How many countries have you visited? (Ranking)

[debemaks]

And, today, at last: (currently sitting in a coffee shop in the centre of Dublin waiting for a meeting!)

....taking me to 30!

....and of course tracking bills from there too!!!!

[Le Hibou]

England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland,
Belgium, France, Netherlands, Germany, Spain,
Portugal, Greece, Monaco, San Marino, Malta,
Tunisia, Gambia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland
Hong Kong (before 1999), Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Bahrein (airport),
Austria, Switzerland.

I suppose it's debatable whether England, Scotland and Wales are one, three or maybe two countries. I think most Brits would agree they are three. Each has its own parliament and national football team, and you won't see many Union Jacks when England win the World Cup! So, taking the widest view of what counts as a country, I claim 27, or 25 if UK counts as one, or 24 if airport stop-overs are excluded.

[eurojuanmi]

I suppose it's debatable whether England, Scotland and Wales are one, three or maybe two countries. I think most Brits would agree they are three. Each has its own parliament and national football team, and you won't see many Union Jacks when England win the World Cup! So, taking the widest view of what counts as a country, I claim 27, or 25 if UK counts as one, or 24 if airport stop-overs are excluded.

I think you have 25, because right now we are counting that like one country, and airport stops are inluded

[eurojuanmi]

Will it then be put in the same map as the other flags (http://www.eurobilltracker.eu/img/flags)? Or should I ask one of the webmasters of http://www.eurobilltracker.com to put it there?

You can put here the country you want to enter in EBT

[eddydevries]

Will it then be put in the same folder as the other flags (http://www.eurobilltracker.eu/img/flags)? Or should I ask one of the webmasters of http://www.eurobilltracker.com to put it there?

You can put here the country you want to enter in EBT

I have put this question in that topic too, maybe they can tell me how the flag can get into the folder http://www.eurobilltracker.eu/img/flags

[lazza]

I suppose it's debatable whether England, Scotland and Wales are one, three or maybe two countries. I think most Brits would agree they are three. Each has its own parliament and national football team, and you won't see many Union Jacks when England win the World Cup! So, taking the widest view of what counts as a country, I claim 27, or 25 if UK counts as one, or 24 if airport stop-overs are excluded.

I think you have 25, because right now we are counting that like one country, and airport stops are inluded

Ah, I hadn't realised we were including stopovers in airports. In which case, I have Bahrain , Oman (Muscat) , and UAE (Abu Dhabi) making a grand total of 33

[lazza]

And, today, at last: (currently sitting in a coffee shop in the centre of Dublin waiting for a meeting!)

....taking me to 30!

....and of course tracking bills from there too!!!!

Of course! 21 notes in 12 hours in Dublin...

But still no hits

[Klazu]

Including airport stops is silly. Then this thread should be "on how many countries' soil have you been?". It's not visiting or seeing the country the be a few hours on an airport some 20km from nearest city.

Ok, ok, it's not my list and I'm not participating but this didn't make sense to me.

[Divine]

^ Then you must have an opinion what qualifies as visiting a country? So, is it spending a certain amount of time in a city? What must be the minimum population of the city to qualify as a visit? How much time would you have to spend there? 10 hours minimum? Isn't walking around the three-country cairn visiting three countries in a very short time?

As for the notion of 'visiting', with my limited understanding of English, 'on how many countries' soil have you been' is included in 'visiting'. Too bad if you didn't see much when loitering at the airport, but weren't you still there anyway?

This all comes down to the infamous notion of 'traveling wrong': someone else tells you how to spend your holiday the 'right' way. I know an older couple who have visited many countries but they have always stayed in all-inclusive 5-star hotels, where they are taken with hotel limos and never actually visited any sights, eaten outside the hotel area nor spent any time outside. Those 5-star hotels are pretty much the same everywhere. Basically when you've seen one, you've seen them all. By your logic one could say this couple has never really visited any country because they have never really seen anything outside the airports and the hotels.

I still think the simplest and most convenient way is not to start making weird rules that qualify your visit, if you actually were there anyway.

[Phaseolus]

Don't you both think that this topic is just a pleasant way of sharing with others where you have already been...

I do not see any competition linked to it...

So, keep cool, it's just for fun...

[Divine]

Don't you both think that this topic is just a pleasant way of sharing with others where you have already been...

I do not see any competition linked to it...

Yeah, I meant to say exactly that but forgot to include it in my rant. That's actually why I'm wondering why certain kind visits shouldn't be included.

[Klazu]

Just to answer Divine (I know he wants to have an answer to his flame )...

IMHO it's pretty easy to use common sense to distinct "being on airport and just seeing it" (and maybe some of it's surroundings from the windows) from "visiting a country". Visiting would include anything spent outside the airport area. I would include even a taxi ride from the airport to a hotel as visiting a country, even if the people would just stay in their hotel rooms, since they have seen some of the country.

Don't make simple things so damn complicated, Divine.

No argue here, just some pure chat.

[Phaseolus]

In my bussiness trip (for example ths week when I was in London), the common "trip", is as follows : arrival either very late (and then it's too dark to see something) or very early (and then I am just still sleeping) in the city by plane (or Eurostar this time), and then a taxi, or a metro to the meeting place.
The meeting room often has NO windows, as they are regulations in working places that say that people working somewhere should at least have one window in their office ; thus meeting rooms often have no window. In london, the meeting room was in the basement, therefor no one chance to see the daylight ;
Then, when the meeting is finished, it is a kind of a race to get back to the airport or train station in the local traffic jam (very enjoyable, especially in Paris ) and then a plane back home, some beer on the plane, and then a train from the airport and back home at Midnight...

So, the concept of "trip" does not exactly fit with my personal concept of "holiday"

But having said all this, I would like to add one important thing : because, nowadays, the major kick I get from my bussiness trip is to get new DOTS on my map ; and when we have to decide where to host the next meeting, I am thinking of my personal EBT map and "where do I miss some dots?"

He, guys, isn't it the most important part ?

And when I get back home, my wife asks : " was your meeting interesting ?" and my answer is "Yes, I got some nice new dots on my map !"

I wonder what people tell their wife when they do not know about EBT ?

[Divine]

Don't make simple things so damn complicated, Divine.

Nope, I'm not the one making any limitations and rules. See, with your airport rule you are actually ranking the quality of the visit. 'You must do the thing X there to be able to say you have been somewhere.' In my book you just have to be there. I 100% agree that it's far more interesting to see places outside the airport than just the airport, but that doesn't change the fact that you still were there. How much simpler could that become?

A visit is a visit is a visit.

[Le Hibou]

England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland,
Belgium, France, Netherlands, Germany, Spain,
Portugal, Greece, Monaco, San Marino, Malta,
Tunisia, Gambia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland
Hong Kong (before 1999), Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Bahrein (airport),
Austria, Switzerland.

Ooops, I completely forgot about Macau! This was before 1999, when it was a Portuguese colony, in the same way as Hong Kong was a British colony. However, I'm not sure whether being a colony counts as a country. So do I get one more point for Macau, or maybe lose a point for Hong Kong? hmm, but then they would surely both have to count as China which means no change to my score... Damn these colonialists! My revised list:
United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, France, Netherlands,
Germany, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Monaco
San Marino, Malta, Tunisia, Gambia, Hungary
Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Singapore, Thailand,
Indonesia, Bahrein (airport), Austria, Switzerland.

That's 24, plus either:-
2 for Hong Kong and Macau - 26 countries, hooray I go up one!
1 for Hong Kong and Macau, both in China - 25 countries, oh well no change.
0 for Hong Kong and Macau, they "belonged" to Britain and Portugal - 24 countries, boo-hoo I go down one!

Seriously, though, this was an interesting question, if you'd asked me casually, in the pub for example, "how many countries have you been to?" I would probably have said, without thinking much about it, "oh, about a dozen". So in fact I was quite surprised myself when I actually counted them.