The Petite Frau

Last New Year’s, my parents and I embarked on a somewhat impromptu road trip from Heidelberg to Brussels at the behest of my lovely aunt, who wanted us to pay her a visit in the Belgian capital. Luxembourg is a short detour from the usual driving route. The extremely tiny and exceedingly wealthy country of Luxembourg had been on my mind for quite some time owing to a Luxembourgish friend of mine, Constantine, a 20-year old who always gushed about his country and could speak 4 languages, namely, German, French, English and Luxembourgish, like most citizens of the country. We drove for a few hours along the route dictated by our trustworthy GPS device and at some point, veered from the autobahn into the countryside, through small towns and rolling vineyards. Just as we crossed the border into Luxembourg, a town with a very familiar name greeted us - Schengen. Normally, when a person travels from one country to another he or she requires permission to enter the country which is given...

When I look back at the time I visited Hungary in 2017, I can’t help but think that I must’ve possessed superhuman strength at the time. I had been living in the city of Munich then, in a student dorm. After 3 years of living in the dorm, I was no longer a student and had to move out of what had been my beloved home for so long. I’ll cut to the chase without getting too sentimental about it. I moved all my belongings, of which I had accumulated a great amount over the years, to a couple of friends’ places in a span of 2 days or so. All this required a lot of manual labour. My friends and I had to carry very heavy boxes from point A to B countless number of times. This involved a lot of walking, going via metro, more walking and climbing lots of stairs, since most old buildings in Germany shockingly don’t have elevators. To top it off, we had to finish it fast in order to catch the overnight bus to the Hungarian capital, Budapest. We finished up just in the nick of time. I hurri...