I’m Terribly Jealous of Croatia Today
A celebration of European unity, a flashback to experiences at borders, and a lament for the losses of brexit.
Today Croatia both adopted the Euro as their currency, and became part of the Schengen travel area. Meanwhile here post-Brexit little Britain we are literally pooling shit around us. Ugh.
To my Croatian friends (I think I only have one? Hi Petra!), how freaking awesome! Well done you! How cool that you are now ever more part of a continental family where you can move, live, spend, and just be part of a greater whole.
Surely that is a future we should all strive for; a more united world of equal freedoms and opportunities.
A few years ago now, I went interrailing around much of Europe (15 countries in a month!), and moved in and out of both Euro and Schengen countries through the journey. It wasn’t some massive deal to go into those countries not part of either segment of Europe, but it was certainly much smoother to not have to deal with either changing money into another currency, or having any sort of border check at all.
It was actually at the Croatian border with Slovenia, then returning into the Schengen area, that my partner and I had one of the more alarming moments of our trip. She is a Filipino national, while I am (as you may have gathered) British, and at…
