Argentina: Europe on the other side of the world

After three months of travelling, I’ve decided – I’m not giving up on Europe. 

I’m currently halfway across the Atlantic, flying from Argentina back to Brussels after a three-month journey across North and South America. I have to say, it feels good to be going ‘home’. 

This is the longest I’ve been away from Europe since I moved to London ten years ago. It was a nice opportunity to clear my head, to spend some time with my family and to experience a new part of the world. I’ve used the peace and quiet to work on my book about nationalist education and the European project, which I’m happy to report is now nearing completion. 

It is perhaps fitting that I ended my trip in Argentina, a country many describe as the most ‘European’ place in the Americas. In fact, as I was travelling south through Latin America I kept hearing, “Oh, you’re going to Buenos Aires? But maybe it won’t be so interesting for you, since you live in Europe. It’s the same thing.” 

Is Latin America a vision of Europe's fenced future?

Europeans should look at the hassles faced by other continents before they thoughtlessly toss out Schengen's decades of free movement.

I'm spending this weekend at Iguazu Falls, the mammoth waterfalls at the border of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. It's a truly spectacular sight, more powerful than Niagara and wider than Victoria (the falls, not the queen).

Perhaps even more interesting than visiting the falls has been exploring the three towns at the 'triple frontier', Foz do Iguacu, Puerto Iguazu and Ciudad del Este. It is essentially one large urban conurbation spanning three borders. I've taken to collecting visits to sites like this. It's my fourth triple border, after NL-BE-DE, CH-FR-DE and CH-LI-AU.