30 before 30: #2 – Take my “countries visited” total to 20 

Completed: 7 Jan 2019

I wrapped my mid-twenties around the concept of seeing the world after I got well and truly bitten by the travel bug aged 23. It’s a decision I’ve never regretted.

Until I was 23, my country counter stood at 4. In fact, I had lived without a passport for 2 years in my late teens because traveling didn’t bother me. But after I took an internship in Spain I realised the world was much bigger and more exciting that I had thought and from 2013-2017 I did my best to see and live in as much of it as possible. I lived in 5 countries on 4 continents and tried to make them as spaced out and different as possible. The northern and southern Hemisphere. The developed, the developing and the space in between.

Moving back to Bolivia at the start of 2017 marked a change from scattering myself to rooting myself. I had scratched the itch from the travel bug bite and my passion had changed. Still, I turned 29 having visited 18 countries, so adding two more seemed like a nice round target, and a recent holiday through Austria and Czechia took me up to 20.

Did you know that although you can still call it the Czech Republic, that the official short name is now Czechia? I didn’t. I actually learnt that a couple of days after getting back from there…they’re keeping it a little quiet.

Anyway, here’s where I’ve been in map form.

Little pockets of 4 different continents, really. Still a ton to explore and some popular countries are certainly missing. I would love the stats on what’s the probability that I’m the only person who has ever been to this exact set of countries with no extras, if anyone reading this is mathematically minded.

A quick rules break. What’s a country?
Well diplomacy fans, I play sporcle rules when it comes to defining countries. That means that Vatican City counts and is one of my 20 despite being about the same size as the hometown I grew up in. The Uk counts as one united country (for now) even though I’ve been to England, Scotland and Wales. If you have an issue with this I’m not really interested and you should take it up with them. Airport and land crossings on the way to other countries don’t count either. (Belgium, Luxembourg, Qatar, Paraguay, The Netherlands and Slovakia, if you’re interested)

 

So how have they been? Where would I recommend? Here’s my highly subjective list of preferred countries based entirely on my experience in them. Here’s part one of a whistle-stop tour through my travels.

#20 – Philippines
Visited: Manila, Taal
Well, someone had to come last. A winner on many a traveller’s list, but dead last on mine. I visited for my 27th birthday and did not do my research properly. I was travelling with a good friend, which made the trip a good one, but for his company and not the places we went to in the Philippines.

Don’t do what I did and think that it might be worth hanging out in Manila, because it isn’t.

Don’t get suckered into Taal volcano on the promise of riding a horse on a volcano, because you will be put on the back of an underfed horse walked slowly up the volcano on a rope by a local who is clearly kept to a certain level of poverty by the travel company that has taken over the island.

Do go to the beaches and the islands though as they are gorgeous…but don’t do it on day trips from Manila because we set off early and were continually lied to about types of transport and transport times meaning that we had 45 minutes to enjoy one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve been on.

#19 – Switzerland
Visited: Interlaken
Switzerland is little more than a hazy, snowy memory for me because my family visited when I was still pretty young. My defining memories of Switzerland are an idyllic lake, going up a mountain on a freezing but fun cablecar/train, and being shouted at in Swiss German by a lady at a magazine stand because I wasn’t aware you couldn’t preview a Pokémon magazine before buying it like you could in the Uk. The woman was very angry and made me feel bad, so that puts Switzerland at #19.

#18 – Vatican City
Visited: Vatican City
It barely makes it as a country, which is why it is so easy that any other country I’ve enjoyed beats Vatican City to higher positions. It was absolutely amazing though and I’d recommend it to anyone visiting Rome. I adored the frescos and the sistine chapel is much better appreciated in the flesh. Still, this country is a recommendation for a day out in Rome and no more than that, so the Vatican comes in at #18.

#17 – Malawi
Visited: Nyika
We’ve fully entered the positive experiences territory here at number #17, by the way. My most memorable moment of Malawi was seeing a wild leopard with a cub in her mouth for 3 seconds while on safari. We’d been searching for anything all day with only a little success, but then this brief encounter felt amazing as she approached our car in the dusk, saw us, and disappeared.

I was travelling with a group of people I didn’t really know, but we had a good time chatting and singing in a cool cabin that night. The next day, me and a woman called Janicka took a 40km bike safari among the zebras. The undulating scenery was beautiful and it goes down as one of my favourite activities ever. Malawi doesn’t get higher on this list because this nature experience was never balanced with any human activity. I can’t say I talked to any locals, we were just there for the animals for those 2 days. Because of that, I didn’t connect much to the country in that short time. I remember it was a clear step down from Tanzania on the development ladder, but there’s certainly some fantastic natural beauty.

#16 – Colombia
Visited: Bogota, Medellin, Cartagena

Like the Philippines, Colombia often features much higher on other travellers’ lists compared to mine, but here’s where subjectivity comes into list-building.

I spent 2 weeks in Colombia. Sadly, it loses serious points for reasons that aren’t really Colombia’s fault. I was very much falling out of love with my then-girlfriend who I was travelling with, I was ill for about 4 days and couldn’t enjoy Bogota properly and added to this, I felt terrible and stupid after a friend and I both got pickpocketed in a Medellin bus terminal. Goodbye wallet, hello budgeting for the rest of the trip. Not really Colombia’s fault. Pickpocketing can happen anywhere, but for me it happened here.

But to Colombia’s credit it’s got some great cities and everywhere else felt safe and exciting. Relaxing, reading and eating fish on an island just off Cartagena was a highlight, as was a taxi ride into Medellin with old-fashioned latin music blaring on the radio. The Botero gallery is one of my favourite gallery experiences to date. Bike and walking tours around the cities were great and often didn’t hold much back; which made them more engaging and memorable.

Colombia didn’t show me its best side, but it was clear that it had a lot going for it. Fortunately, I get a day-long stopover in Bogota on the way back to Bolivia in a week to see it through healthier eyes.

#15 – Peru
Visited: Cuzco, Machu Picchu

My Peruvian experience sits here at a solid 15th place because I had a wonderful holiday here, but unlike the countries that come higher up on the list, there was very little about the holiday that felt like my Peruvian experience was necessarily any different to anyone else’s experience there.

The reason for that is obvious. I took the well-traveled road with a good friend through La Paz, to Cuzco, to Puno and to, you guessed it: Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu is worth the hype, and is oddly still amazing even when it’s crawling with tourists. We got up to the summit early enough that when we arrived it was still covered in morning mist, so we got to watch as the morning light slowly unveiled one of the modern world’s seven wonders. That’s a moment I’m never going to forget.

I’ve recently been recommended other locations in Peru, and a revisit would probably see Peru reach higher up on this list.

#14 – Argentina
Visited: Buenos Aires

There’s no two ways about it, Buenos Aires is special. But there’s also no two ways about the fact that the city is suffering terribly from being an old new world city stuck in a new new world.

Everything about Buenos Aires seemed to speak to me though, from its love of culture to the history of tango. My highlight there was sitting in a local tango club after a class to watch the professionals improvise their way around the floor. For someone who only really knows ballroom dancing as a regimented affair, to watch the movements flow out of these dancers so seamlessly really felt special. Although I was staying in an Air Bnb (this tiny tiny but charming room in an attic- I felt like a wannabe/failed poet) I latched onto a hostel crowd that helped make this solo holiday a bit more social.

There’s a lot more of Argentina to see, and I’m especially interested in Salta in the north, as well as a trip to Patagonia whenever time allows.

#13 – Austria
Visited: Vienna

From the land of the tango, to the land of the waltz, my holiday in Austria was quite similar to Buenos Aires. Austria pips Argentina because I had a close friend with me who really made the culture I was soaking up feel even more enjoyable. No waltzing took place sadly, but that was the only oversight in a city that seems to have worthwhile museums and galleries on every corner.

Open and welcoming, Austria was a real delight for the short time I was there. It made me want to embrace and learn a bit of German even though it seemed entirely unnecessary. The Beethoven Frieze was fascinating, as was the Leopold museum and I just felt while I was there that there was a lot more going on than what I could consume in 3 days.

#12 – Japan
Visited: Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Tokyo, Hakone

Japan was a 2-week holiday- not that that is long enough to really appreciate it. It was a strange one for me as a lone traveler in somewhere so so different to what I was used to. It also came immediately after my Korean holiday, where Seoul had already thrown me into a state of semi-confusion that I hadn’t fully recovered from yet.

I landed in Osaka and was impressed immediately by Dotonbori and the sheer madness of it all. Like Korea, Japan is best when you’re with either a guide or someone who really knows where to nudge you from time to time. I loved the metro in Osaka, it was old and new and renewed all at the same time. Kyoto was hauntingly beautiful. I did see a geisha through the mist at one point before she scuttled off. I also spent a mind-boggling half an hour playing poker in a maid cafe against an old guy with an eye-patch. I lost pretty quickly. Distractions were everywhere.

Japan is a weird place where you do weird things. I hung out with the deer in Nara, climbed though a big wooden nostril, did the Shinjuku shuffle, ate the most overpriced avocado I’ll ever have in harijuku and saw the most overpriced (but amazing) battle robot show in Tokyo. I used the phrase “Domo origato Mr. Roboto” in an authentic context. I fed the Nintendo child in me browsing the games stores and I hiked and onsen-ed in Hakone. Mt. Fuji eluded me, but I spent a powerful evening walking through the Fushimi Inori Taisha shrine that made up for it with its own mysticism. That place is amazing.

I enjoyed it, but oddly, I wasn’t happy there. I think I was burning out after all that cultureshock, but getting up everyday wasn’t easy at times. I was weighing up a lot of decisions about my future at the time but Japan was a wild backdrop to this as I did.

#11 – Italy
Visited: Rome, Venice

I’ve been to Italy twice. The first time was a holiday with my family just before university to Rome, which was great. It included the aforementioned Vatican City. All nice, all fine. But Italy nearly breaks the top 10 because of Venice, the second holiday I took there. You don’t need to know the details, you just to need to know that I did the fully loved-up holiday with my long-time university girlfriend and it was a beautiful holiday. Singing gondolier, St. Mark’s square. Enough said.

 

(Part 2: #10 – #1 when I get chance to write it)

 

5 down, 25 to go. See the whole list and why I’m doing it here
Days remaining: 152