How many countries have you visited?
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None (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Well then! Tijuana (Score:4, Funny)
That the only out-of-country journey I've accomplished..
Does that count?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Nah, TJ is just South Chula Vista. :P
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Well then! Tijuana (Score:4, Funny)
That the only out-of-country journey I've accomplished.."
Well, since that place has turned pretty much into a battle zone...
YES, it counts, and I think you are eligible for hazard pay too!!
I've nearly last count... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I've nearly last count... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I've nearly last count... (Score:5, Insightful)
Europeans think 300 miles is a long way. Americans think 300 years is a long time.
Mal-2
Re:I've nearly last count... (Score:5, Funny)
Europeans think 300 miles...
We have no idea how far 300 miles is you insensitive clod!
Re:I've nearly last count... (Score:4, Interesting)
Europeans think 300 miles is a long way. Americans think 300 years is a long time.
I had the privilege to join a group of visiting Japanese students to a set of native american ruins (Choco Canyon for anyone who knows it.) While there, the professor was reading some information about it, and he said, "Huh... this place is only 3,000 years old." To which I was all, "ZOMGWTFBBQ?" and he explained that the tiny village that they come from has been continuously habited for some 5,000 years.
It was at that point that I began to start understanding the true length of time and age.
Re:I've nearly last count... (Score:4, Interesting)
Back in about 1990, I was stopped by two cars, both having two older Americans (I'm guessing two married couples) asking for directions to Barcelona, being highly insisting that they could make it by night fall, because Europe is really really small. Well, first of all, it's Barcelona is about 2,000 kms from there, secondly it was well past noon.
Hvide Sande to Barcelona [google.com]
Google says 19½ hours, but that's an average of 110 km/hour, takes you through three other countries total (Germany, France and Spain), all of whom had passport control at the time. The best equivalent I can come up from the US is New York to Miami [google.com]
Sure, Europe is smaller than the US (width especially), but that doesn't make it small by any stretch of the imagination, when you're trying to drive from one end to the other.
Re:I've nearly last count... (Score:4, Insightful)
The difference is not area or distances involved (it is a long way from North Cape to Gibraltar or Galway to Istanbul) but the distribution of places people visit within these area. In Europe most of the places people visit are centrally located in the landmass whereas in the USA most of the places people visit are on the edges.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
As a European it is hard to take two steps without traversing three countries :-)
I once went motorcycling in the Alps, where I visited 4x Italy, 3x Switzerland and 2x Austria in one day! And I didn't even have to show my passport once.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I was wondering why there weren't more choices with higher numbers. Lemme think - 32 countries for me, I believe. (To lazy to think very hard) Half of my education came after I left school. I'm always amused at people with strong political beliefs, who have never been anywhere, never done much of anything, and get their opinions from one or two news sources. What better way to cultivate xenophobia?
Re:I've nearly last count... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I've nearly last count... (Score:4, Insightful)
Maybe you should try it a little bit more before dismissing traveling so fast.
There are some pretty f&$#@ awesome places, really nice cultures, and interesting people out there.
And food, don't forget food. :)
38 countries visited, worked in 3 of them, 20 of 26 states in Brazil, 8 US states, and counting...
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You're offering to fund it then, I take it? ;)
I've got nothing against travelling with my family except the expense. The "overrated" part is mainly because of my in-laws - they have what I consider quite large credit card bills mainly because they keep going on cruises or holidays to America. In that situation I'd rather keep my finances sane and do without the travelling.
I've got lots against travelling for work, since I'll be spending evenings away from home without any more compensation from the company
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I've got lots against travelling for work, since I'll be spending evenings away from home without any more compensation from the company than a paid-for meal on expenses. It's the best I'll ever get (time and expenses, including travelling), but it sure as hell isn't enough to spend time away from my family for their purposes.
Working in local government I personally do very little traveling except occasionally to the state capital and back (I've been to a few user conferences for software systems that we use, but even for that our travel budget has been severely cut back).
When we have vendors coming in though, often from all over, I've heard several times that for any high travel job they basically seek out younger folks and single people for the reasons you cite. I'll admit that having wife/children myself, I would LOVE to be
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Traveling on a budget is not that hard.
If you eat frugally and in the local places (no touristy restaurants), sleep at three-star hotels (where they have all the basics and none of the luxuries), and are willing to walk around to sightsee, I assure you that you too can travel.
My wife and I spent our first four years of marriage saving up to pay for air-tickets in order to have overseas vacations once or twice a year. Our kids are still small, but we plan to resume our traveling once they can keep up with wa
Re:I've nearly last count... (Score:4, Interesting)
That depends on the budget! When the budget includes "trying to save a bit to stand a remote chance of helping child through school" and "putting some money in to a pension so that in ~40 years when I retire I might have more than £4K per year to live on" then any air tickets or holiday is expensive.
Other than severely over-stretching themselves with credit, or not having their child benefit from having a parent at home during their early years, I don't know how some people manage the lifestyles they do.
Re:I've nearly last count... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I've nearly last count... (Score:5, Insightful)
Not necessarily unless by choice.
There's this great invention I've found, they're called friends!! They're easy to find, they often last for decades (if not for life), and they don't cost that much, and generally there is no risk in giving everything in your life for them, and yet risking them still resenting you when they grown up. There's no guarantee your kids be around for you when older either.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Bank in gold coins and assets. A big bankroll won't decide to forget about you, should the slightest calamity happen. If you have stuff, friends
Re:I've nearly last count... (Score:5, Insightful)
Not necessarily. The Urban Tribe of friends and a loosely knit family is not guaranteed to make you a lonely bugger at the end of your life at all. Furthermore, having the "wife & kid" (Or, if you're female the "husband & kid") combo doesn't guarantee squat, mate.
So your kid dies in a bus accident. And then you and your partner divorce because you can't stand the loss... There it is, you're alone.
Or you're married to an over-bearing Orthodox man who alienates your kids from both you and him. The man dies of lungcancer, and 10 years after that fact you're 70 yrs old and your kids come 'n' tell you they don't want to have anything to do with you anymore. Boom. You're alone.
Or you have a regular family. And your kids grow up and have their own lives. Some might move abroad, others might just have their own worries. Your partner dies. Boom. You're alone, except for the visit-a-week your kids grant you.
Perhaps you're a married man. You're making loads of money, you have a sexy wife and two kids. Then one day you and your wife try a swinger's club, and this hobby spirals out of control. Couple years later, you had one of the messiest divorces ever, you're in a lower paying job because the stress ousted you from the high paying one, you're broke, your two kids got manipulated into hating your guts by your spiteful ex, and badabing, badaboom... You're alone.
Or you are a Shakespearian actor who gets a role as the captain of a space ship. You do this for a couple of years, marry someone who after a while dies under mysterious circumstances, rinse, repeat, and you manage to alienate your children.... Alone, anyone?
Maybe you are from a normal family. Your youngest daughter dies of lung cancer at the age of 24, your oldest kid goes insane at the age of sixty, and the middle kid marries someone who's a religious nut and thus neither he nor his wife nor their children are in contact with you. Oh, your husband died 25 years ago too. Now you're 80, and except for the 60-year old in the asylum, you're....... ALONE!
These are all stories (with the exception of one, you know which) that happened in my environment, to people I know. One day you're born, and one day you'll die alone. This is inevitable. Saying that certain choices in life will give you guaranteed happiness or misery just means that you haven't understood life's nature.
"How's that working out for you?" is a valid question for everyone on the planet so get off your high horse, you self-righteous schmuck.
travelling can be cheaper than staying put (Score:4, Interesting)
I was laid off from a job about 10 years ago, put all my crap in storage, and travelled for about 3 months. The whole trip cost about $3k of which about half was plane fare and a 2 month eurail pass. I was sleeping on trains, couches, youth hostels, or occasionally homes of people who I met. Meanwhile I wasn't earning any income, but looking at it just from an expenditure point of view, it cost me less than if I'd stayed at home and kept paying rent. It was one of the best things I've ever done and the experience was far more valuable than a few bucks more retirement savings that I probably would have lost in the recession crashes anyway.
Re:I've nearly last count... (Score:5, Insightful)
Dude. I'm in Mexico.
I probably earn 10% of what you do.
If I can do it, without over-stretching myself with credit, you can do it too.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
British here, but I live abroad...
Countries visited so far this year (including my country of residence):
Next year I've so far penciled in Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Israel and Greece - but we'll have to see how that goes.
Traveling is cool, do it!
-- Pete.
NB: Not visiting the USA on principle, boycotting them due to their ridiculous immigratio
Re:I've nearly last count... (Score:4, Insightful)
By immigration rules, I mean the hoops and jumps I need to go through just to go there to visit, not to stay - maybe I should have said "border control" rather than immigration.
How many Schengen countries demand travel itineraries from airlines well in advance do they can carefully screen the passenger list? How many fingerprint and photograph everyone on entry? How many have border security anywhere near as obnoxious as the USA?
I found it quite amusing to read news stories about Americans getting irate about the process when they visited Brazil. Brazil has a reciprocation agreement, they'll treat you as you treat them - so USA visitors need a visa, get photographed and fingerprinted, and think it's brutally unfair. One USA visitor thought it would be great to raise his middle finger to the camera when being photographed and got jailed for it. Heh.
I have been the USA before (pre-9-11), but I'll not be going back.
-- Pete.
Re:I've nearly last count... (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm an American, and I'd say you are correct with usage. It isn't Customs. It is Immigration that handles visas and they treat every applicant as a liar that wants to apply for a visa in order to get in the country and live there illegally for the rest of their lives. They are the reason many companies refuse to travel to the US for business. I've met Chinese businessmen that meet clients in Tokyo. It's closer than China, some people see China as a 3rd world country, so they upscale to Tokyo, and the Chinese have a hard time getting into the USA. I know more than one Chinese person that applied for a visa that was approved then later denied. That costs companies money and great hassle. So they buy from European companies instead because they can visit the corporate headquarters with much more ease. If you are from one of the automatic visa countries, it isn't hard to get in, they just may treat you in a manner you don't like at the border. And even then, those are for the immigration rules so they know who you are and if you do what seems to be prevelant in the UK (coming in with papers, then losing them and if you are caught, they have no place to send you). I do find it a little amusing that many of the complaints are coming from the UK, which has the problem we are trying to avoid. If you aren't from one of those countries, good luck getting in. If you are a single businessman trying to get in for a meeting on relatively short notice, you'll need to change the venue.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
That, my friend, is the first time I have *ever* heard *anyone* pine for *anything* in Canberra. (Sorry about the ****s, I'm kind of flabbergasted). My sister lives there and will also be fascinated and posting equally incredulous comments (with a lower UID) within the hour.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
He likely is talking about AU. I spent nearly a year there in 2001 and 6 months in 2006. Only capital city I've been to where many of the cafes and restaurants wanted to close by 9pm.
Haven't you guys heard of a nightlife?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I always assumed that was why the British kept invading everywhere. At least that way, they could get a decent meal. Even haggis was an improvement.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, it wasn't until it was...
(Okay, it was more of an annex than a conquest, but then we really are nitpicking.)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
67, the depressing part, is that there are still around 130 to go, and if the current trend goes by the time I hit 250, they will have added 50 new countries or so ;-)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
That's an interesting thought... Living in the US, I believe I've visited more foreign countries than I have US states. Of course, partially it depends on your definitions - do you include the US-occupied CSA as another country? And if you add in all the ones I visited when I went to EPCOT, I've been to a whole lot.
But yeah, there are some awesome places out there, and some awesome food. And, of course, places that just suck... but those are in the minority, in my experience.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Long story sh
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
There are a few places left that French is heard frequently, but most of Louisiana has long spoken English.
I'm from Texas, but 1/4 Acadian--the true Cajuns. I had a great uncle who spoke fluent Cajun French. None of my father's generation learned it at all. Cajun culture as anything more than a Mardis Gras gimmick is fast dying out.
Re:I've nearly last count... (Score:4, Insightful)
Wife and child, but same net result.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Uhm ... I hope you mean financially.
I really don't want to know how you'd snort a kid ...
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
would love to travel in Asia some-day but for much less cost
Don't let cost deter you from visiting Asia - the air ticket is more but hotel and food are a small fraction of what it costs in the US. In China just book local 3 star chain hotel instead of the international brands and be willing to stay in a place that is about 80% of the cleanliness and neatness of a modern US chain hotel. On a longer vacation, like 3 weeks, it adds up to a cheaper trip than somewhere in the US. Your mileage may var
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I've nearly last count... (Score:4, Funny)
I'm not even counting Luxembourg
Tisk, tisk... You must not have spent much time there. I visited from Germany (years ago when I lived there) several times. It's actually quite interesting if you do a little homework, and a tour or two.
I've lost count of my own number...it's 40+. Also, 48 U.S. states (still missing North Dakota, and Montana), and 5 Canadian provinces. I was lucky enough to do most of this on my companies dime, and now that my kid is off to college, I'm looking forward to traveling again (I'd backed off for years while she was in K-12). I usually just need to get the kitchen pass, which often goes something like: "Dear, they want me to go to Bumbfuck, Arkansas..." "How soon can you leave?"
Re:I've nearly last count... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
interstingly, although the vatican uses the Euro as its currency, it's not a member of the EU (because it's a theocracy - the Pope's mug is even on the coins)
10+ is winning... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:10+ is winning... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:10+ is winning... (Score:4, Insightful)
Show me a soldier who comes back with a competent grasp of the foreign language and culture, and I'll reconsider my viewpoint
As a military vet, I think I can speak for all military vets when I say "fuck you and your opinion". Of course, we are willing to defend your right to have that opinion, and to express it freely. We just don't want to hear it, and think you are an uneducated idiot for having it.
That said, most military people don't just "visit" a foreign country, they live in it for 6 months to two years or more, so they would be a better judge of the culture than someone who took a one week vacation and bus tour through 14 European countries.
Re:10+ is winning... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:10+ is winning... (Score:5, Funny)
Nurse Mary: No casual girlfirends?
Blackadder: Skirt? nah. When I joined up we were still fighting colonial wars - if you saw someone in a skirt you shot him and nicked his country.
Re:10+ is winning... (Score:4, Insightful)
Europe's "false positive" (Score:4, Insightful)
This is probably due to Europe's "false positive" when it comes to counting countries.
Asking a European what country you visited is like asking an American which states you visited.
In the EU "countries" are quickly becoming like US states, in that travel between them is trivial. Not as trivial as the US in that you still need a passport, but non one really checks it in depth.
In the US, until ~2 years ago you could travel all over the continent (including Canada & Mexico) without a passport, a simple driver's license would do.
I assume eventually the EU will issue EU passports and intra-EU travel will not need a passport any longer.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:10+ is winning... (Score:5, Insightful)
But Europeans have an advantage--their counties are TINY! You can go out for a bagel and go through five or six! On the other hand, if I'm in California, I can drive for 12 hours and not leave the state, or fly for 5 hours and not leave the country.
Re:10+ is winning... (Score:4, Funny)
In LHR, you could be in a plane for 5 hours and not even leave the airport!
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I live in Sweden [wikipedia.org] - bigger than California [wikipedia.org]. We're bigger than you, older than you, haven't been in a war for almost 200 years and our Economy is doing better than yours, even though we have socialized medicine.
Oh, and we have better broadband coverage [bredbandsbolaget.se] than you do, and for less money (50 US$/mont for 60 to 100 Mbit/s), and from what I understand by reading Slashdot, we have much better mobile coverage (both cell and broadband) as well.
What was your point?
Re:10+ is winning... (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
There's obviously a continuum with a gray area between the USA and the EU, but where exactly in that gray area is the line?
Now that one is simple. If it hands out its own passports, it's a country.
So USA=1 country
and EU= buncha countries (27 and counting)
Re:10+ is winning... (Score:4, Insightful)
Now that one is simple. If it hands out its own passports, it's a country
But within the EU a passport from any member nation gets you a wave through at the border check, when there is one. There usually isn't because they treat entry into the EU at any one point as good for travel within the whole. So while individual countries issued their own passports, the travel between them is unchecked due to the EU agreement. This is similar to the US where the federal Constitution requires the individual states to honor the others' grants such as driver's licenses and marriage licenses and forbids states to set up their own border checks between each other. So you see, the lines are really quite blurry.
Ask a Texan sometime whether states are independent bodies.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, this is only true for nations that signed the Shengen Agreement [wikipedia.org]. A lot of major European nations, like the UK, do thorough passport checks for everyone who tries to enter, from the EU or elsewhere.
And about Texas, do they check for passports when entering from another state? Could they go to war without consent from Washington? Could they change their currency or language without asking the president? I don't think so.
Texas as a country (Score:4, Funny)
1st, they are changing the language, little by little.
2nd, more than half of them would go to war without consent from Washington, DC. Half of those would go to war WITH Washington, DC.
At one time, when Texas won its independence from Mexico, they set themselves up as a separate country. A short time later, they gave up their status as a country and joined the United States. Some Texans have never forgotten that and really believe that they are in a different country.
I once worked at a help desk where we interacted with customers. One customer was having trouble paying for their items, so they asked if we accepted checks. I told them, "Yes, as long as it is from a US bank." I was then asked, "What about Texas? Can I write a check from a bank in Texas?" Since our help desk had specific instructions on what we could say, I repeated, "Yes, as long as the check is from a bank in the US, it does not matter which state it is in, we can accept it." Again I was asked, "I understand you accept checks from the US, but what about Texas?" After a couple more rounds of this, I finally responded, "Yes, we accept checks from the US and Texas as well."
Re:Texas as a country (Score:5, Funny)
That gives me an idea for reducing the national debt--sell Texas back to Mexico. It could become their 32nd state: Baja Oklahoma.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
You used to be able to get one of several Native American Passports in the US (though I am not sure of the current status of this).
10+ the max? Come on... (Score:5, Insightful)
You can visit 10 European countries within a day. If I drive for 8 hours straight in any direction, I will pass through at least four countries.
I've visited 18 countries in my life (not counting the one I live in) and I don't think I've travelled that much at all, since there are at least three entire continents I haven't been to.
Re:10+ the max? Come on... (Score:5, Funny)
I live in England, if I drive for 8 hours straight in one direction I'll probably drown!
Re:10+ the max? Come on... (Score:4, Interesting)
Try to aim for the Channel Tunnel. If you make it to France and keep your course straight, you could make it all the way through the alps into Slovenia.
Good luck!
Re:10+ the max? Come on... (Score:5, Funny)
I've thought it through and decided to stick with drowning.
Re:10+ the max? Come on... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:10+ the max? Come on... (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
The difference is that the US acts as a single nation and all states have to report to Washington.
Obviously, the EU has it's own rules to keep things coherent and if you want to remain a member, you have to abide by them. But nations don't report to Brussels (the "capital" of Europe), they report to their own citizens. EU nations are completely free in setting up their own policies, while the US works more like a franchise.
No nation in the world has supreme authority, even the ones that like to think they d
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
No, they are not. Look at the discussion about sovereignity above. US states don't have individual passports. They cant go to war individually, they cant change the currency and most important: they cant leave the union.
While your points about passports, etc. are correct, the traditional definition of sovereignty has more to do with the ability to make law and punish crime. The US Supreme Court has ruled that because states and the federal government are both sovereign, if you perform an act that is criminal under both federal and state law, you can be tried and punished by BOTH, and it's not double jeopardy. There are various other implications of state sovereignty.
Your last point about secession is also questionable.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Do you have to show a passport when you fly from Paris to Rome?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
But yes, Michigan is one of a handful of states where you can drive 8 hours in one general direction without any backtracking and not make it to the border. Montana, Texas, California, and Alaska are the others that come to mind. Maybe Min
Re:10+ the max? Come on... (Score:5, Funny)
I can drive for 20 years and never leave my state.
Damn you, mobius road!
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Re:10+ the max? Come on... (Score:5, Funny)
I used to have a car like that.
What a screwed up poll (Score:4, Interesting)
First it says "How many countries have you <a href="http://douweosinga.com/projects/visited?region=world">visited</a>? Was that supposed to be a link? [slashdot.org]
Then, "One to three: and they all speak the same language as my mom"
I've visited four (inclucing my own), and only one speaks the same language as my mom. All three eat strange breakfasts (although I'm not sure what they eat for brealfast in the Phillipines), and I doubt seriously if anybody in any of them have heard of Springfiled. Well, OK, they probably heard of Springfield thanks to Matt Groening.
Of the four countries, one is the US (parts of it are foreign indeed, especially the northeast) where I was born. The second was the Philllipines, where I spent the night on my way to Thailand in the USAF. I lost my cherry there (and caught the clap). Thailand was stranger than I would have figured Mars would be; I spent a year there, wonderful country. Stopped over in Japan on the way back, didn't get to see any of Japan at all.
All three of the countries I visited suffered horrible natural disasters killing thousands after I got back home. Am I bad luck?
As a Northeasterner (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
North Carolina creeps me the fuck out and I wish it would just go away.
Re:As a Northeasterner (Score:4, Interesting)
I live on LI, and went to visit my sister who had moved to Georgia near Atlanta. We drove through the night and stopped to grab breakfast at some random rest stop in NC. There was a McDonald's across the street with a giant electronic marquee. It listed all of the latest deals, the current temperature, and closed out with "See you in Church on Sunday!". I was left with a distinct "They ain't like us" feeling.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
When we moved to Florida, ny then-wife had never been in any state except Missouri and Illinois (we lived in St Louis, which straddles the two states). We filled the car's gas tank and srove south, stopping for lunch in Kentucky. At a McDonalds, the counter clerk said in her heavy Kentucky accent "Keen ah hep eyou?" Evil-X strted laughing, and both the counter clerk and I looked at her in befuddlement.
When we got to the table I asked her what was so funny. "They really talk funny here!" she said.
"No", I rep
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Well, fer one thang, y'all talk funny.
Re:What a screwed up poll (Score:5, Funny)
Fade in. The scene's a beautiful tiny island. On it: a few trees, forming somewhat a tiny oasis of shade on the bright white sandy beach. At the edge of this aggregation of trees: a classic beach hut, with a roof fashioned of leaves and a colourful curtain instead of a door.
From inside the hut, a hand pushes the curtain out of the way and a sleepy looking Filipino teen steps out, with a greatly exaggerated strech-and-yawn gesture. With his left hand, he grabs a bown fashioned from a coconut half. He goes on to produce a brightly colored box of cereal from the hut, proceeding to fill the bowl with some cereal.
He walks a few steps over to a source of freshwater next to the hut and grabs one of the coconuts floating in the basin of crystal clear water, and starts pouring coconut milk into the cereal bowl.
Turning to the camera, he takes a (wooden) spoonful of cereal. The first chewing motion is accompanied by a vaguely crunchy sound (actually, it's precisely the sound you'd hear in Indiana Jones or Mummy films whenever a huge-ass stone portal starts moving).
The camera rapidly zooms out. What only seconds before was a beautiful tropical island now is an endless sea of yellowish sand. The trees are gone, what used to be a freshwater spring is now a rock formation and the hut has transformed into a tent.
Eat Desert-O's and suddenly it's not unusual for desert to occur in the middle of a meal!
my name is (Score:4, Funny)
Hello. My name is <a href="http://douweosinga.com/projects/visited?region=world"> and I would like to visit your country.
10 = Love? (Score:5, Insightful)
This poll was probably defined by someone who lives in a huge country surrounded by about two other, also huge, countries.
I know which one you mean... (Score:5, Funny)
Mongolia?
New question for Americans (Score:5, Funny)
How many counties have you visited [wikipedia.org]?
I'm in Europe so... (Score:5, Interesting)
Perspective (Score:3, Informative)
I live in Canada you insensitive clod!
I have been to 3. USA, Mexico, Bahamas.
However I live in Canada. Europe is a bit different.
I remember telling an English exchange student who was a buddy of mine in college that I was driving home to see my folks in Nova Scotia (from Ontario). The drive is about 2000km (1950km actually the route we took). He was amazed to say the least. He was like "Holy shit, I could drive to freaking Poland, no, Russia from London!"
When it is thousands and thousands of kilometers to get out of your own country in every direction if you don't can't the USA as a destination it is a bit more difficult to travel to many countries. Either you travel a LOT, or you go an a crazy blitzkrieg of travel over an extended period (many weeks), and that is if you can afford it as well as get that amount of time. That is personally at least, if you can swing the business travel that is a bit different I suppose.
A great example is I would like to check out Japan. The Flight to Vancouver is 3354km. The flight from there to Japan is 7573km. So about 11,000km total. Conversely its is 1263km (as the crow flies) to Halifax and then another 2881km to London. About 5000km.
Not sure how many countries in Europe that would encompass, but I suspect all of them.
Travelling = university - profs (Score:5, Funny)
"Travelling is like University without walls", as the saying goes..
Yeh. That sounds about right. Most people who go to university don't learn anything either.
Former countries (Score:3, Interesting)
Do you count countries that no longer exist? I have been to West Germany, East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.
Why travel is good value (Score:3, Interesting)
In case anyone is interested (I suspect not) I am on my third passport and have visited scores of countries. I have no idea how many, but I have been across most of Europe, Africa, North America, Australia and the Pacific.
I recently read why travel is much better value than other purchases.
When you spend money on something like a new car, or a new TV, you constantly lose money on your investment.
A new car for instance is of most value when it is bought, but over time loses value, is superceded and becomes damaged.
Travel on the other hand is constantly is worth more, as when you finish the travel you have the stories to tell your friends, the photos you can share and the experiences you can relive in your mind.
Re:"Forn"? (Score:4, Insightful)
Good lord, s/forn/foreign/;.
It was obviously intentional! As in "I ain't never been to no forn parts. Them's all un-American!"
My reference was to Terry Pratchett (Score:5, Informative)
disclaimer: I came up with the poll (in 5 minutes)
Terry Pratchett reference: in the Discworld books he has characters (his village witches) referring to "forn parts". I thought it was a quite amusing expression.
Lighten up old chap, it's supposed to be funny, and not to be analysed in too great a depth :-)
Re:Countries that don't exist now (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Then on the other hand, it only permits one spelling of the word "permits".
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
There's no doubt that someone from east coast US visiting west coast US is probably putting a bit more effort into it than someone from Ireland visiting the UK by crossing into Northern Ireland. You probably have a lot more chance of having to show ID doing the cross-US trip too.
Of course there are plenty of people in even small European countries who haven't visited another - just like folks in the US who haven't been to another US state.
If someone from the US has been to a number of states, I mentally inc