Train of Thoughts

This photograph was taken at a railroad crossing in my hometown of Palics (Serbian: Palić), in the Serbian province of Vojvodina, about 20 kilometres south of ...
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This photograph was taken at a railroad crossing in my hometown of Palics (Serbian: Palić), in the Serbian province of Vojvodina, about 20 kilometres south of the Schengen border of Hungary. The railway, built during the Hapsburg Monarchy, had been in use since the late 19th century. When I was a young adult many of us would take the trains here to cross over to Hungary where I attended school at the time. To me this railway line was a gateway into another world, a link between my two identities: my homeland Hungary — a vibrant country with a bright future that was on a secure path to accede to the EU —, and my other homeland, Serbia — a country derailed by violent conflicts and wars and for which EU membership was about as unthinkable as it could have been redemptive.

The railway was the membrane that allowed me to move between these two worlds and to be at home in both of them.

It became the focal point of attention in 2015 when the Hungarian authorities decided to build a fence along the Serbian-Hungarian border, subsequently severing the railway connection.

To my mind, Palics has always been a place of arrivals and departures, a point of intersection, a frontier that allowed for my two worlds to meet and exist peacefully side by side. The severing of the railway connection — although hopefully only temporary — fills me with a sense of bewilderment, disconnection and exclusion. From this perspective Europe seems to have become a closed world, a continent of fences and “no entry” signs, a Europe where roads — and railway tracks — lead nowhere.

But perhaps it is just the fog that is clouding our vision of Europe and once it dissipates we might discover that the tracks lead towards an open and welcoming Europe after all, a place we can all call home.
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