Day 4176: World Travelers.

 

 

"Nonsense": junk collages, inks, digital.

 

  

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Click here: Hall & Oates, Everytime You Go Away

 

  

 

 

2GN2S

More travelers visiting every country inthe world.

Jamaican born traveler Romaine Welds spent nearly 15 years traveling to every country.

Most travelers hold their own unique bucket list of destinations, but how many have every single country in the world listed? While the number of people who’ve been able to achieve this is still relatively small – reportedly estimated at around 400 or so – more and more are going all out to achieve this feat. 

In fact, 2023 saw a record 50 new entries joining the coveted list of people who’ve traveled to all 195 UN-recognized countries and territories, according to NomadMania, an online platform that allows global explorers to track their travels. 

Rauli Virtanen is believed to be the first person to have traveled to every country in the world.

Finnish writer and foreign correspondent Rauli Virtanen, who grew up in a rural village, is believed to be the first person to have visited all of the countries in the world. While there were fewer UN-recognised countries (170) when Virtanen achieved this goal in 1988, he says he’s “been adding the new ones” in the years since then. When questioned about the motivation behind his desire to visit every country, Virtanen puts it down to “extreme curiosity and collector´s mentality.”

The Travelers’ Century Club (TCC,) an organization for people who’ve visited 100 or more of the world’s countries and territories, first launched in 1954 and is still going strong today. In the years since then, further platforms, such as competitive travel community Most Traveled People (MTP,) and Nomad Mania, have emerged.

   

 

 

 

Patrick Gilliland, from the US, finished his quest to travel to every country in 2023.

“I never really thought it was possible to visit every country until the last few years,” he tells CNN Travel. “I figured certain places would be too dangerous or visas impossible.” Gilliland, who’s spent at least 48 weeks of the year traveling in recent years, acknowledges that getting access to every country wasn’t easy and involved “a bit of luck and timing.”

“I visited North Korea 20 years ago when relations were better with the US, “ he says. “I tried several times over the years to get an Iran visa, Nauru is so little visited that the visa is difficult and decisions are on the whim of an individual.” When he arrived in his final country, Libya, which had just re-opened to US citizens, in September, he was initially denied entry at the airport.

More photos and information, here,

 

 

 

THE ABOVE, GOT ME CURIOUS? WHERE I HAVE BEEN?

Amsterdam, Australia,  Bali, Budapest, Cancun, Canada, Curacoa, Fiji, France, Honduras, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Java, Mexico, Poland, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Tasmania.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

A 3 minute video, Wombie's Way Up, here.

 

 

  

Just because ...

 

  

Velvet-Purple Coronet

Friday's Smiles ...