Countries of the World
I've written about my travels (or lack thereof) to all the states in the United States. As of this writing, I'm in the process of documenting my travels to the Canadian provinces. You might reasonably ask if something similar is coming for countries. As it happens, while I'm reasonably well traveled by American standards, I'm a long ways away from justifying a series about all the countries I've been to relative to the list of extant countries. As such, I think it'll be enough just to create a random list... for now! Without further ado, here are all the countries I have visited, in order.
Born in the USA
1. The United States - Born here, have lived here all my life, albeit in a great many different places.
2. Canada - As we'll see, I've been to rather a lot of Canada over the years. I'm not completely clear on when I first crossed the northern border, but certainly by the time I was in 3rd grade or so, if not earlier.
2004
3. Australia - In the last two weeks of 2004 and the first week of 2005 I went down under with my parents and sister. Inexplicably by today's standards, I did not almost no posts about this other than a few linking to photo sites that no longer exist (I moved the photos to Facebook somewhere along the way) and some vague promises to do a diary of my trip. Maybe I'll do that, although at this point it would be necessarily high level.
2006
4. The United Kingdom - In the first week of September 2006, me, my sister and Dawn went to the U.K.. We were in London and Wales, so if you wanted to be real technical you could say England and Wales and count them both! I wrote almost nothing about this trip besides a (very insecure) "Hey, I'm leaving" post.
5. Ireland - On the same trip, we three flitted across the Irish Sea to Dublin for a few days.
6. Mexico - In 2006 my family went to Cozumel over Thanksgiving. I didn't do much of a write up because I mostly just drank in the resort. It barely counts as visiting a foreign country, and that only because we did go inland to Chichen Itza.
2012
7. Germany - On the way to Iceland (#8), I had to change planes in Hamburg. I never left the airport. Heck, I never left the concourse. I had a snack so I could say I ate in Germany, but really this barely counts at all.
7A. Scotland - On the way from Hamburg to Iceland our plane landed in Edinburgh for no apparent reason. We never even got off the plane. If you were the sort of person who thinks I should count England and Wales separately, you probably think I should technically count Scotland too. I wouldn't.
8. Iceland - Me, my sister and my fraternity brother Eric went to Iceland in the summer of 2012. I took the long way about (see 7 and 7A). I documented this extensively.
2013
9. Ecuador - Me, my sister and my parents went to the Galapagos Islands in December 2013, with a night in Quito beforehand. I also thoroughly documented this trip.
2015
10. Switzerland - My gigantic European sabbatical in August and September 2015 accounted for the last five countries on this list. The trip started in Geneva.
11. France - I took a quick day trip to France while in Geneva, then went by bus to Chamonix to start the Tour de Mt Blanc. After the tour, I spent some time in Lyon and Montpellier.
12. Italy - On the Tour de Mt. Blanc we spent two nights in Italy.
13. Spain - From Montpellier, I went to Barcelona and Granada.
14. Portugal - After Granada, I went to Lisbon. I flew home from there.
Break out England, Scotland and Wales separately, and call it 16. Subtract Scotland and Germany for barely counting, and get back down to 14. I'll call it 14. Basically, one four year stretch from 2012 to 2015 accounted for eight of the fourteen items on this list. Add in 2006 and that gets 11/14. 1/11 of my life counts for 11 of those countries! Of course, I've been all over the United States, and indeed my baseball stadium tour alone racked up a lot of miles.
My sister is ahead of me slightly. She's got the Philippines (work trip), Peru (grad school trip) and a ton of European countries from her junior year abroad in England. I'm ahead of M by count, but given that she lived in Guatemala for two years I feel that more than makes up for any slight advantage I have in country count.
There are a lot of places I want to go, so I hope to grow this list in the future. My hope is that Birdie won't be out of college the first time she steps off this continent.
And now, Yakko.
One of my favorite things about the Animaniacs reboot is how much they reference this song. Any time Yakko says "how about a song?" Dot immediately makes fun of it. A casual mention of the Dominican Republic has her saying "don't you dare say Republic Dominican or he'll start singing it." It's delightfully meta. Wakko's America doesn't turn up the same way, alas.
Born in the USA
1. The United States - Born here, have lived here all my life, albeit in a great many different places.
2. Canada - As we'll see, I've been to rather a lot of Canada over the years. I'm not completely clear on when I first crossed the northern border, but certainly by the time I was in 3rd grade or so, if not earlier.
2004
3. Australia - In the last two weeks of 2004 and the first week of 2005 I went down under with my parents and sister. Inexplicably by today's standards, I did not almost no posts about this other than a few linking to photo sites that no longer exist (I moved the photos to Facebook somewhere along the way) and some vague promises to do a diary of my trip. Maybe I'll do that, although at this point it would be necessarily high level.
2006
4. The United Kingdom - In the first week of September 2006, me, my sister and Dawn went to the U.K.. We were in London and Wales, so if you wanted to be real technical you could say England and Wales and count them both! I wrote almost nothing about this trip besides a (very insecure) "Hey, I'm leaving" post.
5. Ireland - On the same trip, we three flitted across the Irish Sea to Dublin for a few days.
6. Mexico - In 2006 my family went to Cozumel over Thanksgiving. I didn't do much of a write up because I mostly just drank in the resort. It barely counts as visiting a foreign country, and that only because we did go inland to Chichen Itza.
2012
7. Germany - On the way to Iceland (#8), I had to change planes in Hamburg. I never left the airport. Heck, I never left the concourse. I had a snack so I could say I ate in Germany, but really this barely counts at all.
7A. Scotland - On the way from Hamburg to Iceland our plane landed in Edinburgh for no apparent reason. We never even got off the plane. If you were the sort of person who thinks I should count England and Wales separately, you probably think I should technically count Scotland too. I wouldn't.
8. Iceland - Me, my sister and my fraternity brother Eric went to Iceland in the summer of 2012. I took the long way about (see 7 and 7A). I documented this extensively.
2013
9. Ecuador - Me, my sister and my parents went to the Galapagos Islands in December 2013, with a night in Quito beforehand. I also thoroughly documented this trip.
2015
10. Switzerland - My gigantic European sabbatical in August and September 2015 accounted for the last five countries on this list. The trip started in Geneva.
11. France - I took a quick day trip to France while in Geneva, then went by bus to Chamonix to start the Tour de Mt Blanc. After the tour, I spent some time in Lyon and Montpellier.
12. Italy - On the Tour de Mt. Blanc we spent two nights in Italy.
13. Spain - From Montpellier, I went to Barcelona and Granada.
14. Portugal - After Granada, I went to Lisbon. I flew home from there.
Break out England, Scotland and Wales separately, and call it 16. Subtract Scotland and Germany for barely counting, and get back down to 14. I'll call it 14. Basically, one four year stretch from 2012 to 2015 accounted for eight of the fourteen items on this list. Add in 2006 and that gets 11/14. 1/11 of my life counts for 11 of those countries! Of course, I've been all over the United States, and indeed my baseball stadium tour alone racked up a lot of miles.
My sister is ahead of me slightly. She's got the Philippines (work trip), Peru (grad school trip) and a ton of European countries from her junior year abroad in England. I'm ahead of M by count, but given that she lived in Guatemala for two years I feel that more than makes up for any slight advantage I have in country count.
There are a lot of places I want to go, so I hope to grow this list in the future. My hope is that Birdie won't be out of college the first time she steps off this continent.
And now, Yakko.
Click to viewOne of my favorite things about the Animaniacs reboot is how much they reference this song. Any time Yakko says "how about a song?" Dot immediately makes fun of it. A casual mention of the Dominican Republic has her saying "don't you dare say Republic Dominican or he'll start singing it." It's delightfully meta. Wakko's America doesn't turn up the same way, alas.