February 2nd, 2004

Filed under:
Travel
5 Comments »

Where I’ve Been

Man, I need to get out of the house more. This map needs an extra level of granularity: duration of stay. The map could use intensity of colour to show how long you’ve spent in a place. For example, I’ve spent about four weeks in Costa Rica, but only a weekend in Denmark.

I also take issue with the fact that it combines Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (all countries in their own right) as part of the ‘United Kingdom’. As I’ve visited all four, I’m getting shafted out of three countries. I’m also cheating by including South Africa, where I’m going this May. I am pleased, however, that they eschewed the Mercator projection for Robinson’s.

UPDATE: The image seems to be broken currently and it’s slowing down my already-tortoise-like page load. So, you can view it here. Create your own visited country map
or write about it on the open travel guide.

Comments: 5 Responses so far

rose
February 2nd, 2004
2:12 pm

Actually, the United Kingdom is made up of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Great Britain, or Britain, is made up of England, Scotland and Wales. Sorry, this is a pet peeve of mine. :-)

And while I understand you feeling cheated for having visited all four areas of the UK, technically, they’re correct – the UK is one country. The “countries” that make it up are really more like states or provinces. All citizens of the UK are British no matter what part they’re from.

Reply

Darren
February 2nd, 2004
2:32 pm

This really depends on your definition of ‘country’. For example, while the CIA Factbook doesn’t describe Scotland et al as countries, my Microsoft Encarta does. Scotland, for example, has its own judiciary branch and parliament. It is, for most intents and purposes, it’s own country.

This always comes to a head around sporting events. The UK unites or divides itself based on its proficiency at a given sport. For example, all of the countries/regions have their own international soccer squad, but the UK competes as a single country at the Winter Olympics (where the Scots picked up all the medals, I might add). And, if I recall correctly, some bizarre combination occurs in international rugby.

Reply

rose
February 2nd, 2004
10:13 pm

You have a point, especially about the sports thing. But the Scottish Parliament has limited powers – specifically Education, Health, Agriculture and Justice. All other matters, such as Foreign Affairs, Defence and National Security, are still under the control of Westminster. Northern Ireland has its own local Assembly too (well, sometimes, when it hasn’t been suspended!) and Wales also has some form of National Assembly. But the powers that these three bodies have have been granted by Westminster and can be taken away again (as in the case of the NI Assembly). These bodies are fairly new and are part of the process of devolution, but so far, at least, no-one has claimed that they mean independence from the UK.

I do agree that the sports thing gets complicated, especially rugby. I think that in rugby, the Ireland team includes N. Ireland, which is the most confusing thing because that’s a whole other country again. I’m not completely sure about that, but I think so. I ought to know, being from N. Ireland originally, but I never was very into rugby… :-)

I don’t mean to be completely nit-picky, but as I said, this is kind of a pet peeve of mine. So few people over here understand the situation over there. But as you point out, it is kind of confusing.

Anyway, I still think the UK is one country. With a complicated internal structure. And don’t you believe the CIA over Microsoft?? ;-)

Reply

Darren
February 2nd, 2004
10:21 pm

After that whole weapons of mass destruction thing, I wouldn’t trust the CIA to find Greenland on a map.

Indeed, it is confusing. And, I’ve always thought, a bit unfair to the Scots and the Welsh. The Northern Irish, of course, haven’t done much to deserve autonomy.

Reply

stephen fynes
February 4th, 2004
10:06 am

South Africa sounds exciting Darren. Are you going there on vacation?

Reply

Add a comment