As of December 2018, the map of the countries that I’ve been to looks like this:
Where I have been
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Canada
Cambodia
China (+Hong Kong and Macau)
The Czech Republic
England
Estonia
Finland
Germany
Indonesia
Iran
Italy
Japan
Laos
Latvia
Lithuania
Malaysia
Mexico
Myanmar (Burma)
The Netherlands
New Zealand
Oman
The Philippines
Poland
Qatar
Scotland
Singapore
Slovakia
Taiwan
Thailand
The USA
Vatican City
Vietnam
These are the itineraries that I have done as an adult
2006/07: Helsinki – Turku – Rovaniemi – Helsinki
2009: Warsaw – Mikolajki … Krakow – Zakopane – Warsaw
2010: San Diego (base) – Leon – Guanajuato … Los Angeles – Vancouver (+Whistler) – Seattle – Los Angeles
2011: Christchurch (base) – Hanmer Springs – Tekapo – Mount Cook – Kaikoura … Akaroa
2011: London – York – Newcastle – Edinburgh – St Andrews – Glasgow – Oban – Arran – Manchester – Birmingham – Northampton – London – Salisbury – Bath – Bristol – Stratford – London
2013: Helsinki – Tallinn – Kuressaare – Tartu – Riga (+Sigulda – Cesis) – Nida – Vilnius – Warsaw – Lublin – Krakow – Wroclaw – Dresden – Bamberg – Nuremberg – Cologne (+ Trier) – Utrecht – Amsterdam – Antwerp – Brussels (+Ghent) – Berlin – Poznan – Gniezno – Torun – Gdansk – Turku – Jyväskylä – Tampere – Frankfurt
2013/14: Auckland (+Whangarei – Paihia – Kerikeri – Cape Reinga – Ahipara) – Rotorua – Taupo – Napier – Wellington – Kaikoura – Christchurch (+Akaroa) – Oamaru – Dunedin – Curio Bay – Stewart Island – Invercargill – Te Anau – Milford Sound – Queenstown – Wanaka – Fox Glacier – Franz Josef – Hokitika – Punakaiki
2014: Hobart – Launceston – Bay of Fires – Bicheno – Port Arthur … Melbourne
2014: Shanghai, Siem Reap
2015: Malacca, Bangkok
2015: Yogyakarta – Borobudur – Surakarta – Yogyakarta
2016: Tehran – Yazd – Esfahan – Shiraz (+Persepolis) (Iran itinerary)
2016: George Town, Hong Kong – Macau, Ha Noi (+Ninh Binh), Siem Reap, Beijing
2017: Vienna – Graz – Bratislava – Brno – Warsaw – Kaunas – Šiauliai – Salaspils – Pärnu – Tallinn – Helsinki (+Porvoo)
2017: Luang Prabang, Yangon, Mandalay – Bagan
2017: Rome (+Vatican City) – Florence – Pisa – Rome (via Helsinki)
2018: Tokyo, Bohol, Sydney, Saigon, Kuala Lumpur, Taipei
2018: Doha – Muscat – Khasab – Sharqiya Sands – Nizwa
My wishes
I would love to paint the entire map but that is going to take some time and a lot of money. I would also like to return to a few of the countries I’ve already been to, such as England, Latvia, the United States and Germany, to see different cities and re-visit friends in familiar ones.
Many people are guilty of putting off visits to neighbouring sights in favour of faraway destinations. As you can see, I’m one of them. After all, Europe is as exotic to me as Asia is to someone from the old world. I know I will go to Cambodia and Myanmar and revisit Indonesia, where all the ancient sites that I studied in art history class are. Hopefully, it’ll happen before my legs give way or I get sick of flying. 2 January 2018: I can now say that I’ve seen Angkor, Borobudur, Prambanan and Bagan