A Lifetime Goal
One of the advantages of traveling is meeting interesting people from around the world. When I was in Poland, during my five-month solo European journey in 2004, I met a couple that was also on a journey of their own, and we ended up enjoying a genuine Polish meal together. During this meal, I learned a bit about them and their travels, and they learned a bit about me and my travels. One very wonderful thing that they told me about themselves was their lifetime goal…they wanted to travel to 100 countries on this planet Earth! What a great goal, I thought! At that time, the couple had been to about 70 countries already!
This lifetime goal of theirs sparked my curiosity, and I wanted to know just how many countries there actually are in the world. I found an interesting article at http://geography.about.com/cs/countries/a/numbercountries.htm, stating that by most accounts, there are 195 countries; although the number varies a bit according to the source. There is even a link from this article to a list of all these 195 countries. So, this couple that I had met had set a goal of seeing about half of the countries of this planet!
I also wondered how far I would have to travel to reach this goal for myself, if I ever decided I wanted to try to accomplish it. As of March 2008, here is my tally, both from solo trips, and from travel with others:
United States (and I have been to about 37 of them, including 33 during a three-month trip in an R.V., and a solo excursion to Alaska)
Australia
New Zealand
Vietnam
17 countries during my five-month solo European journey, including Vatican City
7 countries during my “around the Baltic Sea in 15 days” trip
Iceland (a European country that I visited on its own vacation)
Canada (but do I really count that if I have only been to Victoria and Vancouver so far? sure, why not.)
Mexico
Jamaica
Belize
Puerto Rico (but that technically doesn’t count because it is a territory, so I shall not count it)
That is a total of 33. Not too bad, but definitely way more to go. So, let’s see…how can I visit 67 more countries in approximately the next 40 years?
*I could travel to 1.675 countries a year for the next 40 years.
*I could visit one country a year until I retire, and then I would need to see about 42 countries during retirement.
*I could explore 3.35 countries a year for the next 20 years.
*I could go see 2 countries a year for the first 20 years, and 1.35 countries for next 20 years.
*I could take a trip to 5 countries every other year for 13.4 years.
*I could journey to 28 countries this year, and one country a year for 39 years thereafter.
*Or I could just quit my job and travel to all 67 countries now…
Oh so many countries, so little time. And the exciting part is getting to choose which countries I would want to explore. I guess I better start planning my next vacation if I want to reach this goal…
Sweet Travels!
maps from maps.com
