Boulets a la Liègeoise avec des Pommes Nature

I'm writing from Liège, in Belgium. I've been here since last Sunday and I'll be here until next Sunday. I came to work in the European project I'm involved in. Going to Liège is like going to the center of Europe. Bruxelles is an hour away by train, Maastricht is just some kilometers across the border and Aachen too. Aachen was once the capital of Charlemagne's Empire, which was so vast that reached Barcelona, that was reconquered from the Moors by his army. I can't just imagine how this empire huge could be governed by a blond Germanic barbarian from here during the Middle Ages.

But what astonishes me the most those days is how similar we are. To me, these European regions, despite the big distance across them, are amazingly similar. I don't wanna say that there is some kind of historical and social continuities that tie them up, it is just that nowadays Europe is converging into the same kind of society in a fast pace wherever one may go.

I'm laying on the bed at the hotel, watching TV. Same series. Same programs. Same comedies. Even the news opening music at BBC and F2 are almost the same. I walk in the street. Same chains. Same supermarkets. Same shops. Same cars. I enter in a shop, a supermarket. Same brands. Same cookies. Same drinks. I talk with guys at the lab. I make a joke and they laugh. Same background. All of them have been in Barcelona. Have gotten drunk in the same places. Have smoked shit and gone crazy at the same squares, streets, and visited the same monuments and museums. Gone to the same beaches.

Can't I tell the difference between them or other people in the streets, either be it in Barcelona, or in Liège? Is that true? Is it just my perception? Do I just filter people out in a way that the only set remaining contains people who just look the same? Maybe. However, I also think that there is a huge tendency into a European convergence that makes us more and more similar. The EU is making us more Europeans, in fact.

Only language makes us different, unless we can understand each other in some common way. I can make myself understood in French, which puzzle them about my origin until they see my credit card. Food is also a little different, but not that much. Frites, frites, frites, and boulets a la liègeoise. But no surprise about that. And what about social manners? Well, guys here kiss each other's cheeks when they meet. I was really surprised at first, but now it seems normal.

On the one hand, traveling abroad is becoming as easy as going from one city to another inside our own country, provided you understand the language. This is positive for many reasons, basically because it makes us more aware of each others and spreads our physical and mental boundaries. However, on the other hand, this makes traveling abroad a trivial thing, just as uninteresting as visiting an old aunt in a lost village in winter.

Traveling is pretty much like eating sushi: I really love it, but I don't share the puerile exotic feeling newbies experiment anymore. It is just another usual thing for me, like eating a piece of bread. The good thing is that I'm not a tourist anymore either, which I'd hate.