The week before last I saw an ad for a product that let you record and display how many countries you've visited. This led me to ponder the eternal question of what counts as having "visited" a country. Is it:
- passing through an airport?
- eating a meal?
- getting a stamp in your passport?
- buying souvenirs?
- spending a night?
- something else?
And it came to me that the appropriate way to gauge whether or not I personally have truly "visited" a country is if I've eaten ice cream there.
(I'm using "ice cream" as an umbrella term for frozen treats eaten with a spoon or from a cone, regardless of local names or variations in recipe.)
I feel this is a good gauge of whether or not I've "visited" a country, because the longer you've spent in a place, the more opportunity you've had to eat dessert. One could counter that not having eaten ice cream somewhere could just mean you weren't there during ice cream season; the fact that I ate gelato for dinner in Florence in December should make clear that I believe that there is no such thing as Not Ice Cream Season (sell me ice cream all year round, you cowards). To that end, I have categorized all of the countries I've "visited" based on the likelihood I consumed ice cream there. Feel free to use this system in discussing your own travels.
🍦🍦🍦 (three cones): I definitely ate ice cream in this country
the US
Spain
Slovakia
Austria
the UK
Italy
Türkiye
🍦🍦 (two cones): it is possible that I ate ice cream in this country
Portugal
France
Canada
Gibraltar
Croatia
Poland
🍦 (one cone): it is unlikely that I ate ice cream in this country
Hungary
Switzerland
Germany
Ireland
Czech Republic
🥦 (broccoli): I definitely did not eat ice cream in this country
Andorra
Vatican City
Liechtenstein
Morocco
Romania
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