It’s been a few weeks since I declared my 2008 Resolution , so it’s probably time to revisit it.
First, I wanted to address a couple of questions people have asked.
Isn’t this whole idea a bit shallow?
Oh yes, it’s incredibly shallow. But then aren’t most holidays unless you’re trekking for charity or building mud huts in the Congo? At least doing this will force me to travel to places I would never have visited, and probably travel via methods and routes I would normally have ignored. Is it any better or worse than returning to the same sun-drenched beach for two weeks every year?
It’s still a fair comment, so I’m going to try and not just go to places to tick the box, but we’ll see how possible that is.
Isn’t all going to be a bit rushed?
Aye, some countries are going to get shortchanged. But I’m going to make an effort to spend a decent chunk of time in each country, or at least the ones I’ve not been to before. I don’t want to do a ‘stand on the border, foot over, tick the box, move on’ thing, but on the other hand if I do want to get to all the countries then some places will get more time than others.
And I don’t think it’s a bad idea to visit places quickly to get a feel for them, I’d rather spend a day in three different cities and want to return to them all than spend three days somewhere I’m bored of after two hours. Plus I know that given more time I just get too laid back, but under a deadline I’ll make the effort to get out and see things. I’ll have time to relax when I’m travelling between places.
Can’t I just visit less places?
Of course, but it wouldn’t have the same ring, would it?
Plus I’d just pick ‘easy places’, by aiming for a set of countries that’s defined by something else I’m forced to stretch a bit.
So with all that said, how’s the progress looking? I’m going to resist scoring off the UK, because of my comments above about not just ‘ticking the box’, so the list looks like:
With 125 non-working days left I still need to visit 20 countries (27 to do then in all ’08.)
Countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom.
Countries I’ve visited pre-2008 are in grey, countries visited in 2008 are scored out.
Eeek, that’s not looking good. I’d better do something to improve matters.