For many dissatisfied Western men, the flag concept has changed what it means to travel. Instead of just going to a country to take pictures of old churches, there is now a singular focus on conquering foreign vagina. Reading Lonely Planet has become pipelining. Sightseeing has become day gaming. Partying has become… night gaming. An entirely new school of game is developing to help you sleep with as many foreign women as possible.
As satisfying as flagging is, it can be hard to stay motivated once you’ve accumulated a respectable flag count. After you hit one of the two most important milestones (10 or 25), you’ll probably find the thrill fading away. I found something that gets the thrill right back: the flag sweep.
A flag sweep is when you get flags from a specific geographical area. The sweeps can be attained in a shorter amount of time than it takes to score a high number of flags like 25. Some sweeps are attainable in just one trip.
Here are some flag sweeps:
Iberian Sweep (2 countries)
-Portugal
-Spain
Aegean Sweep (2)
-Greece
-Turkey
Oceania Sweep (2)
-Australia
-New Zealand
Baltic Sweep (3)
-Estonia
-Latvia
-Lithuania
North America Sweep (3)
-Canada
-Mexico
-United States
Indochina Sweep (3)
-Cambodia
-Laos
-Vietnam
Inca Sweep (4)
-Ecuador
-Peru
-Bolivia
-Chile
Scandinavia Sweep (5)
-Denmark
-Finland
-Iceland
-Norway
-Sweden
Eastern Europe Sweep (6)
-Belarus
-Moldova
-Ukraine
-Baltic Sweep
North Sea Sweep (6)
-Belgium
-Denmark
-England
-Germany
-Netherlands
-Norway
Central America Sweep (7)
-Belize
-Costa Rica
-El Salvador
-Guatemala
-Honduras
-Nicaragua
-Panama
Central Europe Sweep (7)
-Austria
-Czech
-Germany
-Hungary
-Poland
-Slovakia
-Slovenia
Balkan Sweep (7)
-Albania
-Bosnia-Herzegovina
-Bulgaria
-Greece
-Macedonia
-Montenegro
-Serbia
Southeast Asia Sweep (9)
-Burma
-Indonesia
-Malaysia
-Philippines
-Singapore
-Thailand
-Indochina Sweep
Mediterranean Sweep (9)
-Albania
-Bosnia-Herzegovina
-Croatia
-France
-Greece
-Italy
-Slovenia
-Spain
-Turkey
Western Europe Sweep (11)
-Austria
-Belgium
-England
-France
-Germany
-Ireland
-Italy
-Netherlands
-Switzerland
-Iberian Sweep
South America Sweep (13)
-Argentina
-Brazil
-Colombia
-French Guiana
-Guyana
-Paraguay
-Suriname
-Uruguay
-Venezuela
-Inca Sweep
Former Soviet Union Sweep (15)
-Armenia
-Azerbaijan
-Georgia
-Kazakhstan
-Kyrgyzstan
-Russia
-Tajikistan
-Turkmenistan
-Uzbekistan
-Eastern Europe Sweep
You’re free to make your own sweeps. For example if you’re a history buff, maybe you’ll try the Axis Powers sweep (Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden). Or maybe an Anglo sweep for countries where English is the primary language (Canada, USA, Ireland, England, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand). Even if you’re not a flagger, chances are you probably are close to completing one or two of the easy sweeps.
The only sweep I’ve completed is the Baltic sweep, but I have my eye on the Scandinavian, Eastern European, and Balkan sweeps. My hunch is that a couple of the sweeps above pop out at you as being worthy of your time. For example, I have no intention of doing any of the Western European or Asian sweeps, though the tough FSU sweep is whispering sweet nothings into my ear.
If you’re a travel newb I think the Inca sweep will actually be that easiest, least expensive, and most fun, though you may have to lower your standards quite a bit in Bolivia (I recommend you get your flag there in Santa Cruz where the talent is highest). The Iberian sweep seems easy enough but the quality will be low and difficulty high. The North American sweep shouldn’t be too challenging. The Baltic sweep used to be easy but it’s getting increasingly harder as sex tourism wrecks that part of the world. If you have a friend that can take a couple months off with you to travel, try a 5-7 country sweep.
If you didn’t have a project to do before reading this, I hope you have some ideas now.
