Facebook World Tour 2008

Have you ever used that application from Facebook, for pinning on a world-map the places where you have lived in or visited? If you are hardcore Facebook user, most likely you know what I am talking about...

Besides it's one of the most useful Facebook widgets in my opinion (stop throwing sheeps guys, I do support him) I have to admit a find this application a little bit funny, and I tell you why...

When I was living in Hong Kong, a good friend of mine came to pay me a visit. I showed him Hong Kong around, and as I used to do with almost any guest who came to visit me, I brought him to nearby Shenzhen, just the first city you step in when crossing the border with China. In Hong Kong, it is kind of popular to go to Shenzhen for enjoying SPA and massages at really economic prices.

It's important to mention that to get to Shenzhen you need to apply for a Chinese visa. Fortunately, there is a special visa for visiting Shenzhen (except for Americans and British who have to apply for a normal Chinese visa), but after all it's a VISA, stuck on your passport and with a stamp.

So, my good friend Servando, having real proofs of visiting mainland China, decided to add Shenzhen, and by hence China, to his list of visited countries. Right after that, his percentile of world traveled so far rose from a scarce 6% to a considerable 11%. Yeah, one night in Shenzhen is worth for the whole magic of China. It's not fair, I know, but what is the price for marking a whole country in red? (specially then it comes to China) From my point of view, that's priceless (well, 50 HKD for the bus trip plus 150 HKD for the visa).

Me and Servando tend to make lots of fun about this Facebook world-map application. Fooling about it, we came up with several interesting ideas:

• The-more-the-better Facebook route. Forget all lists about places you should visit in a lifetime (or before turning 30, if you are still on your twenties). Traveling is not about visiting interesting places, traveling is about visiting many places. If you can visit 4 countries on a weekend trip, why just visiting only one? Following that principle, it's no worth visiting countries such as Brazil, China, Russia or India, whereas routes around the Balcanic countries (where you wake at a new country every day), Baltic countries, or mostly any spot in Europe, are much worth visiting.
• The cover-the-most Facebook route. It's just the opposite idea. Try to visit large countries, but do not spend too much time in them, since as most people know, as for in China, all cities look very similar, once you have visited Shenzhen, you can say you have visited all cities in China. From that point of view, countries such as Brazil, Russia, China or India should be on your list. But remember, you just need to put your feet on them and you got the right to add them to your list.
• The optimal Facebook route. It's the sum of those two previous concepts. Try to visit as most large countries as you can. Thinking of going to China? Then the border with Mongolia, Kazajastan and Russia is the place to go.

So, what is all this about? Well, basically, I start my holidays tomorrow, and me and Servando are going on a trip which will bring us to 6 countries and 2 continents in just 20 days. We will be visiting Rome, Sofia, Bucharest, Istanbul, Belgrade and Skopje. And yes we are counting the East part of Istanbul as located in Asia, and that make it two continents (the-more-the-better Facebook route, I guess).

Besides all this stupid random thinking, I must recognize I needed to spend a long holidays traveling as blood in my veins. Hope everything will be fine. More news once I back (luckily the pictures wil be on Facebook :)).

PS: No forget to mention the purporse of this trip is to visit my friend Liliana, who has been living in Sofia for 10 years. I always kept on promising her I will go to visit her one year after another...and I just think it was high time for me to do it.