I had it all planned out, been on 99 countries and celebrating in Philadelphia on the the 250th anniversary of American Independence Day , which would coincide with my 50th birthday my 100th country.
That dream was ended 10years ago when I got sent to the states on a business trip.
picture was created by Chat GPT based on a list from my head.
For a quarter of a century I've been obsessed by trying to get a new country in at every opportunity. It's been my hobby, it's been a game I've been playing, a game I've thoroughly enjoyed, but an expensive game.
It was a challenge that I really had to admit defeat to in recent years. 9 years ago I met my wife, We've been married almost 7 years, 5 of which we've had our daughter Sienna. None of these are excuses or 'blame' for me falling short of my target. We have had an unbelievable amount of travel as a couple then a three. But I've been doing repeats of countries, taking my wife and daughter to experience some of my favourite places is a new hobby. I enjoy playing the tour guide rather than the traveller.
The COVID years (which at the start were before Sienna was born) should have been boom new country years, recently married, I was working 'part time' we had lots of opportunities, taken away by red tape and rules. We lost our honeymoon in Mauritius plus a couple more booked trips (Venice - with a side trip to San Marino, Frankfurt combined with Liechtenstein). Those cancellations cost me 3 countries.
Another reason/excuse for the missed target is cost and difficulty. The low hanging fruit from Europe has been gobbled up leaving the relatively inaccessible Andorra, Liechtenstein, San Marino and Monaco in Europe. None of these are easy/cheap to get to.
Asia is also well covered, I loved travelling around Asia, my wife is from Vietnam and we return on a regular basis, usually during stays with the in-laws, I escape for a few days/weeks exploring. Again the low hanging fruit has been taken, leaving 'difficult' places such as East Timor, Brunei, Mongolia, Bhutan, and North Korea. Others such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq. Iran etc probably won't get ticked off.
I guess the biggest reason for the slow down and missed target is I've pretty much been everywhere I want to go, there isn't many places left that I really want to visit.
So my failed target do I reset the deadline, or do I stop, put my fridge magnet collection in the loft and holiday without the thought of 'is it a new country' or ' can we tie this trip in with this new country'.
84 countries by 50 is something I'm proud about, boy done good. I'll keep ticking on, see if I can get to three figures but that isn't my priority.
I have a new goal.....
Take Sienna (my daughter) to 50 countries before she is 18 (almost three new countries per year). I'm pleased to report she is well on track. She is almost half way there on 22 countries and she has only just turned 5, country 23 Norway is pending in 2 weeks, but sadly that will still leave me on 84.
