As of November 2019, the map of the countries that I’ve been to looks like this:

Contents Show

Where I have been

  1. Australia
  2. Austria
  3. Belgium
  4. Canada
  5. Cambodia
  6. China
  7. The Czech Republic
  8. England
  9. Estonia
  10. Finland
  11. Germany
  12. Hong Kong
  13. Indonesia
  14. Iran
  15. Italy
  16. Japan
  17. Laos
  18. Latvia
  19. Lithuania
  20. Macau
  21. Malaysia
  22. Mexico
  23. Myanmar (Burma)
  24. The Netherlands
  25. New Zealand
  26. Oman
  27. The Philippines
  28. Poland
  29. Qatar
  30. Scotland
  31. Singapore
  32. Slovakia
  33. South Africa
  34. South Korea
  35. Taiwan
  36. Thailand
  37. Turkey
  38. United Arab Emirates
  39. The United States
  40. Vatican City
  41. 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

2012: Taipei – Hualien

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 (2) – 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

2019: Seoul, Busan, Kuching, Dubai, Istanbul, Cape Town, L’Agulhas

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.

See my full Bucket List