Category Archives: Travelling in Europe

Coming in to Land

Adventures, Travelling in Europe,

Written at 36,000 ft on the flight between Johannesburg’s OR Tambo Airport and Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam

The image on the flight tracking information screen says we are flying over Brussels. On the map I can see Calais and Amiens and Cantebury. Names out of stories and fairytales and books. I find myself struggling with the idea of Europe. The idea of landing in a European city.

I studied Africa. Europe was, particularly once I reached university and was able to focus my studies, a sort of background noise. Europe became important only in so far as the histories of the African places I was studying were impacted by Europe. It’s funny; it’s fairly common to study African history from the premise (and misconception) that Europe and Europe’s own troubles, shaped Africa. African historians and history departments struggle against this. In the determination to see Africa for itself, I didn’t realise how far I had moved from European history.

It wasn’t until I started working on this hastily planned trip. I know so little about Europe. I can differentiate between Togo, Ghana and Chad, I can chronicle the history of the conflict in the Eastern DRC, I contrast different explanations for the underdevelopment of Mozambique and I can converse intelligently on the relative chances of re-election for Malawi’s Banda and Zambia’s Sata. But I couldn’t tell you what the neighbouring countries of the Netherlands are.

Yet, here I am, coming in to land over the perfectly even green fields of Holland on a fairly ordinary Tuesday morning. Small fields laid out strip on strip. Bodies of water – lakes? canals? – silver under the clouds. It looks cold out there. The little bit of sunshine disappears with a final sunbeam of light through the airplane window, and we plunge towards a day European autumn day.

I keep trying not to let anyone on the plane see how enchanted and disconcerted this trip is making me. I doubt they would understand. I’m not even sure I can explain it. Europe does excite but it also confuses me. I am African. That is the touchstone of my identity. But I’m also a white South African with a European heritage (especially if the UK is included). I come from a country and a continent with a long and difficult history of conflict and contest with this place. Particularly with the Netherlands, that started all the development and complexity, the good and bad of colonial and post-colonial state-hood for South Africa. I didn’t intend to be here – my travel dreams are African, not European – but now that I am, I am excited to find out, to explore, to see first hand. At the same time, I remain apprehensive. It’s not a fun history. Coming here feels a little like walking directly into that contested space, walking into an emotional and intellectual storm.

The plane comes in to land.

Have visa, will panic

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I like travel well-planned, long-anticipated travel. I’m not particularly good at spontaneous. More than that, I find the build up, the waiting, the anticipation a wonderful part of the process. I’m already starting to plan a trip with a friend in Spring of 2015. So the last couple of weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind. No, tornado would be a better term.

A last-minute decision (both internally and from the people funding the trip) about attendance at a conference is great. At least, it’s great in theory. It’s a little more stressful if the conference is in Europe and you’re travelling on a South African passport. The colleague I’ll be travelling with has a US passport, as well as an EU one. I’m jealous. The thing that probably frustrates me most about South Africa is that we need visas for so many places. Perhaps not a frustration with South Africa as much as a frustration with the whole system. Until this probably can be solved, it’s visas required, so I headed off to the Netherlands consulate in Durban. According to reliable information, from friends who have tried it and write ups on travel blogs to the consulate website itself, you should apply for a Schengen visa at least three weeks before you travel. I had ten days. Cutting it fine. And so very far from the long, gentle build up to travel that I prefer.

The absolute minimum time the visa would take to come through was five working days. There was nothing I could do about it in the meantime. Luckily for me, I had little time to worry about it. Things at work have been crazy. At the beginning of this year, I had a seriously, almost overwhelmingly, stressful January. At the end of January, I breathed a sigh of relief and looked forward to things calming down. They didn’t. And since August, they’ve just gotten more and more chaotic. This week they ramped up to a whole new level of ridiculous.

And then, on Wednesday, I went back to the consulate, quite ready to be told that my application had been too late. In fact, hoping in a way that it wouldn’t come through so that I could take a few days to breathe. Instead, I was given a visa for longer than I’d originally expected. This is great. I know: it’s a great opportunity. But just thinking about it made me tired. The urge to travel overcame the exhaustion and I changed my ticket and arranged leave and rearranged my life to have at least a few extra days to explore Europe. Europe. This is my first trip to Europe. The shadow over so much of the history of my country, of Africa, of my heritage. I’m still not sure how I feel about Europe. I hope I can make the time to figure it out. I feel like it is important.

In the last couple of days, stress levels remained at peak, so that by Friday afternoon I still hadn’t done anything about planning the non-business part of my trip. In between stressing about work, I managed to find a few moments to panic about the fact that I needed to do something about bookings or plans or something. But there just wasn’t time. This is why I like long periods of planning and thinking and learning something about the place I’m going. Not this time. Instead, panic. Have visa, will panic.

I’m less stressed about it now. I’m heading up to Johannesburg today (Saturday). That means I have a whole Saturday night to finish all the work and finally make plans. Or perhaps it’s just because the packing – my least favourite part of travel – is done. I’m even beginning to get a little bit excited. Just a trip to Johannesburg, a weekend, high-stress public events and a particularly long Monday to go before I get to travel again.