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Hi there, my name is Thomas, I’m a 24-year old air traffic controller. I was born and raised in Denmark, lived in the US during high school*, and in 2016 I moved to Switzerland for work.
Some of my greatest passions in life are traveling, exploring foreign cultures and learning new languages. I love traveling to places that would be considered “off the beaten path”, and I try to get in touch with locals when possible. In fact, most of my best friends are people I have met through traveling, one way or another. Some of the places I’ve been to, and some which I’m planning on going to, are countries or regions that see very few visitors. As such, their respective cultures and people are quite unknown to the rest of the World. I love these places! I’ve had countless great experiences and met some of the most welcoming, friendly people in places where most Western tourists don’t even dare to come near. What is really exciting about these places, is that a lack of Western influence often means that the local culture usually hasn’t yet been invaded by smartphones, junk food and skyscrapers. The culture is still somewhat unique, and that’s what draws me to these places. The more culture shock, the better.
Unfortunately several of these same countries suffer from unlucky political situations. Most people only hear about the politics of these often 3rd or 2nd World countries, and form their opinion of the culture and the locals based entirely upon that. It is incredibly misguiding. Politics can certainly influence the local culture, sure, but they are separate things in every country. I pick which places to go to based on the culture, historical heritage and the local people, never the political situation. Don’t judge millions of people based on one political leader.
I am a very firm believer that racism wouldn’t exist if cultural understanding was increased. The World would be a much better place if we learned to appreciate our cultural differences, instead of using them as an excuse to segregate ourselves.
Promoting cultural understanding is one of several reasons why I work as an air traffic controller, apart from the fact that I have a huge passion for aviation. In my day job I help facilitate safe travel for people from/to distant places on Earth, and I’m hoping that by sharing my own personal travel experiences on here, I can do even more to spread cultural knowledge. Maybe I’ll inspire some of you reading this to travel to places you hadn’t thought of. Hopefully you’ll learn a thing or two about a culture or a people that you hadn’t acquainted yourself with. Feel free to write me or comment on the posts for tips and suggestions for your own travels, I’ll be happy to help!
COUNTRIES VISITED AS OF July 2022:
Albania
Andorra
Antigua & Barbuda
Armenia
Austria
Bahrain
Belarus
Belgium
Bermuda ***
Bhutan
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Botswana
Brunei
Bulgaria
Cape Verde
China
Colombia
Croatia
Cuba
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Dominican Republic
Egypt
England
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hong Kong ***
Hungary
Iceland
India
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Italy
Jordan
Kenya
Kosovo*
Lebanon
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macau ***
Macedonia
Madagascar
Malaysia
Malta
Mexico
Moldova
Monaco
Montenegro
Morocco
Namibia
Netherlands
North Cyprus **
North Korea
Norway
Papua New Guinea
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
San Marino
Serbia
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Korea
Spain
Suriname
Sweden
Switzerland
Transnistria **
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United States of America
Uzbekistan
Vatican City*
UN Count: 78 out of 193
Total countries visited (incl. * & ** as explained below): 82
Total countries and autonomous dependencies visited (incl. all cases mentioned below): 85
* Not a full member of the United Nations, but generally recognized as an independent nation
** Mostly unrecognized, but autonomous state
*** Territory with a significant level of autonomy, but recognized as part of, in union with, or as a dependency of another nation
MY DEFINITION FOR VISITING A COUNTRY
Travelers usually have various definitions of what counts as visiting a country. My definition is the following; I count a country as visited, when I have cleared immigration and spent time outside of the transit area of the airport/train/bus station etc., and it is this definition that I use for the list above. However, simply clearing immigration doesn’t mean I have fully experienced the country. I’m not gonna go on a cross-Europe drive and cross off five countries in one day just for the sake of ticking them off the list. If I did something like that, I would only cheat myself and miss out on what these countries had to offer. A perfect example is Slovenia, which I visited in the Summer of 2016. I was at Portoroz Airport along with a flight instructor and three fellow air traffic controller students, as part of flight training with a 6-seater airplane. We cleared immigration in order to have lunch just next to the airport, then we flew (I was actually at the controls) onward to Croatia a couple of hours after that. Since I cleared immigration, I count Slovenia as visited, but does that mean that I would never come back to spend at least a few days in Ljubljana? No, absolutey not. In fact, I did exactly that at the end of July 2018. Still, I haven’t yet fully experienced Slovenia. I try as much as possible to take my time in each country I visit, take it all in, absorb the culture and learn a few useful phrases of the local language. That being said, I do have to admit that I usually pack a lof of places into my itinerary. I’m not the type that would simply set down anchor in a hostel for two weeks and chill out.
I hope you’ll enjoy reading the blog, and if you have any tips/suggestions/questions, feel free to leave a comment!
*For more on my high school experience during two years as an exchange student in Mesa, Arizona, visit thomasinarizona.blogspot.com