Created Lord of the Rings, and metal. And made very important contributions to psychedelic rock and blues rock.

*independence.

Best dictionaries in the world.

Best food

Brisbane consistently reaches the top of foodie lists

I wonder if there’s a travel itinerary for a year long journey to as many independence days as possible. How many are there? How many could a person attend within a year?

Edit: Found a list on wiki and could sort by calendar day. By my count you could attend a maximum of 119 independence days; that is to say somewhere in the world there is an independence day on 119 different days. Many days of course have two or more countries celebrating so you’d have to pick one. Maybe I’ll print the list and think about the geography a bit and see how many a person could reasonably attend; 119 is the maximum if you own a private plane and could land and takeout from the correct countries in order.

Conceivably, one person couldn’t possibly line up the entry visas to get anywhere close to 119. They’d need a small team of immigration lawyers working for months ahead of and during each leg; some chronological legs might be impossible due to entry restrictions on country of entry or country of origin. Visa requirements would get more complicated as time went on and less likely to be granted, although to the extent border controls are discretionary, with the right letters and proof, the durations of stay will be so short, how many border guard supervisors are going to turn you down for a one or two day entry visa when you have photos of you partying it up on Independence days around the world, celebrating the prideful achievements of the cultures of the world, and asking “won’t you let a kind traveler share your day of national pride with you, so that I may share it with others?”

And this is all flying privately with your own jet and unlimited money to keep it going on demand. Many legs would be interrupted by flight delays and travel bullshit. Flying commercially, even with unlimited plane fair money and very good luck in finding/planning accomodations (not living out of your private jet). This assumes the flight durations and time zones line up that you could make it in time from one to the next.

I would find it an amazing achievement if a regular person managed to get to like 25 of the these things in a year, and a lifetime achievement award to do anyone that hit 50. Maybe a very seriously dedicated individual could hit ~75. That last stretch from 100 to 119 I think would be insurmountable. With all the resources in the world I bet a few would still fall through for one reason or another.

If anyone finds some travel nerd somewhere that has really thought this out please share.