traveling through Europe, looking out the window, and seeing the national flag flying next to the flag of the EU fills me with a strange feeling. this isn’t an original thought at all, but still: it’s really crazy that just 50 years ago Europe was divided by the iron curtain, and that people would have to go to insane lengths and risk their lives to get across that border; and that less than 100 years ago all of these countries were at war with each other, and had been at war on and off for centuries with ever shifting alliances and boundaries.
When I travel to Vienna by train, sometimes I remember that I am crossing a line that in my childhood was guarded by soldiers ordered to kill everyone who tried to escape the socialist paradise.
traveling through Europe, looking out the window, and seeing the national flag flying next to the flag of the EU fills me with a strange feeling. this isn’t an original thought at all, but still: it’s really crazy that just 50 years ago Europe was divided by the iron curtain, and that people would have to go to insane lengths and risk their lives to get across that border; and that less than 100 years ago all of these countries were at war with each other, and had been at war on and off for centuries with ever shifting alliances and boundaries.
When I travel to Vienna by train, sometimes I remember that I am crossing a line that in my childhood was guarded by soldiers ordered to kill everyone who tried to escape the socialist paradise.