LITHUANIA – RUSSIA

Although the two countries have a long history together, today the point where they connect is dead-silent: a large no-go zone surrounded by “no trespassing” signs and regular patrols by Lithuanian and Russian border guards. Meanwhile, flocks of birds fly across the sky and mammals living in the dunes cross the border.

The most popular place on the Lithuanian side of the peninsula is certainly the resort of Nida, where you can often meet the young generation of Lithuanians born after the country’s independence from the USSR. They idolise the Western lifestyle, dream of a global world and are completely alienated from local politics. They do not know what life is like for members of the same generation on the other side of the border, only a few of them have ever visited Kaliningrad Oblast, even though it is only two kilometres to the south. Some even claim that the whole peninsula belongs to Lithuania and that the Russian side simply does not exist.