The Flag.

Since then, getting back to international travel after the DVT scare and threat to the continued infection of the travel bug, my trip across the ditch with Mum has also let me collect another stamp in my passport.


visited 32 countries (14.2%)

So much white space remaining! With my passport full, and 5 useless months of validity, effectively making my trusty, crusty, mouldy little blue book null and void, I am in much need of some travel inspiration! At the moment, it may be a static year, till this time next year, again. Time will tell!

Heading Off

It's around this time of year that I have been posting my Visited Countries map...but sadly in this 12 month period, I have been NOWHERE new! How scary and new for me! Hee hee!

That said though, I am writing this from the International Departure lounge in Melbourne, ready for a hugh trip! I have finished all the work I had to do, handed over my cases to Consultant babysitters for 5 weeks, and packed (rather hastily this monring). And now I am about to board my first of 13 flights, off to 10 different country stops (including stopovers), for a trip I have been planning for months and months and months. It's been a long time of cheese and bread for lunch!!

So this afternoon I am off to New York City, via Bangkok airport. So excited!

Visited Countries

For the last couple of years around this time, I have filled in the Visited Countries form and displayed the countries I have visited. Not so may additions since the last installment of this exercise, but still, some!


create your own visited countries map

I have added just four more countries in this last 12 months (now 27). Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain. However during this time I did pop in on several countries I had already been to, like Ireland and Sweden, and then to parts of Australia that I had yet to see.

But it's harder to travel to other countries from Australia - you need the big trip. Plus now that I have a real job, and since passing my three month probation, I will need to accumulate leave! The turmoil of a grounded travel bug!

The challenge is set!

How many have you been to?

Big world after all

It has been a year since I had a play on the Visited Countries page, and looked at the spread of places I have visited. At that time my country count was 14 countries, which was 6% of the countries in the world.

One year on, my map looks like this...


And I have visited 23 countries, which is just 10% of the big, wide world!

Seeing the places of Europe, I must admit, has a bit of a ticking off feel to it. I want to see all the much traveled cities of Europe, so I can get back to the rest of the world!! These cities are gorgeous...but not so....unvisited by everyone else.

There is still a lot of white spaces on my globe there!

So much more to see...

I am hanging about in London at the moment with loads of free time, as my current client works! Very cool. And it's actually a pretty good assignment so far - client is lovely, and it almost doesn't feel like work at all! I am here in this assignment for 2 and a half weeks.

I caught up with Dom, finally, the other day for lunch and a catch up. Swapping care work stories, current poverty (as usual), and imposing-on-other-people's-good-hearts-for-places-to-sleep-when-not-working stories! Was so good to see her, and know that there is someone else I know out here, hanging around!

I was reading this on Caitlin's blog the other day, and thought I would check out my map...


Posted by Hello
According to this, I have visited (meaning stayed overnight - so my day trip to Mexico back in 1991 with the family is not counted, and stopovers in airports also not counted!) 14 countries thus far. That's just 6% of the world!!

So all my time of traveling, and all that travel related debt, has only amounted to me seeing and experiencing 6% of the great big wide world!! So much more to see and learn about! Wow!