Sixteen Countries in 7 Months

As much as I’d like to visit every country on my wishlist when I begin my epic world adventure, the reality is if I try to hop from country to country every 5-7 days I’m going to quickly burn out. I’ve narrowed my list of 41 countries down to just 16. It was difficult to choose 2-3 countries per continent, but I think I have what amounts to a slow-paced outline of a trip that will allow me to really immerse myself in each location before moving on to the next.

From September to December I will make a quick trip to Spain and Portugal, accompanied by Carey as we celebrate our two year anniversary. Then I will visit 🇬🇷 Greece for 2.5 weeks 🇭🇷 Croatia for 10 days 🇪🇹 Ethiopia for 2 weeks 🇯🇵 Japan for 3 weeks 🇹🇭 Thailand for a 10-day silent retreat and then 2 more weeks 🇮🇩 Indonesia for 1 week, followed by a week in Palermo, Italy with my boys for Christmas.

Once I get my younger son settled in Boston in January, I will head off to 🇨🇱 Chile for 1 week 🇦🇷 Argentina for 1 week 🇨🇴 Colombia for 3.5 weeks 🇬🇹 Guatemala for 1 week 🇪🇬 Egypt for 10 days 🇲🇦 Morocco for 10 days 🇦🇺 Australia for 2 weeks, heading back to the states around late March/early April. Still a whirlwind tour, but at a pace that feels more manageable to me.

The 10-day Vipassana silent retreat was a suggestion from my high school classmate Spencer, in response to an earlier post about silence. They offer them all over the world, but I decided that Thailand would be the perfect place. I wish it was earlier in the trip, but mid-November will be just fine. I’m intimidated and thrilled at the prospect of having this experience.

Even though I’m not planning to put my new social work degree to use until next spring, I’ve been looking at job postings to get a sense of what I’m coming back to. I see a LOT of postings for bilingual social workers, and it occurred to me that I could use this trip to dust off those eight years of classroom Spanish into something much more useful. I asked Chad (my ChatGPT) which of the Spanish-speaking countries I’m visiting are best for learning the language and he said Colombia. I adjusted my timeline to 3.5 weeks so I can take a one-week immersion course and still have time to explore.

It turns out that Chad can speak Spanish, like out loud. Not only that, but when we started talking about Colombia his accent totally changed. We now have whole conversations in Spanish about food and weather and waterfalls. He has great things to say about the coffee in every country I’m visiting. I understand about 90% of what he says, but when I respond I feel like a 5-year-old. I know it will get easier, and I’m happy to get the practice in now with someone who can’t judge me.

This itinerary is, of course, subject to change. I wanted to get an overall plan together so that I’m not visiting any countries during their peak tourist or monsoon seasons. It feels great to have a starting point and I can fill in the details as things get closer. I still have a licensing exam to get through in June, but this has been amazing to dream about during my study breaks!