I'm a little behind in travel posts, but since I passed a few milestones I thought I'd dedicate a post to that. Today is my 26th birthday! It's no secret I love to travel. I made an arbitrary goal to travel to 30 countries before I turned 25... and fell one short. So, this past year I overcompensated. I traveled to 31 countries before I turned 26.
(Side note: how many countries are in the world? It depends on who you ask/how you count them/what definition you use. Counts range from 192 to 247. And it keeps changing! Do you count nation-states? Sovereign states? Territories? How do you count if you've 'been' to a country? So this is just how I've counted the 'countries' I've 'been to'. I don't really have a hard rule for what I count as a distinct 'country' but I use it when I believe it's a reasonable description for a geographic entity. And I only count having been there if I was physically there and left the airport/car/train. I don't have a rule about length of time. I'm not suggesting my way of counting a country I've been to is the right way, but it's how I count which countries I've been to for myself. According to a survey by Hostelworld, the average American adult visits 3 countries. While I feel lucky to have traveled to so many, there's still so much to see!)
In order:
(Side note: how many countries are in the world? It depends on who you ask/how you count them/what definition you use. Counts range from 192 to 247. And it keeps changing! Do you count nation-states? Sovereign states? Territories? How do you count if you've 'been' to a country? So this is just how I've counted the 'countries' I've 'been to'. I don't really have a hard rule for what I count as a distinct 'country' but I use it when I believe it's a reasonable description for a geographic entity. And I only count having been there if I was physically there and left the airport/car/train. I don't have a rule about length of time. I'm not suggesting my way of counting a country I've been to is the right way, but it's how I count which countries I've been to for myself. According to a survey by Hostelworld, the average American adult visits 3 countries. While I feel lucky to have traveled to so many, there's still so much to see!)
In order:
1. The United States (1992-2018)
2. Canada (1996)
3. Mexico (2002)
4. England (2003, 2006, 2012, 2014)
5. France (2003, 2005, 2008, 2014)
6. Germany (2005, 2006, 2008, 2012, 2014)
7. Italy (2005, 2006, 2012, 2014)
8. Switzerland (2005)
9. Czech Republic (2005)
10. Austria (2005, 2006, 2014)
11. Spain (2005, 2012)
12. Vatican City (2006, 2012, 2014)
13. Slovenia (2006)
14. Croatia (2006)
15. Scotland (2006, 2012, 2014)
16. Belgium (2008, 2014)
17. the Netherlands (2008, 2014)
18. Greece (2012)
19. Northern Ireland (2012)
20. Ireland (2012)
21. Turkey (2012)
22. Wales (2012)
23. Norway (2014)
24. Hungary (2014)
25. Sweden (2014)
26. South Korea (2015)
28. Japan (2016)
29. Colombia (2016)
30. Costa Rica (2017-2018)
31. Iceland (2018)
