The Rules

Ivi, Vidi, Feci — I went, I saw, I did. All three parts must be true.

🌍 Countries, territories & states

A place counts as visited when you have stood on its ground, in the open air, as a conscious act of being there.
Airport transfers do NOT count. If you never left the transit zone, you were never in the country — no matter how good the duty-free was.
Driving or riding through counts only if you stop, get out, and stand on the ground. Sleeping through a country on a night train does not count.
Seeing a country from a ship, plane, or across a border does not count. Territorial waters do not count — your feet must touch land.
Visiting a state or province follows the same rules. Landing in Florida marks the USA visited, but Alaska stays unvisited until your boots are on Alaskan ground.
Embassies do not count as the country they represent. That's a legal fiction, not travel.

A peak counts as summited only when you stand at the very top — the actual highest point, not the parking lot, café, or viewing platform below it.
Cable cars, funiculars, and roads to the summit are allowed. It's about being there, not how you got there — but you must walk to the true summit marker if there is one.
Seeing the mountain, hiking its slopes, or reaching a false summit is a fine day out, but log it as an attraction or custom entry, not a summit.
If the highest point is inaccessible (closed, sacred, or requires mountaineering beyond your means), it stays unclimbed. The mountain doesn't grade on a curve.

You must actually visit the attraction — enter it if it can be entered, stand before it if it cannot.
Seeing the Eiffel Tower from the plane window does not count. Standing beneath it does. Going up is even better, but not required.
For natural attractions (falls, dunes, reefs), you must experience them at the site itself, not from a distant viewpoint in another region.

Events must be attended in person, at the event, while it is happening. Watching the broadcast doesn't count.
Cultural experiences must be genuine participation: eat the dish in its home region, join the custom, listen to the music live where it lives.
Doing the 'cultural thing' at home or in a themed restaurant elsewhere is practice, not the real thing.

A language counts when you have had a real, in-person conversation with a native speaker of it — more than ordering a coffee.
Native means it's their mother tongue, not a language they studied.
Video calls don't count. Serendipity is the point: the world has to put the person in front of you.

Nobody checks. Nobody can. This log is between you and the map.
If you have to ask yourself whether it counts, it probably doesn't — go back and do it properly. The world will still be there.