country count

Country count
Being now on the border of moldova and ukraine, waiting for customs, again, my country count has increased by 2 in the last day or so. But i have to think about this. You see, This bit of moldova is actually Transdniestr, a self-declared independent communist state. It has it's own stamps, valid for domestic mail only, its own currency, own government... But noone recognises it. So does it count? I never counted Christiania or Uzupio, but they are more hippy communes than countries, and are both within cities. This one takes up a large chunk of a country. I counted the vatican, but it is recognised by the UN. I haven't counted scotland, england and wales as separate (i've never been to northern ireland) but maybe i should? And then, of course i did count hong kong, but the first time i was there was before it was hande back to china. And i counted macau because i wanted to and because the visa requirements and currency are different. And then of course, Gibraltar has to count, because it'r so far from the rest of britain. Or england. Whichever it is supposed to belong to.
So basically, i have on hard rules for what counts. Which means i can just about make up my own number, and that number is, now that we have successfully crossed the Transdniestrian border, is 53.