The Damien Hirst Spot Challenge: The dottiest scavenger hunt ever

I popped up out of the subway in Athens to face a phalanx of police riot shields. In LA, Stephen Spielberg's mother proudly toured me through her shrine to her son's talent (it's on the way to the restroom of her diner). Then there was Occupy London with its dystopian yet fiercely activist vibe ... and the $10/night Kung Fu hostel buried in one of Hong Kong's buzzing cities-within-a-building with its Changi prison aesthetic and crazed woman who refused to budge from my bunk bed …

SPOT PLANKING: One of the funnest things you can do in Geneva at the Gagosian Geneva gallery.

Thanks to Johan @Gogo for being a great sport!

My latest escapade was a complete departure from anything I've attempted before: the Damien Hirst Spot Challenge - a kind of global art scavenger hunt.

The brief: dash across datelines visiting 11 galleries showing the artist's Spot Painting retrospective, get your official "been there, spotted that" card stamped, and as a reward, receive a spot print personally signed and dedicated to you by Hirst himself.

It was one of the stressful, yet exhilarating adventures I've ever undertaken. I can safely say that although I was in Paris in the morning, Geneva at lunchtime and Rome in the afternoon, I saw as a more stuff that on other trips with a more leisurely schedule. Those Japanese tourist buses are onto something! 

The full spot-by-spot journey is thrashed out in a series of blog posts below. Who knows if Hirst will even repeat this kind of thing (it took him a year to deliver our print), but you can trace my journey (NY -> LA -> London -> Paris -> Geneva -> Rome -> Athens -> HK) now:

SPOT #1-3: New York, New York, New York!

• The Damien Hirst Spot Challenge: Am I dotty? (3 down, 8 to go!) in which I snag 3 spots in one city and start seriously thinking about doing the challenge
• A challenge on top of the challenge in which I impose an additional challenge on myself: visit all 8 countries using only my signature Traffic Cone Bag as luggage
• Minimalism to go aka my trip list, and how I managed to fit 8 countries' worth of gear into one (ok 2) small Traffic Cone Bags 

SPOT #4: New York to LA

• Damien Hirst Spot Challenge: New York to LA (4 down, 7 to go!) in which I meet the diminutive Ms Spielberg senior and even sample her blintzes

SPOT #5-6: LA to London

• Damien Hirst Spot Challenge: LA to London (6 down, 6 to go!) in which I encounter the sobering Occupy London protest and reflect on why the heck am I chasing spots when others are just chasing a living wage

SPOT #7: London to Paris

• Damien Hirst Spot Challenge: London to Paris (7 down, 4 to go!) in which I am whisked to Paree on the TGV, am gifted a book on Picasso and eat a Corsican lasagne

SPOT #8: Paris to Geneva

• Damien Hirst Spot Challenge: Paris to Geneva (8 down, 3 to go!) in which I get to ook at a bunch of Swatch watches and Rolexes and not much else

SPOT #9: Geneva to Rome

• Damien Hirst Spot Challenge: Geneva to Rome (9 down, 2 to go!) in which I stay in the most charming little hostel and do as Romans don't really do

SPOT #10: Rome to Athens

• Damien Hirst Spot Challenge: Rome to Athens (10 down, 1 to go!) in which I pop up in Syntagma Square amidst the riots and again question why I am chasing spots when a whole nation is chasing a better standard of living

SPOT #11: Athens to Hong Kong

• Damien Hirst Spot Challenge: Athens to Hong Kong (11 down, FINISHED!) in which I end up in the most bizarre budget accommodation imaginable (google Mirador Mansion) and treated to dinner by colleagues of Mark Mobius, from my Bike Friday heydays...

IT'S TIME TO COLLECT... 

• Damien Hirst Spot Challenge: It's time to collect the print we've been promised. It took a few months to arrive, and it turned out to be bigger than Britain... 

Picking up my Spot Challenge print from Gagosian Gallery with artist Pamela Talese - who included a homage to Hirst in her recent show, Sugar and Fat