I Love Maps!

I worked in the map department at AAA for a few years making triptiks for people going on road trips all over the US and Canada. It was completely overwhelming at first to memorize interstates, highways, scenic byways and speed traps and be able to hopefully show people how to get where they wanted to go! Most people don’t know how to read a map (let alone fold one) and I always found it a fun challenge to teach people about maps. In my next life, I totally want to be a cartographer.

Often I get asked about what countries I haven’t been to yet. There’s a lot! There seems to be more all the time with the reconstruction and designations of old countries breaking up into new countries. There are 195 countries in the world right now (with 2 that are non-member observer states: the Holy See and the State of Palestine). When looking up that number I also just learned that Taiwan is not on the list because the United Nations considers it represented by the People’s Republic of China. I had no idea. And I’ve only been to 45 of them! I’ve got a lot to see!

Countries I’ve traveled to (this list does not include airport stopovers or border crossings for visas)

Germany – Switzerland – Austria – France – Belgium – Luxembourg – Iceland – Italy – Hungary – Slovakia Poland – Malta – Spain – England – Ireland – Scotland – Wales – Nepal – India – Vietnam – Laos – Cambodia  Thailand – Malaysia – Singapore – Australia – New Zealand – Kenya – Tanzania – Malawi – Mozambique Zambia – Zimbabwe – South Africa – Coasts Rica – Belize – Guatemala – Argentina – Peru – Ecuador – Chile  Canada – Mexico – Czech Republic – Lithuania

Here’s a map of Europe for you to see where I’ll be heading. I’m flying into Athens, Greece and somehow (bus, train, car, camel, raft, bike) making my way to Venice, Italy.