We just returned from a long awaited winter vacation. The five of us took a two week transcontinental trip to London and Paris just when a snow storm hit Europe. It was complicated to reach London, our first destination; no planes, very few trains. Taking a detour through Birmingham, we arrived at the city after more than 30 hours of traveling; frozen, dirty, tired and jet lagged.
We like to travel in low budget mode, so no taxis or fancy hotels for us, just plain public transportation and youth hostels or very cheap hotels.  Like any big city, London is not a children friendly place and it was a challenge to drag three kids up and down the stairs of the famous London tube, being pushed by the hurried Londoners. Besides, the city was icy cold.
It’s our first experience making this kind of trip with the kids, and let me tell you that we had a great time, but it was a challenge, a BIG one. One thing I noticed is that even when people looked at us, it was not the kind of staring we get in the US, maybe because these are big multicultural cities and they are more used to see mixed families, or simply because Europeans just mind their own business.
It was a great experience, but one that we couldn’t have had if it weren’t for our privileged passports, and it’s something that I kept thinking about over and over. When you are born in Europe or the US, you don’t have to think about it, you OWN the world. Your nationality opens all the doors. If you have the means, you can live anywhere you want. The world is full of Americans and Europeans living abroad, nobody questions their right to be anywhere or to travel freely. If I wanted to travel with my Argentinean passport, I would have never crossed the border, sometimes it doesn’t even matter how much money I have in the bank. The same goes for my Ethiopian kids, their original passports are worthless. You need hard to get visas, and many proofs that you are good enough to enter their kingdom.
If you have been born in the third world you would perfectly understand what I’m talking about.
I’m not a different person than I was in Argentina, I just have a different passport now. I actually have three of them, but only two let me in, my Italian one, and my American one.
I also get treated differently.
I understand the reasons but I still hate the fact that certain people has the right to travel freely while others are prisoners of the place where they were born. Most of the privileged ones haven’t done anything to win that privilege and are completely oblivious of the injustice.

AliciA