German Border Police

Travelling on a long distance bus

I just crossed the border between the Netherlands and Germany. I decided to try Eurolines again, I think I haven’t been in a Eurolines bus for 20 years. But now, here I go: Eindhoven – Budapest (or Einthoven as it said on the bus). Let’s test my sleeping skills on a night bus once more. I consider myself very lucky to be a good bus-sleeper, I’m not afraid of a little bus time.

The speed of the soul

I choose the bus, because flying is absurdly fast, isn’t it?

The soul only travels at the speed of a camel

I believe this is an Arab saying. It comes popping up everytime I step into a long distance flight/bus ride/train trip. And although this Eurolines bus will stop a lot (to feed the camels drivers), they travel quite faster than a camel. But still, travelling over land give my eyes a chance to see the landscape change and my soul some time to catch up.

My first encounter with German border police

Somewhere on the highway near Köln, our bus gets pulled of the road by a car and a bus of the German border police. “Allen austeigen”. Everybody out, al luggage checked. This is my first confrontation with changes on Europes border. In the rest of my life the border between Nederland and Deutschland had been very open. Passport checks, and luggage checks were something I must have first experienced when I was going far into Eastern Europe when I was 17 years old. It was something of far away countries. Now apparently border police is more alert and checking closer to home. The most attention they give to a young boy with a Arabic complexion. Maybe he’s from Northern Africa. He, and his luggage is cleared, the bus can move on.