Looking at your photos and reading your threads, many of you folks are quite well travelled! Some of you have visited some absolutely amazing places that we would all be envious of. So, how about listing the countries that you visited? (extra kudos are in order if any of you have been to outer space or Antartica. ) I have visited a handful, but not nearly as many as I would like to before I die (e.g. I have never set foot on the continent of Africa). Here is my list in the best alphabetical order that I can muster: Australia Austria Barbados Belgium Canada China Czech Republic France Germany Greece Holy See Hong Kong Hungary Ireland Italy Luxembourg Malaysia Netherlands Norway Singapore Slovak Republic Switzerland Trinidad and Tobago Turkey United Kingdom United States Venezuela
Australia Belgium Belize Canada El Salvador France Germany Kuwait Liechtenstein Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Niue Papua New Guinea Solomon Islands Switzerland United Kingdom USA Zimbabwe Will be adding another two in July. Hix
Antigua and Barbuda Austria Belgium Czech Republic Denmark Dominica France Germany Greece Hungary Ireland Italy Luxembourg Malaysia Nepal Netherlands Poland Portugal Slovakia Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom United States of America Vatican City Vietnam Plus Jersey, which isn't technically a country in its own right but also not technically part of the UK!
You guys have visited some really diverse and 'off the beaten track' countries! Niue? Solomon Islands? Antigua? Nice!
This "poll" made me think! Let's see: Canada Costa Rica Chile Argentina (well, for a couple of hours) Peru Antarctica Madeira UK France Greece Italy Portugal St. Kits and Nevis Antigua and Barbuda Israel China Makes me think about the places I haven't been yet!
Antigua's an odd story actually (I've only been to the island of Antigua, but added '...and Barbuda' as that's the country's name!). We were only supposed to pass through the airport (in which case I wouldn't have counted it for the list!*) on our way to and from Dominica, but the airline we'd booked with for the Dominica-Antigua flight went bust while we were there, and when we rebooked it the return flight ended up being about 12hrs earlier than planned. Luckily, rather than deal with the prospect of a whole day in a relatively small, stuffy airport, one of our party remembered you could get a day pass to enter Antigua if you had a flight out the same day. So we ended up with a rather pleasant day in a beach bar! (and an extra stamp in the passport and about an extra half-dozen bird/lizard species I've never seen elsewhere!) *Bahrain and United Arab Emirates also have airports I've passed through but never left - though Bahrain's not very big so you saw a large proportion of the island during take-off and landing!
I forgot two: Palau Federated States of Micronesia (Yap, Truk, Pohnpei) Then I also include Jersey, and Guam too! Hix
Maguari, one of my friends once told me that you cannot say you visited a country unless you: a. left the airport/train/ship b. took a crap there c. ate a meal there So transits don't count, but your Antigua visit counts. Hix, feel free to edit your list. I edited mine twice already - I forgot that I hit a couple conferences in New York and Boston, and I forgot my 2 hour visit to Slovakia. I included the latter because although I did not take a crap there, we did a day trip from Vienna to Bratislava, and the city had enough crap already. I hated that city.
Better knock El Salvador of my list then. I didn't leave the airport, but was ready to crap myself several times while I was there. Rather scary.
Canada USA Mexico Cuba Peru Argentina Brazil Spain United Kingdom France Italy Vatican Germany Hungary Croacia Still have australia, asia and africa to go. The vatican is the only country i have visited with no zoo, though the vatican gardens does have some exotic birds. I did a tour with fellow university teachers which was led by a latin american priest. Just some peacocks and waterfowl, and some koi also. On the organic elements mentioned,I do not remember any places to eat at the Vatican, but the museums do have some restrooms.
I think train and boat rides through countries need to be judged on a case-by-case basis - it's conceivable you could take a Danube cruise from Vienna to Belgrade and not get off in the whole Hungary stretch but if you passed through in daylight it would be a bit harsh to disallow that! (for the record, all of those on my above include at least 2hr of 'walking-about' time, and all bar three included at least one night in the country - Antigua, Luxembourg and of course the Vatican being the exceptions)
My list is considerably smaller: Jersey Germany France Belgium Spain Costa Rica Mexico (I spent eight hours waiting for a transfer in Mexico City airport- surely that counts?)
Are we allowed to list the country we live in I'm going to do everything in my power to make this list a little less embarrisingly short, as all of our holidays tend to be in the UK: Spain Canary Islands [Tenerife and Gran Canaria] I've been on a bus through France and stopped at Motorway services. England Wales Scotland
This is not a "c**k measuring contest" folks. It doesn't matter if your list is small. For example, Javan Rhino, I lived for a few years in England, and yet I never visited Wales or Scotland, so you have a few on me. In fact, I would love to visit Spain and the Canary Islands too! I am sure that many people are envious of your list. Same goes for DesertRhino150 - Costa Rica is on my bucket list! Maguari, fair points, but I am not convinced about the river cruise. By your argument, I can count the countries that I flew over too. But yes, add a comment to any country that requires an explanation if you want to keep it honest.
Carlos77, I just had a quick walk through the crypts underneath The Vatican, but I did not make it to the gardens. It sounds nice.
@Javan Rhino: Sorry - I think you can't count the Canary Islands. They belong to Spain. And if we stay on this level, then even England, Wales and Scotland are just one nation. Also for @Zooplantman: Madeira belongs to Portugal. @DesertRhino150: As Maguari already wrote, Jersey would be part of GB/UK then. My list by continents: (NORTH) AMERICA: - USA (SOUTH) AMERICA: - Venezuela EUROPE: - Portugal - Spain - France - Belgium - The Netherlands/Holland - Luxembourg - Germany (also former East Germany = GDR) - Switzerland - Liechtenstein - Italy - Vatican City - Austria - Czech Republic - Slovenia - Croatia - Bosnia and Hercegovina - Greece - UK - Rep. Ireland AFRICA: - Tansania - Kenya - South Africa - Swasiland ASIA: - Maledives - Malaysia - Singapore - Indonesia AUSTRALIA AND OCEANIA - Australia
No, air travel is a completely different animal to river/rail travel. Being on a train through a country is little different to driving through it in terms of the amount of the place you see, and you wouldn't not count that! I have trouble believing that you could see 4 hours of (say) Swiss Alps at ground level and not count it because you were on a train but spend an hour in a taxi changing between airports in London and that would count! Zoomaniac has bonus points for being the first person to have visited a country that no longer exists! EDIT: Actually, my Danube example would mean going right through the middle of Budapest! No way that wouldn't count! EDIT 2: I like meaningless debates!
It isn't part of the UK. It is, along with Guernsey and the Isle of Man, a Crown Dependency. It isn't a sovereign state but is self-governing and separate from the United Kingdom. Here is my list: Australia Austria Belgium Canada Czech Republic Denmark Finland France Germany Hong Kong, China Hungary Ireland Israel Italy Japan Korea (Republic of) - I was present on DPRK territory for about 5 minutes at the demilitarized zone so technically I have also been to North Korea. Luxembourg Malaysia Malta Netherlands Norway Poland Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom United States of America
