diff --git a/src/lib/layout/selection.svelte.js b/src/lib/layout/selection.svelte.js
index 14d2624..1910e66 100644
--- a/src/lib/layout/selection.svelte.js
+++ b/src/lib/layout/selection.svelte.js
@@ -3,8 +3,8 @@ import { nameToId } from '../shared/countries.js';
 
 let selected = $state(new Set());
 let totalCountries = $state(0);
+let flashing = $state(new Set());
 
-// Derive visited countries from journal entries
 journals.subscribe((entries) => {
   const ids = new Set();
   for (const e of entries) {
@@ -25,3 +25,16 @@ export function setTotalCount(n) {
 export function getTotalCount() {
   return totalCountries;
 }
+
+export function getFlashing() {
+  return flashing;
+}
+
+export function flashCountry(countryName) {
+  const id = nameToId[countryName];
+  if (!id) return;
+  flashing = new Set([...flashing, id]);
+  setTimeout(() => {
+    flashing = new Set([...flashing].filter(x => x !== id));
+  }, 1600);
+}
diff --git a/src/lib/shared/countryCities.js b/src/lib/shared/countryCities.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1862d34
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/lib/shared/countryCities.js
@@ -0,0 +1,184 @@
+export const countryCities = {
+  'Afghanistan': ['Kabul','Kandahar','Herat','Mazar-i-Sharif','Jalalabad'],
+  'Albania': ['Tirana','Durrës','Vlorë','Shkodër','Elbasan'],
+  'Algeria': ['Algiers','Oran','Constantine','Annaba','Blida'],
+  'Andorra': ['Andorra la Vella','Escaldes-Engordany','Encamp'],
+  'Angola': ['Luanda','Huambo','Lobito','Benguela','Lubango'],
+  'Argentina': ['Buenos Aires','Córdoba','Rosario','Mendoza','Bariloche','Salta','Mar del Plata'],
+  'Armenia': ['Yerevan','Gyumri','Vanadzor'],
+  'Australia': ['Sydney','Melbourne','Brisbane','Perth','Adelaide','Gold Coast','Cairns','Darwin','Hobart','Canberra'],
+  'Austria': ['Vienna','Salzburg','Graz','Innsbruck','Linz','Hallstatt'],
+  'Azerbaijan': ['Baku','Ganja','Sumqayit'],
+  'Bahamas': ['Nassau','Freeport'],
+  'Bahrain': ['Manama','Riffa','Muharraq'],
+  'Bangladesh': ['Dhaka','Chittagong','Sylhet','Rajshahi','Khulna'],
+  'Barbados': ['Bridgetown'],
+  'Belarus': ['Minsk','Gomel','Brest','Grodno'],
+  'Belgium': ['Brussels','Bruges','Ghent','Antwerp','Liège'],
+  'Belize': ['Belize City','San Ignacio','Placencia'],
+  'Benin': ['Cotonou','Porto-Novo','Abomey'],
+  'Bhutan': ['Thimphu','Paro','Punakha'],
+  'Bolivia': ['La Paz','Santa Cruz','Cochabamba','Sucre','Uyuni'],
+  'Bosnia and Herz.': ['Sarajevo','Mostar','Banja Luka'],
+  'Botswana': ['Gaborone','Francistown','Maun'],
+  'Brazil': ['São Paulo','Rio de Janeiro','Brasília','Salvador','Fortaleza','Manaus','Recife','Florianópolis','Foz do Iguaçu'],
+  'Brunei': ['Bandar Seri Begawan'],
+  'Bulgaria': ['Sofia','Plovdiv','Varna','Burgas','Ruse'],
+  'Burkina Faso': ['Ouagadougou','Bobo-Dioulasso'],
+  'Burundi': ['Bujumbura','Gitega'],
+  'Cabo Verde': ['Praia','Mindelo'],
+  'Cambodia': ['Phnom Penh','Siem Reap','Sihanoukville','Battambang'],
+  'Cameroon': ['Yaoundé','Douala','Bafoussam'],
+  'Canada': ['Toronto','Vancouver','Montreal','Calgary','Ottawa','Edmonton','Quebec City','Whistler','Banff','Niagara Falls','Halifax'],
+  'Central African Rep.': ['Bangui'],
+  'Chad': ["N'Djamena",'Moundou'],
+  'Chile': ['Santiago','Valparaíso','Atacama','Puerto Natales','Punta Arenas','Viña del Mar','San Pedro de Atacama'],
+  'China': ['Beijing','Shanghai','Guangzhou','Shenzhen','Chengdu','Xi\'an','Hangzhou','Chongqing','Guilin','Zhangjiajie','Lijiang','Hong Kong','Macau'],
+  'Colombia': ['Bogotá','Medellín','Cartagena','Cali','Santa Marta','Barranquilla'],
+  'Comoros': ['Moroni'],
+  'Congo': ['Brazzaville','Pointe-Noire'],
+  'Costa Rica': ['San José','Manuel Antonio','Tamarindo','Arenal','Monteverde'],
+  'Croatia': ['Zagreb','Dubrovnik','Split','Hvar','Zadar','Pula','Rijeka'],
+  'Cuba': ['Havana','Trinidad','Varadero','Santiago de Cuba','Cienfuegos'],
+  'Cyprus': ['Nicosia','Limassol','Paphos','Larnaca','Ayia Napa'],
+  'Czechia': ['Prague','Brno','Český Krumlov','Karlovy Vary','Olomouc'],
+  "Côte d'Ivoire": ['Abidjan','Yamoussoukro','Bouaké'],
+  'Dem. Rep. Congo': ['Kinshasa','Lubumbashi','Goma','Kisangani'],
+  'Denmark': ['Copenhagen','Aarhus','Odense','Aalborg'],
+  'Djibouti': ['Djibouti City'],
+  'Dominican Rep.': ['Santo Domingo','Punta Cana','Santiago','La Romana'],
+  'Ecuador': ['Quito','Guayaquil','Cuenca','Baños','Galápagos Islands'],
+  'Egypt': ['Cairo','Alexandria','Luxor','Aswan','Sharm el-Sheikh','Hurghada','Giza'],
+  'El Salvador': ['San Salvador','Santa Ana','San Miguel'],
+  'Eq. Guinea': ['Malabo','Bata'],
+  'Eritrea': ['Asmara','Massawa'],
+  'Estonia': ['Tallinn','Tartu','Pärnu'],
+  'Ethiopia': ['Addis Ababa','Lalibela','Gondar','Axum','Dire Dawa'],
+  'Fiji': ['Suva','Nadi','Mamanuca Islands'],
+  'Finland': ['Helsinki','Rovaniemi','Tampere','Turku','Oulu'],
+  'Fr. Polynesia': ['Papeete','Bora Bora','Moorea'],
+  'France': ['Paris','Nice','Lyon','Marseille','Bordeaux','Strasbourg','Toulouse','Cannes','Monaco','Mont Saint-Michel','Versailles'],
+  'Gabon': ['Libreville','Port-Gentil'],
+  'Gambia': ['Banjul','Serekunda'],
+  'Georgia': ['Tbilisi','Batumi','Kutaisi','Sighnaghi'],
+  'Germany': ['Berlin','Munich','Hamburg','Frankfurt','Cologne','Dresden','Heidelberg','Rothenburg ob der Tauber','Neuschwanstein','Stuttgart'],
+  'Ghana': ['Accra','Kumasi','Cape Coast','Tamale'],
+  'Greece': ['Athens','Santorini','Mykonos','Rhodes','Thessaloniki','Crete','Corfu','Meteora'],
+  'Greenland': ['Nuuk','Ilulissat'],
+  'Grenada': ["St. George's"],
+  'Guatemala': ['Guatemala City','Antigua','Lake Atitlán','Tikal','Quetzaltenango'],
+  'Guinea': ['Conakry'],
+  'Guyana': ['Georgetown'],
+  'Haiti': ['Port-au-Prince','Cap-Haïtien'],
+  'Honduras': ['Tegucigalpa','San Pedro Sula','Roatán'],
+  'Hong Kong': ['Hong Kong'],
+  'Hungary': ['Budapest','Debrecen','Pécs','Eger','Győr'],
+  'Iceland': ['Reykjavik','Akureyri','Blue Lagoon','Golden Circle'],
+  'India': ['Mumbai','Delhi','Jaipur','Agra','Bangalore','Chennai','Kolkata','Goa','Varanasi','Udaipur','Kerala','Leh','Shimla'],
+  'Indonesia': ['Jakarta','Bali','Yogyakarta','Lombok','Medan','Komodo','Raja Ampat','Surabaya'],
+  'Iran': ['Tehran','Isfahan','Shiraz','Persepolis','Yazd'],
+  'Iraq': ['Baghdad','Erbil','Basra','Najaf'],
+  'Ireland': ['Dublin','Cork','Galway','Killarney','Limerick'],
+  'Israel': ['Jerusalem','Tel Aviv','Haifa','Eilat','Dead Sea'],
+  'Italy': ['Rome','Florence','Venice','Milan','Naples','Amalfi','Sicily','Cinque Terre','Bologna','Turin'],
+  'Jamaica': ['Kingston','Montego Bay','Negril','Ocho Rios'],
+  'Japan': ['Tokyo','Kyoto','Osaka','Hiroshima','Nara','Sapporo','Hakone','Nikko','Kanazawa','Okinawa','Fukuoka'],
+  'Jordan': ['Amman','Petra','Wadi Rum','Aqaba','Jerash'],
+  'Kazakhstan': ['Almaty','Nur-Sultan','Shymkent'],
+  'Kenya': ['Nairobi','Mombasa','Masai Mara','Amboseli','Zanzibar'],
+  'Kosovo': ['Pristina','Prizren'],
+  'Kuwait': ['Kuwait City'],
+  'Kyrgyzstan': ['Bishkek','Osh','Karakol'],
+  'Laos': ['Vientiane','Luang Prabang','Vang Vieng'],
+  'Latvia': ['Riga','Jūrmala','Sigulda'],
+  'Lebanon': ['Beirut','Byblos','Baalbek','Sidon'],
+  'Libya': ['Tripoli','Benghazi','Leptis Magna'],
+  'Liechtenstein': ['Vaduz'],
+  'Lithuania': ['Vilnius','Kaunas','Trakai','Klaipėda'],
+  'Luxembourg': ['Luxembourg City','Vianden'],
+  'Madagascar': ['Antananarivo','Nosy Be','Morondava'],
+  'Malawi': ['Lilongwe','Blantyre','Lake Malawi'],
+  'Malaysia': ['Kuala Lumpur','Penang','Langkawi','Kota Kinabalu','Malacca','George Town'],
+  'Maldives': ['Malé','Maafushi'],
+  'Mali': ['Bamako','Timbuktu','Djenné'],
+  'Malta': ['Valletta','Mdina','Gozo'],
+  'Mauritania': ['Nouakchott'],
+  'Mauritius': ['Port Louis','Grand Baie','Flic en Flac'],
+  'Mexico': ['Mexico City','Cancún','Guadalajara','Oaxaca','Tulum','Playa del Carmen','San Miguel de Allende','Monterrey','Chichen Itza'],
+  'Moldova': ['Chișinău'],
+  'Monaco': ['Monaco'],
+  'Mongolia': ['Ulaanbaatar','Gobi Desert'],
+  'Montenegro': ['Podgorica','Kotor','Budva','Bar'],
+  'Morocco': ['Marrakech','Fes','Casablanca','Rabat','Chefchaouen','Essaouira','Sahara Desert'],
+  'Mozambique': ['Maputo','Beira','Pemba'],
+  'Myanmar': ['Yangon','Bagan','Mandalay','Inle Lake'],
+  'Namibia': ['Windhoek','Swakopmund','Etosha','Sossusvlei'],
+  'Nepal': ['Kathmandu','Pokhara','Everest Base Camp','Chitwan','Lumbini'],
+  'Netherlands': ['Amsterdam','Rotterdam','The Hague','Utrecht','Delft','Eindhoven'],
+  'New Zealand': ['Auckland','Queenstown','Wellington','Christchurch','Rotorua','Milford Sound'],
+  'Nicaragua': ['Managua','Granada','León'],
+  'Niger': ['Niamey','Agadez'],
+  'Nigeria': ['Lagos','Abuja','Kano','Ibadan'],
+  'North Korea': ['Pyongyang'],
+  'North Macedonia': ['Skopje','Ohrid'],
+  'Norway': ['Oslo','Bergen','Tromsø','Flåm','Ålesund','Stavanger'],
+  'Oman': ['Muscat','Nizwa','Salalah','Wahiba Sands'],
+  'Pakistan': ['Karachi','Lahore','Islamabad','Peshawar','Gilgit'],
+  'Palestine': ['Ramallah','Bethlehem','Jericho','Hebron'],
+  'Panama': ['Panama City','Bocas del Toro','Boquete'],
+  'Papua New Guinea': ['Port Moresby'],
+  'Paraguay': ['Asunción','Ciudad del Este'],
+  'Peru': ['Lima','Cusco','Machu Picchu','Arequipa','Puno','Iquitos'],
+  'Philippines': ['Manila','Cebu','Palawan','Boracay','Davao','Siargao'],
+  'Poland': ['Warsaw','Kraków','Gdańsk','Wrocław','Poznań','Zakopane'],
+  'Portugal': ['Lisbon','Porto','Algarve','Sintra','Madeira','Azores','Évora'],
+  'Puerto Rico': ['San Juan','Ponce','Rincon'],
+  'Qatar': ['Doha'],
+  'Romania': ['Bucharest','Transylvania','Cluj-Napoca','Sibiu','Brașov','Sinaia'],
+  'Russia': ['Moscow','St. Petersburg','Irkutsk','Vladivostok','Sochi','Kazan','Novosibirsk'],
+  'Rwanda': ['Kigali','Volcanoes National Park'],
+  'S. Sudan': ['Juba'],
+  'Saint Lucia': ['Castries','Soufrière'],
+  'Saudi Arabia': ['Riyadh','Jeddah','Mecca','Medina','AlUla','NEOM'],
+  'Senegal': ['Dakar','Saint-Louis','Ziguinchor'],
+  'Serbia': ['Belgrade','Novi Sad','Niš'],
+  'Seychelles': ['Victoria','La Digue','Praslin','Mahé'],
+  'Sierra Leone': ['Freetown'],
+  'Singapore': ['Singapore'],
+  'Slovakia': ['Bratislava','Košice','Banská Bystrica'],
+  'Slovenia': ['Ljubljana','Bled','Piran','Maribor'],
+  'Solomon Is.': ['Honiara'],
+  'Somalia': ['Mogadishu'],
+  'South Africa': ['Cape Town','Johannesburg','Durban','Stellenbosch','Kruger','Garden Route','Pretoria'],
+  'South Korea': ['Seoul','Busan','Jeju','Gyeongju','Incheon','Suwon'],
+  'Spain': ['Barcelona','Madrid','Seville','Granada','Valencia','Bilbao','Toledo','San Sebastián','Ibiza','Mallorca'],
+  'Sri Lanka': ['Colombo','Kandy','Galle','Ella','Sigiriya','Mirissa'],
+  'Sudan': ['Khartoum','Omdurman'],
+  'Suriname': ['Paramaribo'],
+  'Sweden': ['Stockholm','Gothenburg','Malmö','Uppsala','Kiruna'],
+  'Switzerland': ['Zurich','Geneva','Bern','Interlaken','Lucerne','Zermatt','Lugano','Grindelwald'],
+  'Syria': ['Damascus','Aleppo','Palmyra'],
+  'São Tomé and Príncipe': ['São Tomé'],
+  'Taiwan': ['Taipei','Kaohsiung','Tainan','Taichung'],
+  'Tajikistan': ['Dushanbe','Khujand'],
+  'Tanzania': ['Dar es Salaam','Zanzibar','Serengeti','Arusha','Kilimanjaro'],
+  'Thailand': ['Bangkok','Chiang Mai','Phuket','Koh Samui','Koh Phi Phi','Ayutthaya','Pai','Krabi'],
+  'Timor-Leste': ['Dili'],
+  'Togo': ['Lomé'],
+  'Trinidad and Tobago': ['Port of Spain'],
+  'Tunisia': ['Tunis','Carthage','Sousse','Hammamet','Djerba'],
+  'Turkey': ['Istanbul','Cappadocia','Antalya','Bodrum','Ankara','Ephesus','Pamukkale','Trabzon'],
+  'Turkmenistan': ['Ashgabat','Merv'],
+  'Uganda': ['Kampala','Bwindi','Jinja'],
+  'Ukraine': ['Kyiv','Lviv','Odessa','Kharkiv'],
+  'United Arab Emirates': ['Dubai','Abu Dhabi','Sharjah'],
+  'United Kingdom': ['London','Edinburgh','Manchester','Liverpool','Oxford','Cambridge','Bath','York','Brighton','Glasgow','Dublin'],
+  'United States of America': ['New York','Los Angeles','Chicago','Miami','San Francisco','Las Vegas','New Orleans','Seattle','Boston','Washington D.C.','Nashville','Denver','Honolulu','Anchorage','Portland'],
+  'Uruguay': ['Montevideo','Punta del Este','Colonia del Sacramento'],
+  'Uzbekistan': ['Tashkent','Samarkand','Bukhara','Khiva'],
+  'Venezuela': ['Caracas','Medellín','Canaima','Los Roques'],
+  'Vietnam': ['Hanoi','Ho Chi Minh City','Hoi An','Da Nang','Ha Long Bay','Hue','Sapa','Phu Quoc'],
+  'Yemen': ["Sana'a",'Aden'],
+  'Zambia': ['Lusaka','Livingstone','Victoria Falls'],
+  'Zimbabwe': ['Harare','Bulawayo','Victoria Falls'],
+};
diff --git a/src/lib/timeline/NewEntryForm.svelte b/src/lib/timeline/NewEntryForm.svelte
index 102cbdb..8248c3d 100644
--- a/src/lib/timeline/NewEntryForm.svelte
+++ b/src/lib/timeline/NewEntryForm.svelte
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 <script>
   import { journals, addJournal } from '../stores/journalStore.js';
+  import { get } from 'svelte/store';
+  import { flashCountry } from '../layout/selection.svelte.js';
   import { countryNames } from '../shared/countries.js';
+  import { countryCities } from '../shared/countryCities.js';
   import SearchInput from '../shared/SearchInput.svelte';
   import PhotoEditor from './PhotoEditor.svelte';
   import airplaneImg from '../../assets/airplane.png';
@@ -13,7 +16,7 @@
   let { initialCountry = '', onBack, onSaved = onBack } = $props();
 
   // ── Journal store (reactive) ────────────────────────────────────────
-  let journalEntries = $state([]);
+  let journalEntries = $state(get(journals));
   $effect(() => {
     const unsub = journals.subscribe(v => { journalEntries = v; });
     return unsub;
@@ -61,8 +64,11 @@
   // otherwise show all known cities.
   let cityOptions = $derived(
     country.trim()
-      ? [...new Set(journalEntries.filter(j => (j.location?.country || '').toLowerCase() === country.trim().toLowerCase()).flatMap(e => e.location?.cities ?? []))].sort()
-      : [...new Set(journalEntries.flatMap(e => e.location?.cities ?? []))].sort()
+      ? [...new Set([
+          ...(countryCities[country.trim()] ?? []),
+          ...journalEntries.filter(j => (j.location?.country || '').toLowerCase() === country.trim().toLowerCase()).flatMap(e => e.location?.cities ?? []),
+        ])]
+      : []
   );
 
   function addCity(val) {
@@ -132,6 +138,7 @@
         photos,
         location: { cities, country },
       });
+      flashCountry(country);
       onSaved();
     } catch (e) {
       saving = false;
diff --git a/src/lib/world-map/WorldMap.svelte b/src/lib/world-map/WorldMap.svelte
index 8e29a41..14f899c 100644
--- a/src/lib/world-map/WorldMap.svelte
+++ b/src/lib/world-map/WorldMap.svelte
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
   import * as d3 from 'd3';
   import { feature } from 'topojson-client';
   import worldData from 'world-atlas/countries-50m.json';
-  import { getSelected, setTotalCount } from '../layout/selection.svelte.js';
+  import { getSelected, setTotalCount, getFlashing } from '../layout/selection.svelte.js';
   import { getUserProfile } from '../auth/userStore.svelte.js';
   import homeIconUrl from '../../assets 2/home.png';
   import crayonCursorUrl from '../../assets/logo-cursor.png';
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@
   }
 
   let frameEl;
-  let _paths = null;
+  let _paths = $state(null);
   let _g = null;
   let _pathFn = null;
   let _countries = null;
@@ -120,6 +120,23 @@
 
   $effect(updateAllFills);
 
+  $effect(() => {
+    const flashSet = getFlashing();
+    const paths = _paths; // reactive read so effect re-runs when _paths is set
+    if (!paths || flashSet.size === 0) return;
+    paths
+      .filter(d => flashSet.has(effId(d)))
+      .each(function() {
+        d3.select(this).interrupt()
+          .transition().duration(200).attr('fill', '#facc15')
+          .transition().duration(200).attr('fill', '#fb923c')
+          .transition().duration(200).attr('fill', '#facc15')
+          .transition().duration(200).attr('fill', '#fb923c')
+          .transition().duration(200).attr('fill', '#facc15')
+          .transition().duration(400).attr('fill', VISITED_COLOR);
+      });
+  });
+
   onMount(() => {
     const width = frameEl.clientWidth;
     const height = frameEl.clientHeight;