LITTLE ROCK — Congratulations to the European Union for winning the Nobel Peace Prize. For a collection of countries that spent much of the first half of the past century killing, maiming, blowing up, occupying and all around hating each other, it has been a pretty quiet second 50 years. Outside, of course, of the occasional Balkan uprising, Berlin Wall up-and down, political coups, riots, general strikes and terrorist attacks.
The countries on the continent have drawn closer economically and militarily, trading goods instead of gunfire, bartering instead of battling. It’s a good trend for a place that seemed intent on a murderous purge of millions of people every generation.
For the traveler, it has meant an easier going back and forth around the continent. Mass tourism has become a linchpin to economies that are loath to fight because it might mean a cancellation to legions of tours and cruises heading their way.
Those making the journey now have to deal primarily with just one currency - the Euro. Despite some recent gloomy forecasts, the currency is the glue that unites the continent. You can have a dozen languages divide you, but one kind of bill and coin in everybody’s wallet is a powerful way to bind bickering neighbors.
I have little nostalgia for the old East-West bloc or the days when I had to go to Los Angeles to get a French visa for a visit to Paris. When I first went to Northern Ireland and crossed into the Republic of Ireland, my car was searched from bumper to grill, with mirrors underneath looking for bombs or contraband. Flying in and out of Berlin when the Soviets were still there was exciting yet tedious. Bureaucracy was used to delay the trains, planes and cars making their way into the divided city. There was a lot of history behind comedian Mort Sahl’s joke after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
“I hear Germany has reunited - I just hope they don’t go on tour,” Sahl said.
A generation ago, even friendly borders required a stop and stare from some uniformed bureaucrat - and often a payment, legal or otherwise, to get that metallic wand placed over your passport and pressed down loudly to create a stamp that opened the door to the other side.
So overall, a big thumb’s up for the progress of the European Union. It’s better and easier for everyone. Yet the union also has drained some of the romance of travel. I used to come home with small wads of Italian lira, German marks, French francs and other mishmash of currency left from multicountry stops. Today it’s just Euros and a few stray British pounds.
Thirty years ago, a multicountry trip to Europe meant a passport full of visas and stamps at each border checkpoint. Different languages, shapes and colors. Crossing the border could be a hassle - like the time I was thrown off a train at the small town of Hegyeshalom in Hungary for not having the correct visa. It was much easier during my most recent trip, which took me to Britain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Ukraine and Bulgaria.
But I must acknowledge some disappointment to come home with nearly identical stamps from almost all the countries - a rectangular box with the European Union stars in the upper left corner surrounding the two-letter abbreviation for the country name, a logo for the type of travel (plane, ship, train or car) in the upper right, the name of the city where I entered the country in the bottom middle and the date stamped in the center. All identical, except for Greece, which, as part of its austerity program, seems to have run out of ink for border stamps, leaving little more than a crease and a ghostly gray box.
These are small things. OK, very small things. But countries have realized for a long time that colorful stamps and coins can become collectors’ items for tourists.The different stamps seem to have grown exponentially in the past three decades. Even the Euro allows for each country to have a different symbol on the back of the coins. When you get an Irish harp as part of your change while at the Piazza Navona in Italy, that’s fun. Not as fun as keeping the pre-Eurobill from a dinner that cost 146,000 lira - which was actually something like $80 at the time.
So why not border stamps? It’s all about electronics now anyway. You get your passport scanned and when you entered and left is on a computer hard drive somewhere that can be accessed by the border guard. Why not compete to have the most evocative border stamps? The Union Jack for Britain, the oops-my dress figure of Marianne for France, the Colosseum for Italy, and lovely Athena (or maybe even party-down Dionysius) for Greece.
So bravo to the EU folks when they step to the lectern in Oslo to receive their prize. It’s OK if you don’t take me up on my idea. Boring, bland border stamps are bad. But if it’s a symbol of the boring, bland lack of border wars, I - and millions of others - can live with that.
Travel, Pages 53 on 11/25/2012