Thursday, March 26, 2009

Where I've been so far.

So far in my life I have traveled to 14 of the 195 countries in the world. The first of course is the one I was born into Canada. (In Canada I have been to 6 of the 10 provinces and none of the 3 territories.) Second was the United States of America. ( I have been to 7 of the 50 states.) However in the next year I hope to go on a North American road trip with a Canadian friend of mine who I met in NZ and hopefully we will cover all of those provinces, territories and states that I am currently missing. The third country that I traveled to in my life wasn't until 2006 when I went on a 21 day tour of France, changing airports and planes in London, England on the way to France. England becomes my 3rd and France my 4th. That trip to France was with my university and we checked out art and castles through out the country from Paris all the way to Nice in 21 days. My next big trip wouldn't be until December of 2007 when I went on a 14 day, 9 country tour of Europe with Contiki. (http://ca.contiki.com/) The trip I went on was called the European Discovery tour. The trip started in London, England and on the first day we drove to Amsterdam, driving through Belgium (5th) making the Netherlands my 6th country. We then continued on for the next 14 days traveling to Germany (7th), Austria (8th), Italy (9th), Vatican City (10th), Switzerland (11th), and finishing in France.

That Europe trip as short as it was had to be one of my favorite trips of my life so far. I reckon I met heaps of keen Australians on that trip that I made great friendships for life with.
My next trip in April then took me to Australia a place I had always wanted to visit and now because of all these new friends I had a good excuse to go. Australia being my 12th country I spent a lot of time in Sydney but also did an East Coast tour of the country from Hamilton Island and the Great Barrier Reef to Sydney and everywhere in between on another Contiki tour.
I fell in love with this country and its people, causing me to want to go back and I did just that. The following November I made it back to Australia and then that next January and February I was there as well. During my November trip I made a quick 10 day trip over to New Zealand where I did yet another Contiki of the North Island. New Zealand country # 13! It was one of the most beautiful places I have seen so far and I didn't even really get to see the South Island which is supposed to be one hundred times better.

My Jan-Feb 2009 trip to Australia again was another great trip where I saw more of the country, met up with old friends and got to be a tour guide for my family. However landing back home in the winter again, with out a job had me itching to get out of town and so three weeks after being home I left again. I never thought that I would ever want to do an all inclusive type trip, but 2 of my friends were going to Cuba and not having work I figured why not!

Cuba my 14th country was a great decision and I'm so happy i went on that trip, I learned so much about that country and culture and it was extremely refreshing to just relax and be waited on hand and foot and to be away from the hustle and bustle of the world.
14 countries however is not enough! I am still dying to go to everywhere else that I can get to!
Where I've Been:
1. Canada
2. US
3. England
4. France
5. Belgium
6. Netherlands
7. Germany
8. Austria
9. Italy
10. Vatican City
11. Switzerland
12. Australia
13. New Zealand
14. Cuba

Where I hope to go to next (not necessarily in this order)
Egypt, Cambodia, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Peru, South Africa, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Spain, Portugal, Estonia and everywhere else but those are the highest on my list!

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

195 Countries by June 1st, 2014??



It's about time I started my own travel blog with all the traveling I have done in the past 15 months in particular and with all the traveling I hope to do specifically in the next 5 years.
I have always loved to travel and thanks to my parents have done a lot of it so far in my life. In the past fews months I actually created a goal for myself to travel to every country in the world by the age of 30 and hopefully I can reach this goal! According to the UN they currently consider there to be 195 countries in the world to which I have been to 14. 181 to go! Here on my blog you can track my progress and also see where I've been so far. I can't be traveling all the time so I may also add some day to day life tid bits as well.