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One of my goals in life is visiting all the countries in the world. This is how far I got till now.

  1. Andorra
  2. Antigua
  3. Argentina
  4. Austria
  5. Bahamas
  6. Barbados
  7. Belgium
  8. Belize
  9. Bolivia
  10. Bosnia and Herzegovina
  11. Brazil
  12. Brunei [new]
  13. Cambodia [new]
  14. Canada
  15. Chile
  16. China
    (Hong Kong)
  17. Columbia
  18. Costa Rica
  19. Croatia
  20. Cuba
  21. Czech Republic
  22. Denmark
  23. Ecuador
  24. El Salvador
  25. Estonia
  26. Fiji
  27. Finland
  28. France
  1. Germany
  2. Greece
  3. Guatemala
  4. Honduras
  5. Hungary
  6. Iceland
  7. India
  8. Indonesia
  9. Ireland
  10. Jamaica
  11. Japan
  12. Korea, South
  13. Latvia
  14. Italy
  15. Laos
  16. Liechtenstein
  17. Lithuania
  18. Luxemburg
  19. Macedonia [new]
  20. Malaysia
  21. Mexico
  22. Monaco
  23. Morocco
  24. Myanmar
  25. Netherlands
    (Curacao)
  26. Norway
  27. Panama
  28. Paraguay
  1. Peru
  2. Philippines
  3. Poland
  4. Portugal (Macao)
  5. Romania
  6. San Marino
  7. Serbia and Montenegro
    (Kosovo) [new]
  8. Slovak Republic
  9. Slovenia
  10. Saint Lucia
  11. Singapore
  12. Spain
  13. Sweden
  14. Switzerland
  15. Taiwan
  16. Thailand
  17. Trinidad and Tobago
  18. Turkey
  19. United Kingdom
    (Hong Kong)
  20. United States
    (Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Virgin Islands)
  21. Uruguay
  22. Vatican City
  23. Vietnam

These countries ceased to exist since I visited them.
  1. Czechoslovakia
  2. Yugoslavia
While traveling on the ferry from Finland back to Estonia in 1992, a good friend of mine and I started a contest for life, who visits the most countries. As a result of that we had quite few discussions about the meaning of 'visit' and 'country'.


How would you best catagorize Hong Kong before the handover to China?
British Dependancy - 7 (77.7%)
Independent Nation - 2 (22.2%)
Total votes: 9


Visiting a country in this context is now defined as going through customs. A stopover on an airport alone does not count. The list of valid countries is defined by the Britannica Atlas. In here a list is published of all independent countries in the world. If after this there is still a dispute, Otto and I will resolve it based on the following criteria:
  • The country must be independent. Tibet, Koerdistan or Hong Kong are all governed by other countries and are therefore not valid.
  • The country must have a territory. Yes, even Vatican City is a valid country.
  • The country has to have a population. The United Nations is therefore not a country even though they have their own territory, stamps and police.
  • The country must be internationally recognized. Membership of the United Nations is one way of recognition, but not the only one. For example Taiwan is considered internationally recognized, Somaliland is not.
More difficult is when countries change. From what point is a country considered a new state? After long discussions we agreed that Germany is the successor of West-Germany, while East Germany ceased to exist. Both the Czech as the Slovak Republic are considered new countries and Czechoslovakia ceased to exists. Russia though we consider the succesor of the Soviet Union. A new issue is rising with the nearing collapse of what is left of Yugoslavia. As soon as Montenegro becomes independent, Serbia will be left alone in the Yugoslavian Federation.