Featured Image Credit: Instagram/@onceuponasaga
Topics: Life, Travel, World News
Rhiannon Ingle
One man took putting off the post-vacation blues to a whole new level after spending 10 years straight going to every country in the world without flying or returning home.
Danish globe-trotter, Torbjørn 'Thor' Pedersen, embarked on the trip of a lifetime back in October 2013 and mapped out three rules to strictly abide by throughout the epic adventure.
Namely; spend a minimum of 24 hours in each nation, live off a budget of around $20 a day and refrain from returning home until he was totally finished with the challenge.
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And just a few months ago (24 May) that fateful day finally arrived when, after a decade of tireless travel, the 44-year-old ticked off his 203rd and final country on the list.
Pedersen, who had been traveling as a goodwill ambassador for the Danish Red Cross, can now boast a killer travel track record that would put many of us to shame.
Across the course of 3,576 days, the Dane embarked upon 379 container ships, 158 trains, 351 buses, 219 taxis, 33 boats, and 43 rickshaws tallying up a staggering 223,000 miles all in all.
And you thought a bus and a bit of a walk was a pain...
Opening up about the decade-long project, Pedersen told CNN he set out on the journey with a particularly inspiring motto in mind: "A stranger is a friend you've never met before."
He added: "I have been shown time and time again that this is true. If you engage with people, they’re usually all in."
Pedersen revealed he stayed in the homes of 'many, many strangers' during the travels on his trip.
"I made it through every country in the world – the ones with armed conflict, the ones with virus outbreaks – unharmed," he explained.
"Either I’m the luckiest man on the planet, or the world is in a much better place than most people are led to believe by the scary, dramatic news on social media and news channels."
While, for the most part, the experience was 'beautiful' and 'special' there were some hiccups along the way.
The most significant being the events of the COVID-19 pandemic back in early 2020 which put a substantial delay on the world trip as Pedersen was stuck in Hong Kong for two whole years.
"I look back at Hong Kong, and it’s a bit of a paradox," he said. "It was the worst time of my life and the best time of my life, somehow.
"I had to cope with the situation – it was such a struggle to work out if I should abandon this project nine countries short of completion."
Pedersen continued: "I had to ask myself: how much of my life will I give to this? But while waiting for the world to open, I made a life in Hong Kong and forged so many special relationships."
The traveller has since returned back home to Denmark just last week (26 July) and is enjoying home comforts at long last after 10 whole years away.
"My family is really proud. There’s a lot of love," he said. "Coming home is something I’ve been focusing on – something I’ve wanted to materialize for the longest time. But I am still processing that the journey is over and figuring out what comes next."
Pedersen added: "There’s uncertainty while I am traveling, but I have been in operational mode for so long now that it feels somewhat safe to me.
"There’s a different kind of uncertainty when I get home. I will be free to do whatever I want, go anywhere, or go nowhere."
Pedersen is now looking forward to starting a family with his wife, Le, and is working alongside Canadian filmmaker Mike Douglas on The Impossible Journey, a documentary on the project.
He also plans to eventually write a book about the journey.
Now that would be a good read.