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jvdvegt | 3 months ago

I'm almost 50 and from Europe, never had to think about this stuff for a second.

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pjmlp|3 months ago

Well I remember the fun days of crossing borders before EU, ordering stuff from computer magazines from other countries, having to deal how to pay them across countries, and so forth.

I also happened to work in Switzerland, before they made cross-region agreements with EU, and it was lot of burecratic fun, explaining the situation regarding a Portuguese, living in France and working in Switzerland.

devjab|3 months ago

I'm mid fourties and I remember bordercrossings were annoying back in the 90ies. I'm Danish so we didn't enter Schengen until around 2000. I guess it didn't help that I was young enough that we traveled by bus. Once when we were on a school trip to Prauge we had the Slovakia borderpatrol go through our entire bus while waving machineguns around.

petre|3 months ago

> we had the Slovakia borderpatrol go through our entire bus while waving machineguns around

Quite common in Eastern Europe before Schengen. That's why we hate border patrols, police and all sorts of uniformed men in general. They used to cut young people's blue jeans or long hair back in the '80s and bribing them was common before 2005. We also had quite a lot of policemen jokes (they were called militia men before 1990). One goes like "Why do militia men work in couples? Because one knows how to read and the other knows how to write.". I used to wish that we join Schengen so we no longer have to deal with border police any longer and they'd lose their jobs or get moved to a different border. If finally happened. Now Germany Poland, Austria and also other EU states introduce "temporary" border checks. Which they keep extending. Great.

afiori|3 months ago

Germany still does this, to a good fraction of incoming long distance busses (but not trains IIUC)

eru|3 months ago

I guess you never tried to cross the Iron Curtain in your youth?

baq|3 months ago

The sane side of the iron curtain. We've envied you for the longest time.