where in the world

[ilanarama]

I was inspired to post this by a recent post by nothings (which itself was inspired by my last post, so we start getting a bit circular here), but I originally came up with the idea behind this essay while on a night watch somewhere in the Caribbean.

How many countries have I visited? It depends on how you define "countries", "I", and "visited".

"I" should be the easiest - I is me, right? But should I count the trip to Israel my parents took me along on when I was 18 months old? The trip to Canada at 4? Somehow it doesn't seem fair to say I was in a country if I don't remember anything (or, in the case of the second trip, very little) about it. As it happens, I'm just arguing this to make a point, because I revisited both Israel and Canada as an adult. But when you think about your own travels, consider who "you" are.

"Countries" is another one that's tougher than it looks. For example, I've been to France, Guadeloupe, St. Martin, and Martinique -- how many countries is that? I want to say four, but the French Caribbean islands have the same status as US states, so really that statement is equivalent to saying that I've been to the US, Hawaii, and Alaska. The same thing goes with the Netherlands Antilles, which together comprise a single country even though they are spread throughout the Caribbean. Then there are the in-between cases, like Puerto Rico and the American and British Virgin Islands, places with neither independence nor full belonging. Where do you draw the line?

It would be misleading, I think, to tell someone you've been to France when you have only been to Martinique. But then again, it would be misleading to tell someone you've been to the United States when you have only been to Disney World.

"Visited" is really the hardest of all. Does my stopover in Keflavik airport in Iceland count? What about when we touched down for a stop in Fiji, but I never got off the plane? What about when we anchored in a cove of Montserrat, but I never got off the boat? The cross-border stroll I took from Israel to Lebanon (back when you could actually do that)? What about flying in to Luxembourg, spending the night in a hotel, and then getting on a train to France the next day? Does spending a week at a ski resort in Austria (but never seeing Vienna, never visiting a museum or historic site or castle) mean I've "visited" the country?

I really can't say what constitutes a "visit". There's no magic amount of time or number of places to see to qualify. The rigor I apply to this definition varies on my mood, but I believe it's an important criterion to consider as well.

So how many countries outside the United States have I visited? Using the least-rigorous definition of all three points, I come up with 32. Using a reasonably rigorous definition, I get 21. But I can argue that I haven't really "visited" more than six or seven places, if I want to get really anal about it and require an in-depth visit to multiple important sites within a country. And by that definition, most people haven't been anywhere at all.

Comments

[waider.livejournal.com]

I'm honestly more apt to apply the Purity Test rule: All technicalites count. Of the countries I listed in my other posting(s), I've spent at least a full 24 hours somewhere other than in the airport unless I've marked it as a stopover. In fact, I think I've spent at least a week in all the non-stopover countries except a few of the European ones that were day trips on a family holiday in 1983 (yes, when I was 10)