At 34, Torbjørn Pedersen embarked on a seemingly impossible journey that would take 10 years – and involve cerebral malaria and being held up at gunpoint. He reflects on the highs, the lows and the joy of getting married en route

Fascinating story of a Danish traveler who visited every country on Earth, only by land and boat.

  • AggressivelyPassiveEnglish
    19•10 months ago

    It took him around ten years to achieve that, roughly 500 weeks. 400 weeks if you discount his forced stay in Hong Kong during covid. There are about 220 countries, depending on how you count. That means, he spent about two weeks in every country. If you discount all the time he’s been sitting in trains or ships, there’s even less time actually being in a country.

    So his “unique perspective” is mostly how to get visas and bribe boarder guards.

    • Very_Bad_Janet
      5•10 months ago

      I hear what you’re saying - that he might have had at best superficial interactions with people. But, stull, I don’t know anyone who’s had interactions with someone from every country in the world. I’d imagine that gives him the unique perspective (not saying that he would be an expert in any of the cultures he encountered). Also, I’d like to hear more of the details of how it was to travel to such-and-such place - the logistical issues, as you mentioned.

      • AggressivelyPassiveEnglish
        3•10 months ago

        But does he have - realistically - any reasonable amount of contact with a given population by just traveling through their country?

        Think about it, if you were to travel through your home country by train or car, do you have a somewhat representative sample of what life is there? Likely, you’ll only have contact with a handful of people (beyond purely functional interactions). Do 5 people who all happen to travel with the same transport medium and also speak English represent a good sample?