It's fascinating how one city can embody the atmosphere of two countries at once! Görlitz and Zgorzelec are a living example of how borders can unite rather than divide cultures and histories. The beauty and harmony of these places inspire new adventures!
It is a great thing, then such cross-border cities are united, but there are a lot of not so nice examples. There is this town of Sovetsk in Russia, Kaliningrad region, former Tilsit (Tilžė in Lithuanian) and its part across the river was added to Lithuania in 1923. This part of Tilsit was named Panemunė. Before the WWI, even electric tramway would ride to the other side of the river, there was the final stop of the route. Now it has only 300 inhabitants and functions as a small Lithuanian town. Sovetsk has 40 thousand inhabitants and after 2022 they put all their museum tanks in the centre, all aimed at Lithuania - "a message" to Lithuanians. They also painted large militarist letters Z on some buildings, facing the river. These are painted in the colours of the Ribbon of Saint George, a symbol of Russian militarism and aggression, what is letter Z too, so that Lithuanians on the other side of the river see these signs every day. Recently barbed wire, fences and anti-tank concrete blocks were added to the bridge by the Lithuanian side. What a fine place to live with such friendly neighbours. 😊
Nice, reminds me of Valka and Valga, shared between Latvia and Estonia. Latvians and Estonians have two different languages, one is Baltic Indo-European, the other is Finnic Uralic language and the culture is different, but the city functions as one. Actually, Valga is one of the largest cities in Estonia, Valka is smaller and less important in Latvia. People go both directions too as the wages are around 900-1000 in Latvia, but 1500-1800 in Estonia, prices are different too. And there is Estonian Narva VS Russian Ivangorod. This is and feels different as Muscovy is aggressive, militarist, expansionist, revisionist and xenophobic. There is this town of Sovetsk in Russia, Kaliningrad region, former Tilsit (Tilžė in Lithuanian) and its part across the river was added to Lithuania in 1923. This part of Tilsit was named Panemunė. It has only 300 inhabitants and functions as a small Lithuanian town. Sovetsk has 40 thousand inhabitants and after 2022 they put all their museum tanks in the centre, aiming at Lithuania. They also painted large militarist letters Z, painted in the colours of Ribbon of Saint George, a symbol or Russian aggression, so that Lithuanians on the other side of the river see these signs every day. So these border cities may be a fine example of cooperation and co-living as well as a source of problems.
Great episode, very informative! Looking forward to the new one!
So interesting episode. Waiting for next episode
It's fascinating how one city can embody the atmosphere of two countries at once! Görlitz and Zgorzelec are a living example of how borders can unite rather than divide cultures and histories. The beauty and harmony of these places inspire new adventures!
It is a great thing, then such cross-border cities are united, but there are a lot of not so nice examples.
There is this town of Sovetsk in Russia, Kaliningrad region, former Tilsit (Tilžė in Lithuanian) and its part across the river was added to Lithuania in 1923. This part of Tilsit was named Panemunė. Before the WWI, even electric tramway would ride to the other side of the river, there was the final stop of the route. Now it has only 300 inhabitants and functions as a small Lithuanian town. Sovetsk has 40 thousand inhabitants and after 2022 they put all their museum tanks in the centre, all aimed at Lithuania - "a message" to Lithuanians. They also painted large militarist letters Z on some buildings, facing the river. These are painted in the colours of the Ribbon of Saint George, a symbol of Russian militarism and aggression, what is letter Z too, so that Lithuanians on the other side of the river see these signs every day. Recently barbed wire, fences and anti-tank concrete blocks were added to the bridge by the Lithuanian side. What a fine place to live with such friendly neighbours. 😊
Nice, reminds me of Valka and Valga, shared between Latvia and Estonia. Latvians and Estonians have two different languages, one is Baltic Indo-European, the other is Finnic Uralic language and the culture is different, but the city functions as one. Actually, Valga is one of the largest cities in Estonia, Valka is smaller and less important in Latvia. People go both directions too as the wages are around 900-1000 in Latvia, but 1500-1800 in Estonia, prices are different too.
And there is Estonian Narva VS Russian Ivangorod. This is and feels different as Muscovy is aggressive, militarist, expansionist, revisionist and xenophobic. There is this town of Sovetsk in Russia, Kaliningrad region, former Tilsit (Tilžė in Lithuanian) and its part across the river was added to Lithuania in 1923. This part of Tilsit was named Panemunė. It has only 300 inhabitants and functions as a small Lithuanian town. Sovetsk has 40 thousand inhabitants and after 2022 they put all their museum tanks in the centre, aiming at Lithuania. They also painted large militarist letters Z, painted in the colours of Ribbon of Saint George, a symbol or Russian aggression, so that Lithuanians on the other side of the river see these signs every day.
So these border cities may be a fine example of cooperation and co-living as well as a source of problems.
We are actually researching about Narva and Ivangorod at the moment and want to go there soon :) Hope you’ll stick around and watch it.