One Café, Two Countries

There is a café where your coffee is in one country and your cake is in another. It stands in a small town called Baarle, where the border between Belgium and the Netherlands does not politely go around the houses. It goes through them. White crosses and metal studs run along the streets, across doorsteps, under shop shelves and straight through café tables. Tag the friend you would sit across the border from.

Kuna kahawa ambapo kahawa yako iko nchi moja na keki yako iko nchi nyingine. Ipo katika mji mdogo uitwao Baarle, ambapo mpaka kati ya Ubelgiji na Uholanzi haupiti kwa adabu kuzunguka nyumba. Hupita ndani yake. Misalaba myeupe na vinyago vya chuma hufuata mitaa, kupita vizingiti vya milango, chini ya rafu za maduka na moja kwa moja kupitia meza za kahawa. Mtaje rafiki ambaye ungekaa naye kupitia mpaka huo.

How did this happen? Centuries ago, local lords traded and gifted pieces of land the way people trade cards. The result is a town made of patches. Little islands of Belgium sit inside the Netherlands, and inside some of those islands sit even smaller islands of Dutch land. Nobody ever tidied it up, so the border stayed, zigzagging through everyday life.

Hili lilitokeaje? Karne nyingi zilizopita, machifu wa eneo hilo walibadilishana na kutoa vipande vya ardhi kama watu wanavyobadilishana kadi. Matokeo ni mji uliojengwa kwa vipande. Visiwa vidogo vya Ubelgiji viko ndani ya Uholanzi, na ndani ya baadhi ya visiwa hivyo kuna visiwa vidogo zaidi vya ardhi ya Uholanzi. Hakuna aliyewahi kusafisha hali hiyo, hivyo mpaka ulibaki, ukipinda kupitia maisha ya kila siku.

The town has learned to enjoy it. The rule for houses is simple, your country is wherever your front door is, and a few houses have two doors and two addresses. At the café, you can hold your cup in one country and set it down in the other. It is probably the only place on Earth where you can leave the country by passing the sugar.

Mji umejifunza kufurahia hali hiyo. Sheria ya nyumba ni rahisi, nchi yako ni pale ulipo mlango wako wa mbele, na nyumba chache zina milango miwili na anwani mbili. Kwenye kahawa hiyo, unaweza kushika kikombe chako nchi moja na kukiweka chini nchi nyingine. Huenda ni mahali pekee duniani ambapo unaweza kutoka nchini huku ukipitisha sukari.