Before I get down to posting any actual travel accounts/records/memoirs/rantings I want to share with you the places I have been so far. This list is every bit of land I have set foot on which is not part of the UK (I have been to England, Wales and Northern Ireland anyway, but they are not foreign soil). I have also been to the Isle of Man and Jersey, which are British Crown Protectorates and not part of the UK, but also not fully independent countries either. I have left the the UK every year of my life since 1987. I was born in November 1986, so didn't have a chance to travel that year, unfortunately. I don't remember anything before our summer holiday to Spain in 1990, but the fact remains that I have stood, or at least been dropped in all of the following Countries and Territories:
Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, China (Including Hong Kong and Macau), Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland (Åland Islands), France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, North Korea, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United States of America and the Vatican City.
In addition to that on a holiday in 1989 we visited East Germany (in what was the last summer that country would see before the border was opened, although the country itself and the Berlin Wall officially lasted another 16 months-I must have had an impact) and Czechoslovakia (who had opened their border to the West earlier that year, but the country didn't split into what we have today for a few more years). When my mother was pregnant she also visited Yugoslavia, although I unfortunately cannot officially count that country on my list of places as I did not yet have a birth certificate!
In addition to THAT, I have cast my eyes upon Libya, Algeria (From Tunisia) and Morocco (from Gibraltar) from the ground (I will not list countries seen from a plane). Had it not been for the fact I didn't have my passport...and Libya didn't have mountains of Red tape to clear in order to enter the country...and Algeria wasn't in a state of emergency at the time and it's border was closed (we were 1 mile from the border guards)...I could have added 2 more to the "been to list"...well, I may eventually go to those countries!
Thankfully we have a pile of old passports I can look at to confirm when I was in these places. Sadly, European countries don't issue other Europeans stamps anymore...unless you ask...which I do, as can be seen in my Picasa gallery. Free Souveniers!
Hope you enjoy!
1 comment:
Among the 'mountains of red tape' required to get into Libya are an invitation from a Libyan travel agent and a pre-authorised visa application. You would not have got in by just rolling up to the border waving a British passport.
That said, apart from Libya being dry, (never a plus in my opinion) it a fascinating place to visit - at least it was before the current troubles erupted. If the people can free themselves of the Colonel (and they may need help) a visit may become easier, but no less worthwhile.
I wrote a brief post about it on my travel blog on the 22nd of February.
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