The World In One City – revisited

Three months ago, I blogged here about a project called “The World In One City”.
This is a project that Owen Powell (who posted a comment on my blog) and Alex Horne started on 24 October 2006 (United Nations Day), and which they hope to finish in just a few days’ time, on the same date this year. Their aim is to prove that London – where I’ve lived for for 36 years – is the most cosmopolitan city in the world, by endeavouring to meet and chat to a citizen from every country in the world who currently lives and works in London.
They reckon that, according to the UN, there are 192 countries in the world and so far they have contacted and interviewed people in London from 184. I wish the guys well in trying to hit their target but, whatever happens, they have demonstrated how cosmopolitan London is and I bet they’ve had some fun and made some friends along the way.
Of course, even better than meeting someone from every country in the world would be visiting every nation on the globe – but that would take more than a year. At the venerable age of 59, this week I will be visiting my 48th country.


3 Comments

  • mavis

    Take a year out and do it.
    Life is not a rehearsal you only get one shot at it.
    I have been following them as well on their journey.

  • Roger Darlington

    I really would like to travel round the world sometime, but I don’t want to visit too many places in one trip.
    Before each visit, I read up on the country and, after each visit, I write up an account for my web site. In each case, I take a lot of photographs and organise them and I meet a lot of people and get in touch with them. Also I think about what I have seen and what I have learned.
    I think that travelling is best done in bite-sized chunks rather than one year-long odyssey. Anyway – who would look after the cat?

  • mavis

    Me, I adore cats and maybe once Honey had stayed with me you would not get her back.
    Do it by cargo boat, take a laptop and read up as you sail from place to place or are you a non-sea person.
    You are then not out of touch.
    But I know exactly what you mean by bite-sized. It’s only because I have been stopped in my tracks twice that I say do it now or as soon as possible; you just do not know what’s round the corner.