Crossing Borders

No Family Separation at the Borders? 

What Planet is This?

By Eric Vazquez

Photo by Guerlita Alphonse

In my opinion, 11 tourists on a bus that seats 40, is the very definition of 1st Class travel. Legs of all shapes and length shot out here and there and were suspended mid air, perpendicular to the aisle. Two long days in the Barcelona heat had depleted us. All of our digital energy bar displays were blinking red.  

The vibration of thick rubber on heavy asphalt tugged down on my eyelids and I missed most of the last few miles of Spain. Just before we crossed into France, however, Nicolas, our tour guide, woke us up.

Then… as we approached border patrol, we were all prompted to get off the bus, and told to leave our belongings onboard. Nicolas whispered softly to each of us that he needed us to stay calm and not make sudden movements in the presence of the armed military personnel. Two soldiers boarded the bus and from the straight line we stood in, we could hear our personal items being thrown about and emptied onto the floor of the bus. While still lined up and afraid to protest, two other officers took turns invading our personal space, and questioned us about our true intentions of crossing from Spain to France. Then we were brought to private cabins in the quarters of the small military outpost, and strip searched. The soldiers were nice enough to let us choose between vinyl and latex, in consideration of any allergies.

LOL!! Yeah… nothing in that previous paragraph is true. We crossed into France from Spain without even slowing down. No toll booth, no change in scenery. I don’t even think I saw the France version of the  “Welcome to…” sign that I am use to seeing when driving from CT to Massachusetts or New York. If Nicholas hadn’t woken us up to tell us that we were crossing into another country, most of us, even those who were awake, would not have noticed.

No wall, no snipers, no family destruction through separation of child and mother, under the guise of making a country great again. The European Union seems to have less policies and practices on border crossings than the U.S. has state to state.

The only visible difference was the rapid materialization of solar panels. Suddenly they were everywhere. Evidently Spain’s environmental strategies do not include harnessing the abundance of Mediterranean sun. France appears to have a higher grade in that department, for now.

Other than that, crossing from Spain into France injected about as much excitement into our journey as crossing from Bridgeport to Stratford would. And bonus... there was no random unpredictable I-95 traffic to curse about.
*********************************************************************

Friendlier Crossings? I think so!

By Guerlita Alphonse

 

Border crossings in Europe are totally different from those in the USA in many ways. During our travels we crossed 5 different borders, most of which were by land. As we moved around by bus, not once were we ever questioned by a security guards nor did come onboard for question about the trip, or any other reason etc. At most stops, we did not have to show our documentation individually. Our wonderful driver was given copies of our information by our professor, which he would show without the need of any officers boarding the bus or asking us to walk out of the bus. If there was a fee for crossing, our driver handled it. The crossings themselves were all pretty uneventful. 

In comparison, on a trip from Canada to USA my experience was very different. During that trip, I also traveled with a group ,and the border officer made sure to speak to each of us asking a variety of questions such as: How long had we been in Canada? Why were we there? etc. They checked under the minivan with some type of lens even though the vehicle had American plates and all its' papers were registered correctly.

When we travel interstate in USA, we have to pay toll every time, we enter in a new city. Sometime we can get follow by police car for a few minutes, because we have a different plate state.

Given these experiences, I would say European borders are more welcoming of visitors than those in the USA.