A mad idea: visiting all the countries in the world in alphabetical order.

octatonic

I'm having the floors polished at the moment, which has forced me into dining room exile, surrounded by all our stuff, with just a laptop for company.

I happened upon a list of people by the most countries travelled here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_by_number_of_countries_visited

So we have some very well travelled people indeed in this list but I don't think anyone has ever visited all the countries in alphabetical order.
I wonder if this is even possible?

The biggest stumbling block would appear to be going from Nigeria to North Korea and then to Norway.
I wonder if some massive corporation would sponsor such folly?

stickyfiddle

I don’t think the travel would be that hard as long as you’re allowed to transit. 

But getting visas might might become quite difficult after you complete the holy triumvirate of Iran, Iraq, Israel. At least you’d get to have a beer in Ireland somewhere in amongst!

strtdv

If you were from Northern Ireland you probably get around it with some planning using both your Irish and British passports depending on diplomatic relations

cj73

You don’t happen to have a friend called wowbagger do you? 

Myranda

I feel there are countries I'd not want to visit... North Korea might be fascinating, but...
Iran might have a lot of history, but...
Syria might have stunning scenery, but... 

With my degree I could get treated as a spy with ease so countries with paranoid governments might not like me. What with my tenancies towards munching carpet some countries could imprison or beat me. With my gender some countries might beat me/rape me... And that's before white foreigner comes into it and countries where such often get kidnapped for ransom.

Some of the world is a horrible place... 

WiresDreamDisasters

Don't go cycling in the Middle East.

HAL9000

If you want to visit every country - even though it breaks up the alphabetical thing, it’s probably best to leave Colombia and Mexico ‘til last,

Veganic

Unfortunately you have already started out of sequence. 

octatonic

Veganic said:

Unfortunately you have already started out of sequence. 

So what you are saying is I need to go to Afghanistan, get a woman there pregnant (risky behaviour), then raise the child to adulthood never letting him or her leave Afghanistan until they are an adult and then sponsor them to do the challenge for me?

Hmmmm....

roundthebend

octatonic said:

Veganic said:

Unfortunately you have already started out of sequence. 

So what you are saying is I need to go to Afghanistan, get a woman there pregnant (risky behaviour), then raise the child to adulthood never letting him or her leave Afghanistan until they are an adult and then sponsor them to do the challenge for me?

Hmmmm....

By that point, Abkhazia will be a recognised country and your efforts will be worthless.
I think it would be an interesting thing to do if you slackened the rules a bit - you can return to your home country any time, and also go through previously visited countries on your way to another.

My wife an I are doing an A-Z of European cities, with the intention of taking in some less popular ones. So far we've done Athens (instead of Amsterdam), Budapest (instead of a multitude of interesting options) and Copenhagen (we struggled to find others that we could do).

D is likely to be Dubrovnik. 

Dominic

well it sure beats Dartford

munckee

Dominic said:

well it sure beats Dartford

Derby?