Jack Wheeler proudly shows the passport issued in the 1960s, among all the passports he has had over the course of his life. He has brought the documents to prove that he has visited every country in the world.
“About 20 years ago, my wife asked me how many countries I had been to. It turned out I had been to 140. And she said: ‘Why not visit them all?’” explains Wheeler, an American who lives in Portugal with his wife.
“I turned it into a game. Whenever I went somewhere, I would also visit the most interesting countries nearby,” he tells Euronews. In 2014, on a trip to São Tomé and Príncipe, he completed his list.
Wendy Arbeit reached the same milestone last year, when she managed to enter North Korea. The German, who also holds US citizenship, was part of the first group to enter the country since the start of the pandemic.
“It was incredible. Very safe, very clean,” she says. “It was also very special because I was the first person to enter the country after Covid, the first non-Russian tourist.”
