Once upon a time, in a flat country where oddity is never far, far away, weird lights were spotted in the night sky. Very briefly, but again and again, until many locals had their own sightings to report.
“Three white lights,” some would whisper to their friends, tracing the beads of condensation on the stem of their beer glass. “On a shadowy triangular base.”
Their friends would take a sip from their own drinks while they tried to come up with a suitable reply. Unless, of course, they themselves had recently stopped their car on a side road one dark evening to get a better view of the swirling dots above.
You guessed it (yay!) – the country is Belgium, and I’m referring to the wave of UFO sightings that began in late 1989 and petered out the following spring. It seems that, at some point, the army even sent out fighter jets to check what was going on. The result wasn’t all that convincing. Unless I misunderstood the info on Wikipedia, they mostly detected each other.
Nonetheless, I take great pride in our very own UFO phenomenon (and of course there may have been plenty more, for all I know). And it’s had me thinking: why is it that extraterrestrials seem to disproportionately visit the US? I mean, sure, there must be a lot to see over there; I have no doubt it’s well worth a visit. But so is our little corner of the world!
Thus, a note to travellers from deep space: there’s more to Earth than just the US, amazing as that part of the world may be. And Europe really has something for everyone. OK, you can’t fill up buckets of ice from those freezers that they seem to have in American motels, according to the road movies – but if that’s a deal-breaker, I’m sure we can work something out.
Nor do we have baseball or country music. Not that I know of, at least, or on any grand scale. And that is indeed a real shame. But we do have our own living traditions, with a fair few going back several centuries! Spectacular food, vibrant cities and every Terran landscape know to sentience! A jostle of different cultures and languages, futuristic vistas and flamboyant cathedrals, quiet villages and ear-splitting summer festivals (not in the same place…), intriguing fashion and music and art and very, very good chocolate.
So do consider a destination off the beaten path. Unless you’re hostile, of course. If you’re heading our way with a to-do list involving abductions or probings or invasions or any such shenanigans, or if you’re the type of visitor who’ll damage our monuments for the sake of a selfie, please go check out that awesome black hole at the centre of our galaxy. I hear there’s a lot of fun to be had inside.