European border regions without a passport

Say what you want about European Union, but open borders between countries are such a blessing as a tourist. When Schengen agreement is not suspended for some reason, you can cross borders between EU countries however you like!

Poland-Lithuania Suwałki Gap on a bike

In June 2022 I packed my bike on a train and arrived to Suwałki, a city in north-eastern corner of Poland, about 30km from the border with Lithuania. If you're into geopolitics you may know the place called "Suwałki Gap", as some out-of-touch strategists might put it "one of the most dangerous place in Europe" but for everyone else, it's just a quaint rural area where the Slavic culture of Poland and Baltic culture of Lithuania live side by side in harmony. Cycling is the excellent way to explore the region as roads there are quite empty, hills are not that steep and there is plenty of villages and lakes to stop by and rest a bit. That was my first time ever when I crossed the border by bike and that's such a great way to see in detail how the environment and infrastructure changes between countries. During my trip I visited Suwałki - major city, Wigierski National Park with beautiful Wigry lake, town of Sejny and former border control compound with nearby store that sells beverages and other specifically Lithuanian foods. Right next to a border I met a guy that just at that time, traveled from Edinburgh, Scotland, throughout the coast of Baltic Sea up to his hometown in Lithuania! Super nice to meet him, check out his other bike journeys on @justas_juozaitis Instagram as he's travelling way across the Americas!

On Lithuanian side I visited Lazdijai (Łoździeje in Polish), tiny town with a nice central square and IKI and Maxima supermarket chains (We don't have those in Poland and I like to visit regular stores in other countries, just my thing). After a break and checking-in hostel I took a short 20km spin through the fields and forests to take a look at Dusia Lake (Jezioro Duś), the third largest lake in Lithuania. Just by wondering around the wildernesses I've noticed there are a lot more abandoned buildings than on the Polish side. Lithuania is quite a bit less densely populated, but somehow attracts more storks! The next day I head back to Poland by a different, partially unpaved route to the borderline Galadusys Lake (Jezioro Galaduś), seen on the photo above. The border was so close to that lovely pier that I was able to literally swim back to Poland, but I had to go back the land for my bike.

In Poland I've visited a bunch of bilingual villages with the most prominent one, Punśk (Punskas in Lithuanian) where I took a dinner break in the restaurant that serves cold soups, absolutely refreshing dish in the middle very hot summer day on a bike 💙. The municipal village of Puńsk was the first officially bilingual region in Poland I've ever visited and even though I didn't spend much time there, people really spoke in two languages! All and all I highly recommend travelling by bike through border regions of Europe as it gives great and very detailed perspective on how countries meet each other! I hope I will visit someday the rest of Lithuania, the rest of Baltic states and maybe some other border regions or even European tripoints!

Ačiū Lietuvai LTPL for a great time!

Denmark-Sweden Øresund Strait by train

Denmark and Sweden are connected by a super impressive bridge and tunnel (visible from pier in Malmö, next to Turning Torso Tower, on my photo above) across vast strait of Øresund. I had a pleasure to see this the passage from a plane and then by taking a train between Copenhagen and Malmö main stations.

Gdańsk, my gateway to Scandinavia

My journey started in Polish coastal city of Gdańsk from which I had a very cheap flight to Copenhagen. By the way, Gdańsk is also great city to visit, even that one day was well spent. I arrived by train at about 12AM, rent an e-scooter to ride around nice network of bike lanes, in the afternoon I was on the waterfront park, beach and pier at nearby resort town Sopot, later wondering around the old city district all night and my flight was so early in the morning that I don't even book any hostel. Gdańsk is super pretty, super livable and quite vibrant at all times of the day. If you know a bit of history, you don't even need to visit any museums to see the traces of history everywhere, even the recent one. I was sightseeing the Old Town and stumbled upon a sign located on a spot where the Mayor of Gdańsk was fatally stabbed during charity event in 2019, it was on the news everywhere, now I was just standing there. But you can also forget it all and just have fun at local pubs that I feel like are more chill than those in Warsaw or Kraków, I jumped for a quick pint to the pub with a theme of Polish famous movies, the coolest decorations I've seen in Poland. Then I just roam around the city at night and never felt threatened and I'm not a creep or big guy, and I don't think any foreigner would be in danger in my position.

That article is suppose to be about European border regions and Gdańsk kinda is. Historically Gdańsk or Danzig in German was a meeting point of Teutonic Order, Dutch and Scottish settlers, Prussia and until the end of World War II, Germany. Nowadays it's close enough to Konigsberg (russia's Kaliningrad) that before this stupid putin's inflicted war on Ukraine, Russians were able to visit Poland visa-free and they often took one day trips up to Gdańsk. Russia is like 2 hours away (it used to be) so it counts too.

Copenhagen is just pure nice

Airplane tickets from Gdańsk to Copenhagen and back for one person cost me 15€, and it made me feel a bit of flygskam, but it was so worth it, the trip of my life. Copenhagen seemed like a super high quality city right from the gate, exactly as I imagined. I was delighted by that driverless metro train and by a 15 minutes I landed in a central part of the city with large modern building, high tenements, clean lawns and wide canal in the middle. It was on Sunday early in the morning and the city felt so pleasantly noiseless and unhurried.

Malmö is way less touristy

It takes about 30 minutes to travel bwtween main stations.

To be continued and expanded...