Luxembourg Archives — Travel with Gunst

I stayed two days more in Geneva while deciding where to go next. I texted Ida to see if she had any recommendations.

“Would you like to go to a random place with an extraordinary museum?”

“That sounds like me. It is promising. Tell me more.”

“Well, since you are in Switzerland, you can take a couple of trains to reach Schengen, Luxembourg. There is nothing to see there except for the European Museum Schengen. You might learn more about borderless Europe.”

“I’m delighted. I’ll send you a picture!”

“I like your spontaneous vibes, Gunst! Good luck.”

So, I took a train to Basel and another one to Mulhouse, France. In Mulhouse, I realized no one wanted to understand my French, and I used English. It was the worst response. I used sign language and managed to have lunch in a pretty rudimentary place. Later on, I took another train to Thionville, France, where people were more supportive, trying to understand me. Actually, I didn’t have any problems, but I could see they made an effort on people’s faces.

From Thionville, I took a 35-minute bus to Perl Gare Routièr, Germany, just on the other side of the Moselle River next to Schengen, Luxembourg.

I found out that hotels in Schengen were costly, so I stayed in a Youth Hostel in Remerschen, just 8 minutes away from the fun by bus.

I won’t tell you the Schengen agreement history and expansion details, as you can find it easily on the Internet. However, I want to mention that I took a selfie with the Danish flag and sent it to Ida.

She replied to me with the smiley face blushing emoji, which paid for the trip to Luxembourg.

So on my last day in the Schengen area, I woke up and had a Kaffi (the way Luxembourgish call breakfast) that consisted of a plain croissant and coffee. Then did the check out at the hotel and took my stuff to the German train station. I went straight to Frankfurt am Mainz and took a Lufthansa flight to Tirana, Albania.

Why Albania? Well, it was the cheapest option for the next day. The flight cost me the same as the wine bottle that I drank last week to process my broken heart in the restaurant in Geneva.

When I was about to turn off my phone, I received the strangest SMS in decades. It came from an +354 number:

Hi, Mr. Benjamin Gunst.

This is James Punjabi. We need to talk.

So I was in Akureyri trying to be left alone while working on a project in a café, when I found the Polish couple, Aleksy and Katarzyna and Noah, from Luxembourg. They asked me to sit at my table (the place was packed), and I said yes because it would have been too awkward to say no.

They started talking about going to Luxembourg to visit Noah’s mom because she was sick. But suddenly, Katarzyna asked me how I met Jessica, and I said I met her travelling, probably the same way you guys meet her.

-By Tinder? -Said Noah from Luxembourg. Katarzyna hit Noah’s leg so strong that I understood her discomfort. He had just revealed that Pietro and Jessica met on the Internet. So Jessica was looking for a companion while here.

After that, I just laughed uncomfortably and focused on my work. Everyone understood I was hurt after acknowledging that.

15 minutes of silence later, I didn’t see the point of remaining at the table. So I stood up and said goodbye heading to my hostel.

Two minutes later, I found Katarzyna running behind me and yelling my name:

“Benjamin, Benjamin, Benjamin Gunst!” I stayed still until she reached.

-I have to tell you something, she said.

-What? That Jessica is living the happiest life with some random guy that met on Internet? and I am here running away and finding her anyways?

-No, precisely -she said- Pietro is dangerous, Benjamin. He is a liar, and he is worst than her ex-fiancee. Jessica is too innocent to find it out, and she believes in fairy tales.

I felt sad and empty, so I breathed and said with a lump in my throat -I can’t do anything, Katarzyna. She has already made her decision.

-Of course, you can, Benjamin Gunst. She loves you.

The next day I landed in Kastrup International Airport, Denmark.

So I went straight to downtown Copenhagen to be inside an actual Fairy tale at Tivoli Gardens.

For those who don’t know, Tivoli Gardens is the third oldest amusement park in the world. It was open in 1843 and still features the Rutschebanen, a wooden roller coaster available for the public since 1914.

It looks like Tivoli Garden tries to maintain its fairy tales essence with performances inspired by romantic theatre, academic music, jazz, Chinese and Danish classic tradition. Even though Tivoli is in constant evolution, including attractions now with Virtual Reality lenses, it keeps the magic among many amusement parks worldwide that makes you feel you are in the future. In Tivoli, you are not just in the beautiful past but also in an enchanted town.