International Borders

In case you didn't know, one of my dreams has been to walk across an international border, and today provided the opportunity. But first, let me explain how I got to this point.

So yesterday (Monday), Elizabeth had to go to work so I was left alone with a map of Lille and told to explore. Wrong words? I walked the entire city (except for the south side, which I'm told is a little sketchy). I started in the center, went through Vieux Lille, and ended up on the canal. I walked along the canal until I was almost out of the city and then turned to get back into Vieux Lille. Along the way I passed the French Foreign Legion and another military grounds (which aren't marked on the map, making it difficult to know that they are there). I continued through a very upscale residential neighborhood, passed an awkwardly placed high school (cannons pointing at it from the cannon museum across the street), through a huge park, and ended up back at Gare Lille Europe, the train station in which I arrived. I have no clue how I got there, but it at least oriented me. Instead of continuing back to the center of the city, I walked along the east side behind the train stations, past the huge arena, and into the old industrial corner. In this area, I discovered the synagogue, which is neslted nicely between an Anglican church, a Greek Orthodox church, and a "temple" (no denomination was discovered). I headed back into the center from that point and spent some time in a massive bookstore looking up stuff about Tanzania and Swahili. YAY!

How this relates to the border crossing is as follows - since I saw most of the city already, I wanted to go somewhere else exciting. It just so happens that the Lille Metro goes up to Tourcoing, a city which borders Belgium. And the border is a 10 minute walk. So of course I needed to go! To make it better, there's a supposed castle in Mouscron, and I made that my destination. An hour and a half after getting out of the metro, I arrived at the chateau only to discover that, despite being open, it was impossible to enter simply because the driveway was instead a huge hole (they were filling it in). I therefore returned to the metro, passing through the market (and drinking Reunion orange juice) and decided that I did not go to Mouscron to visit the castle but rather to take a 3 hour walk and cross an international boundary.

Yet, it was too early to come back to Elizabeth's place (she was working today as well). I therefore continued over to the zoo and the Citadel, another military training ground. The zoo has peacocks roaming the paths and they are very personable. At one point, I had a peacock following me as I looked at the meerkats. He also got involved in the screaming fit that a group of parrots made while I was around. Oh birds. And I saw a monkey fall off a rope...twice. He eventually gave up on that journey and went somewhere else instead. At the Citadel, I walked around the entire wall, which is 1.8 kilometers. Finally, my day was done and I could return to Boulevard Vauban to meet Elizabeth and finish the day. It was good, especially because I got to walk across an international border. :)

Tomorrow I'm off to Brussels, and the day after that I leave for Zurich, then on to Dar es Salaam. This has been a great week in Europe, but rather tiring (and a tad expensive!). Hope you enjoy these stories!

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