Visiting every country in Europe

London, UK

When I arrived in Austria a few weeks ago, it was the 22nd sovereign country I had visited and I began to think. There are something like 192+ countries in the world and I'm 25 years old and only seen 22 of them. If I hadn't lived in Europe it would have had been even less. I guess in some cases it's just a border line between two countries but still.

I don't have a huge desire to do a huge trip through all of Africa, Asia, the Middle East or South America in order to get my country count up. My interest is in Europe. There needs to be more of a purpose to travel that just to travel and the cultures and behaviors of people in Europe satisfy this for me. I find countries outside of Europe, generally speaking, either sexually repressive or way the fuck over the top of my comfort zone.

So, which European countries haven't I visited yet?

Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Poland, Portugal, Ireland, Macedonia, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and Vatican City.

Most of that list shouldn't be a surprise. There's an axis of evil member, a recovering war zone (I think the UK could be classed as this as well) and a number of micro-nations. Still, that shouldn't stop anyone from exploring what these places have to offer.

One could say that it's better to find new undiscovered pockets in countries I've already visited and if you only visit capitals then you haven't seen shit but all to often in the past that hasn't revealed gems like exploring new sovereign countries (Estonia being a huge exception to this).

So, if I wanted to visit these countries using my money, time, visa collections and length of transport most efficiently, what order would I go in? Below are a few trips which would maximize my time out of the UK visiting these countries. I don't know how practical something like this would be but it's fun having a think about it.

If I completed these trips, it would bring my country count to 55 and I would have only had seen ~25% of the countries in the world. It's a big place, there is a lot to explore.

Trip 1:
London, UK
Tallinn, Estonia ( Every good trip should start here :) )
Tartu, Estonia
Pscov, Russia
St. Petersburg, Russia
Moscow, Russia
Minsk, Belarus
Vilnius, Lithuania
Kaunas, Lithuania
Warsaw, Poland
Krakow, Poland
Prague, Czech Republic
Bratislava, Slovakia
Budapest, Hungary
Belgrade, Serbia
Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
A quiet breach in, Montenegro
Tirana, Albania
Athens, Greece
Skopje, Macedonia
Sofia, Bulgaria
Istanbul, Turkey
Burcharest, Romania
Chisinau, Moldovia
Odesa, Ukraine
Kiev, Ukraine

Trip 2:
London, UK
Iceland
Ireland
Portugal
Monaco
Malta
Cyprus
Andorra
Vatican City
San Marino
Liechtenstein
Switzerland
Luxembourg

Trip 3:
These countries were classed as being in Europe on wikipedia.

London, UK
Georgia
Armenia
Azerbaijan

I haven't researched any of these itineraries in any great detail and I'm sure I'll be hearing from people about how poorly planned they are, ect....

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