Cassie De Pecol is not your ordinary traveler. Your ordinary traveler hits a few countries in western Europe after college, or during study abroad, then settles into an ordinary existence in an ordinary town. Cassie De Pecol, a Connecticut native, will have visited every country in the world by the time she turns 27. She's documenting the trip on her website, Expedition 196.
De Pecol left on the journey in July, 2015, and will eventually visit all 193 sovereign nations as well as Taiwan, Kosovo, and Palestine. That has entailed, so far, 254 flights to see 180 countries in a little more than 15 months. That's cost her the piddling sum of $198,000, which she's funded through sponsors and occasional free stays in hotels in exchange for social promotion. She will be the first-documented woman to do so. If she finishes in the next 45 days, she'll set a Guinness World Record for the fastest person ever.
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She tells the Daily Mail that curiosity drove her journey.
"Since school, I've had this desire to visit every country in the world, intrigued to learn more about every culture, natural habitat, and religion," De Pecol says. 'In America we are lucky to have such a vast melting pot of cultures and people from all over the world who make the country what it is today ... Going to every country was for me a personal quest to learn as much as I could about our world, stepping outside my comfort zone and becoming comfortable in the unknown, while also aiming to leave a legacy behind."
Her trip has included some highs, but she's faced some difficulties travelling as a woman.
"I've been harassed and in sticky situations, whereas a man in the same situation likely wouldn't have experienced the same," she tells the Daily Mail. "Some like to be believe that they can take advantage of me because I'm a woman, thinking I'm more gullible to cough up more money or talk to them more because they want me to, but I don't tolerate any inequality anymore. If I feel that I'm being harassed or taken advantage of, I say how I feel, then I'm out."
Heady stuff. And maybe some motivation to spend two years of your life travelling to every country with the spare $200,000 you have tucked away.
Follow De Pecol's amazing journey on her Instagram and her website.