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# The case for the slow border crossing
- URL: https://astrix-meridian.adrianoamalfi.com/the-slow-border-crossing/
- Published: 2026-07-22T13:37:21.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-22T14:09:21.000Z
- Description: Everyone flies over the interesting part. On the hours between one country and the next, and why they are the trip.
- Author: Noor Haddad
- Tags: Journeys

A flight makes two countries adjacent and identical: the same corridor, the same queue, a different stamp. Cross by land and the change arrives in instalments — the road surface, the shape of the roofs, the price of coffee, the second language on the signs before the first one gives way.

It takes nine hours instead of ninety minutes. Those nine hours are the only part I remember a year later.