Hello World! My Train Ride Across Belgium, Germany and Switzerland

<p>Asmy Uber ride pulled up in front of the hotel I was staying in Brussels, Belgium to take me to the train station, my heart jumped up in my throat. I was so frightened by the prospect of taking a train ride from Belgium, across Germany to Switzerland by myself, but also excited to be able to see&nbsp;<em>La Swisse</em>. After all, my native hometown where I was born in south Burundi, East Africa was nicknamed la&nbsp;<em>Swisse</em>&nbsp;because of its landscape similarities to Switzerland. It is a high rough plateau on the side of a group of mountains.</p> <p>However, Switzerland&rsquo;s landscapes attract tourists, while my hometown doesn&rsquo;t. The main reason is that economic development between these two &lsquo;<em>Swisses&rsquo;&nbsp;</em>couldn&rsquo;t be any different. For one, Switzerland is very developed, and my hometown and country aren&rsquo;t. Anyway, I was both anxious and excited to finally go to Switzerland and see those geographical similarities I had heard so many times when I was growing up.</p> <p>My Uber driver asked me:</p> <p>&laquo; O&ugrave;-est- ce que vous allez? &raquo; &mdash; &laquo;Where are you going? &raquo;</p> <p>I said: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to Switzerland!&rdquo;</p> <p>He said: &ldquo;Switzerland? By train? That&rsquo;s going to be a long ride.&rdquo;</p> <p>I said: &ldquo;I know! Eight hours if all goes according to schedule.&rdquo;</p> <p>As I was saying that, I felt fear rushing, followed by excitement. This was going to be some adventure! I had never taken a train, except Amtrak going for short distances in the US. But a train across Europe? I had only seen them in movies!</p> <p><a href="https://medium.com/fourth-wave/hello-world-my-train-ride-across-europe-acf2a6f757c5"><strong>Website</strong></a></p>