The article discusses the complexity of defining what it means to 'visit' a country, highlighting a personal anecdote at Golubac Fortress, Serbia. It questions the criteria for counting a country visit, noting the challenges such as limited time and the prevalence of 'country counting' culture. The narrative contrasts historical and modern perspectives on world travel, especially the influence of social media, which has trivialized the experience by turning it into a series of checkboxes rather than meaningful encounters with different cultures.
"That said, I'm not even sure how prevalent this conversation was 40 or so years ago when Finnish writer Rauli Virtanen became the first to visit every country - or at least the first to publicly declare that he'd done so."
"Today, however, there is a seemingly inextricable link between visiting every country and social media. But by effectively reducing entire countries to grid posts captioned with check mark emojis, it's set entirely the wrong tone."
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