The West Wing is one of my favorite shows. There is an episode where the White House Press Secretary, CJ is trying to make an announcement that the UN Security Council was behind a peace deal. But when they couldn’t get there, she realized they had all the NATO countries and she said they would move the goal post and declare a win. I am still working on 100 UN countries, I haven’t been to all the countries on a single continent, and I haven’t even been to all 7 continents yet. But with my trip to the Baltics this past summer, I have now been to all 32 NATO countries. I am moving the goal post and declaring a win (for now)!
At the time I am writing this, I’ve been home from Lithuania, my last NATO country, just over a month. But it was only today that I realized it.
It definitely helps that I have lived in 4 of the 32 countries.
Of course, since I was born here, the United States was my first NATO country. But we moved to Germany before I started school and I was able to visit Belgium, Demark, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Sweeden, Finland and the UK very early in life. I have returned to all of the countries expect Sweeden as an adult.
As a teenager, I was able to return to many of those early countries and add Hungry, Canada, Czech Republic, Italy, Romania and Spain.
As an adult, when living in Europe again, I was able to visit Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Turkey.
And from the US as an adult, I lived in Turkey and I was also able to get to Iceland several years ago. … And most recently I was finally able to visit Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania… rounding out all NATO countries. The only caveat is Sweeden is the only country on the list that I have not been to as an older teenager or an adult and a few of the countries were not a member of NATO when I was there last.
Picking a favorite would be super hard. Of course, I am partial to my own country and love my neighbor Canada to the North. I have so much more of Canada I want to explore, including Vancouver, Prince Edward Island, Labrador and Newfoundland. And as I’ve said a hundred times, London is my favorite city. But I loved Estonia, Albania, and North Macedonia. I’ve visited Spain more than any other country (other than somewhere I have lived) and I have plans to return to Turkey and Portugal within the next year.
While “collecting” countries is not a goal, it is definitely fun to be able to round out a category. For all of NATO, I only realized it after the fact. I recently shared that I visited my 50th state. The first 43 or so were very natural. I was aware when visiting my Oregon and New England that I was almost there, but only Arkansas was a specific and deliberate trip.
Fun fact, only when writing this post, did I realize that I have also been to all of the permanent UN Security Countries – and that has been true since the mid-1990s when I visited Russia!!!
Life Kinetic Travel Research 