Hello World! My Train Ride Across Belgium, Germany and Switzerland
What Solo Travel Taught Me About Other Cultures
As my Uber ride pulled up in front of the hotel I was staying in Brussels, Belgium to take me to the train station, my heart jumped up in my throat. I was so frightened by the prospect of taking a train ride from Belgium, across Germany to Switzerland by myself, but also excited to be able to see La Swisse. After all, my native hometown where I was born in south Burundi, East Africa was nicknamed la Swisse because of its landscape similarities to Switzerland. It is a high rough plateau on the side of a group of mountains.
However, Switzerland’s landscapes attract tourists, while my hometown doesn’t. The main reason is that economic development between these two ‘Swisses’ couldn’t be any different. For one, Switzerland is very developed, and my hometown and country aren’t. Anyway, I was both anxious and excited to finally go to Switzerland and see those geographical similarities I had heard so many times when I was growing up.
My Uber driver asked me:
« Où-est- ce que vous allez? » — «Where are you going? »
I said: “I’m going to Switzerland!”
He said: “Switzerland? By train? That’s going to be a long ride.”
