I remember my first trip to Luxembourg – I was travelling in a night train from Brussels and I was trying to remember what I have heard about this lovely little country. Many people had told me it is a country of extremely high standard of living. Also, I knew that it was officially called “The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg". Suddenly I started to laugh because this description, which they give themselves, is actually an oxymoron – how could such a small country be at the same time “grand"? Grand presupposes big scale. When I got off the train at 2 am, the very first thing I saw in the quiet railway station was a homeless man sleeping on a bench. I thought to myself: “Whatever happened to the extremely high standard of living?" However, these things only kindled my interest in the Grand Duchy, because everything, which defies expectations and surprises me, always proves to be worth exploring.



I noticed that my hosts in Luxembourg, hospitable and open-minded as they were, got very touchy and offended if you referred to their country as “city-country". What appeared to me as centre and suburbs they called “capital and towns". There is a saying: “When in Rome, do as the Romans", so during all of my two-week stay there I tried to be on the alert not to touch their tender spot.

I have a theory that if you really want to know a country – its people and customs, you must not go there as a tourist. You should go there and try to integrate yourself with the local people. You should try to “walk in their shoes" – if you manage to look on the world from their perspective, you will be able to explain and understand many things from their behaviour, past and even future. One of the other things that made quite an impression on me in Luxembourg was that all the local people speak at least three languages! They are forced to, because Luxembourg is a crossroads in itself. Another thing, which stunned me, is that there is no – not a single – university in the country. When I asked my friends about the reason for that, they told me the explanation, which is quite logical and like almost everything stems from the country’s size – there is too little space in Luxembourg, so they don’t want to attract foreign students (i.e. new inhabitants). Quite on the contrary – they even want to encourage local young people to emigrate in the close neighbourood countries. I remember it rained there like in England – intermittent but constant rain. I said to one of my hosts: “People in the streets create such a lively atmosphere – with all those multifarious umbrellas like moving colourful mushrooms!" He frowned at me and said: “Oh, I hate it; it’s so annoying when they always push you and hit you with these enormous umbrellas!" So everything seems to be a matter of perspective and being used to patterns of behaviour…

Their city traffic is very well organized, even though everyone has a car.

But the thing which I will never forget – it stays like a postcard in my mind – is the enormous bridge in the centre, which they call “The Red Bridge"- over Pfaffenthal. The view from it, and the view to it – when I was experiencing it, I really got a whiff from the grandeur of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

In my second trip to the country, I discovered more interesting things about the people, their relations between each other and about country life. I was at the seminal place of Shengen! But this story asks for more than just a page, that is why I shall leave it for another time.