Countries I've visited, 2018 edition

It's been a couple of years since I last updated my running tally of foreign countries I've visited, so it's time to add some dates and some flags.

Last summer's foreign trip was to Cancún, where mom, dad, Kirby, Corinne and I snorkeled, visited Mayan ruins and relaxed on the beach. Although Mexico is the country I have visited most frequently throughout my life, this was my first trip there in a decade, and my first trip to Cancún in two decades. We also got to see Mexico City for the first time, thanks to a long layover (we followed this itinerary, which I recommend to anyone with several hours to kill between flights; contrary to some peoples' perception, downtown Mexico City is rather safe for tourists).

This summer's trip to Europe mirrored the one we took in 2016 in many ways - we stayed at the same timeshare in Austria, after all - but also featured longer periods of time in Italy and Slovenia and a cruise out of Venice to Croatia and Greece. There were also a couple of day trips to Berchtesgaden, Germany. As I mentioned in my previous entry, I hope to post at least some pictures and thoughts from this most recent trip in the coming months on this blog.

Anyway, below is an updated list of countries I've visited and the years I've visited them, with the most recent visits denoted in red. If I didn't stay overnight in a country - e.g. a order crossing, an airport stopover where I left the terminal, or a cruise port of call - the year I visited is italicized. (Note: my trip to Greece consisted entirely of cruise ports of call visits, but I slept in Greek territorial waters while I was on the cruise ship so no italics.)

Nations with an asterisk (*) next to them are among the world's 25 smallest countries, of which is my life's goal to visit all of them before I die. (I would have loved to have made some progress on that front by working in a visit to San Marino during this most recent trip, but it simply wasn't possible.)

Antigua and Barbuda*: 
2015

Austria: 
2002, 2016, 2018

Barbados*:  
2015

Belize:  
2006

Canada: 
1974, 1980, 1982


Croatia: 
2018

Czech Republic:
2002

Ecuador: 
1988, 1989, 1990, 1993, 2001

Germany: 
2002, 2016, 2018


Greece: 
2018

Ireland: 
1985

Italy:
2016, 2018

Japan: 
2005

Liechtenstein*:
2016 

Mexico: 
1979, 1983, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2017

The Kingdom of the Netherlands:

The Netherlands: 
2002, 2006

Aruba: 
2014

 St. Maarten:  
2015

St. Kitts and Nevis*:  
2015

St. Lucia*:  
2015

Slovenia:
2016, 2018

Switzerland:
2016 

United Arab Emirates: 
2006, 2008, 2012

The United Kingdom:

England:
1985

Scotland:
1985

 Wales:
1985

Adding Greece and Croatia to this list gets me up to 22 out of 206 sovereign (or de-facto sovereign) nations, or just over one-tenth of all the world's countries (not counting the United States). I'm probably going to be stuck at this level for awhile, as my finances need to recover from this last trip (and pay for a wedding!) before I go on any more major foreign adventures.

(Flag source: World Flag Database)