newly conscious hobby: visiting 100 countries

I’ve had this goal for awhile now to go to at least 100 countries, and the other day I decided I should make it my conscious “hobby.”

It’s not so much the number itself, as the fact that the number can be used as a lure to induce me to go to new places whenever possible, rather than familiar old ones (though there will be some of that as well.)

I’m doing OK, for someone who never even left the USA for Canada until age twenty.

Egypt was country #21 for me, and the first 20 were mostly in Europe (all other than USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil). Now I’m at 60, meaning 39 new countries just during my 10 years in Egypt. That’s pretty good, and it wouldn’t have been easy if I’d been living in the USA, which is simply too remote from the rest of the world. By contrast, Egypt is well-located for all kinds of travel.

Tanzania was the most recent new one, #60. By the end of January, I’ll be at 64. Then if I make a loose effort to see three new ones per year, it will be 12 more years.

In 2001 I saw 7 new countries, my personal record for a single year. But that’s hard to do consistently. In 2008 and 2009 I added only Sri Lanka and Serbia, so I was slowing down at that point. I’ve bounced back in 2010 with 5 new ones altogether.