Border towns

7795 Views 12 Replies 8 Participants Last post by xzmattzx, 9 mo ago

xzmattzx

Discussion Starter · Oct 26, 2017

Anyone else find border towns intriguing? It's like you get a whole different culture, just minutes away from a place you're familiar with.

Something about borders and how things can change so drastically over a line or a river or something makes it seem exotic, maybe more exotic than it should be. it's like it's the first bite of a new food.

Even within a country, border towns seem interesting. For instance, in Canada, you have regular English-speaking Ottawa, and then across the river, you have French-speaking Gatineau and the province of Quebec. I'm generalizing the anglophone and Francophone populations a bit, but that generalization is what makes Gatineau seem more exotic.

Here in the United States, some of the border towns are familiar in popular culture. Everyone always seems to go to Niagara Falls, Ontario, at least once in their lives. People used to go to Tijuana, Baja California, but that has decreased in the last 10 years due to violence, I think. There are several other notable border towns.

Even some gateway towns act as border towns. Tangier, Morocco, is like the Tijuana of Europe. Just a quick boat ride across the Strait of Gibraltar, and you're on another continent.

What do you think of border towns? Do you also see them as a little exotic? Are there any border towns popular in your area?

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FMI

· #2 · Oct 27, 2017

Bratislava - which is the capital of Slovakia is also a border town. It´s on the border with Austria and close also to Hungary. Now the borders are open but you can still see ex military buildings and bunkers (now turned into museums and memorials) from the era of soviet union. Language can be also a problem sometimes. In Slovakia is Slovak language, in Hungary is Hungarian and in Austria is German. Luckily most of people here also speak English

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alexandru.mircea

· #3 · Oct 27, 2017

Border towns are indeed very intriguing, and they are very well suited to inspire artistic creation ranging from magical realism to surrealism. In terms of prose my favourite title would be The Tartar Desert by Dino Buzatti. In terms of movies I'm not sure, maybe something about Berlin, but nothing comes to mind off the top of my head.

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Copperknickers

· #4 · Oct 29, 2017

Border towns are awesome, I would love to go to one. I always enjoy those towns which have two different languages, like that one in Switzerland which is half French half German depending which side of the river you are on. There's also Slubice in Poland, which is separated by a short bridge from Frankfurt-an-der-Oder in Germany, and because of the Schengen area you can freely walk across. My top 5 bucketlist border cities are:

1. Tangier, for the thrill of entering Africa from Europe.
2. Monaco, whose conurbation spans three countries.
3. Abu Simbel, Egypt, which apart from its famous temple, is also the last town of the Middle East before you enter Sudan and Subsaharan Africa. In order to do this you need to cross the Nile by ferry, at a point where the river is swollen to suitably epic proportions by the Aswan Dam.
4. Peshawar, Pakistan. Dozens of history's greatest conquerors have made the dangerous passage across the Khyber Pass into the Indian Subcontinent, and arrived in Peshawar. It's probably one of the most 'wild-west' feeling border towns on the planet, since the foothills on either side of it are infested with Islamist militants.
5. Istanbul - straddles the border between Europe and Asia.

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Tucson2018

· #5 · Jun 5, 2018

I've in love with Border towns. I've been to all the Border towns in Mexico and have enjoyed them all, and I've never felt unsafe for one minute whether it be Juarez, Nogales, Mexicali or Tijuana.

It's been said that Mexican border towns are not the real Mexico. I hotly disagree, as they're just as Mexican as cities in the interior.

I've also been to a number of Border towns in Central America.

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wakka12

· #6 · Jun 9, 2018 (Edited)

Londonderry is an interesting border town right on the border between northern ireland and the rep of ireland. Even the city's official name is Derry-Londonderry as the catholic residents want it to be called derry(its original irish name) and the protestants loyal to the british crown wanted it to be called Londonderry, so they called it both to keep everyone happy :lol:

Defaced road signs leading into the town
The town is peaceful now but theres still many visible remnants of a very tumultuous history including political murals, and still existing peace walls that separate catholic and protestant residential communities to stop violence

The sculpture “Hands across the Divide” epitomizes Derry's hopes for a peaceful future

Example of a peace wall in the city

None of these photos are mine. Certainly not what we consider 'exotic' or a very popular place to visit but its both fascinating and sad that a first world country still maintains walls like this, though the violence has largely passed, and the fighting and visible history of the troubles are mostly confined to places around the northern irish border like london derry

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hkskyline

· #7 · Oct 6, 2018

It can't get more surreal than Dandong, China and Sinuiji, North Korea.

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/dandong-china-north-korea-gateway/index.html

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-nuclear-china-idUSKCN11H05F

Just a river and you are in a completely different world.

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xzmattzx

Discussion Starter · #8 · May 19, 2020

I came across my thread. For me, I would like to check out one of the Mexican border towns, especially one of the big ones: Tijuana, Mexicali, Ciudad Juarez, etc.

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Tucson2018

· #9 · May 21, 2020

xzmattzx said:
I came across my thread. For me, I would like to check out one of the Mexican border towns, especially one of the big ones: Tijuana, Mexicali, Ciudad Juarez, etc.

I've been to Tijuana 82X over the years and I dub it Poor Man's San Francisco. Been all over Mexico and it's still my favorite. The Zona Norte Red Light Bar District is not to be missed, over 60 bars jammed together in that area of town, in addition to Revolution Avenue and Plaza Santa Cecilia. It's only 16 miles to Rosarito Beach to the south and there's vans to take you there. And, at the border, they have express buses, further south to Ensenada. For excitement and color, San Diego can't hold a candle to Tijuana. Mexicali is OK but it's flat, not surrounded by steep hills like Tijuana. Go To Tijuana on a Saturday night, best night of all to be there, when everyone comes out.

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xzmattzx

Discussion Starter · #10 · May 22, 2020

Tucson2018 said:
I've been to Tijuana 82X over the years and I dub it Poor Man's San Francisco. Been all over Mexico and it's still my favorite. The Zona Norte Red Light Bar District is not to be missed, over 60 bars jammed together in that area of town, in addition to Revolution Avenue and Plaza Santa Cecilia. It's only 16 miles to Rosarito Beach to the south and there's vans to take you there. And, at the border, they have express buses, further south to Ensenada. For excitement and color, San Diego can't hold a candle to Tijuana. Mexicali is OK but it's flat, not surrounded by steep hills like Tijuana. Go To Tijuana on a Saturday night, best night of all to be there, when everyone comes out.

Is it safe to go there now? I was in San Diego in 2009 and passed on going there since it was dangerous back then.

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Tucson2018

· #11 · May 22, 2020

xzmattzx said:
Is it safe to go there now? I was in San Diego in 2009 and passed on going there since it was dangerous back then.

IMO, it was never dangerous, no matter what was going on. Gangs shooting other gang members, but not tourists! How you project yourself is ultra-important. Project fear and you're putting yourself at risk. Show fearlessness and you're safe! When I went down there from "dangerous" Las Vegas I walked around the bar district until 3-4-5am, all alone, and never an incident to report. Why do I say "dangerous" Las Vegas? Too many come to Las Vegas thinking they're in the safest tourist destination in the world, and along comes an elderly gun man, stationed on the 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay, and proceeded to shoot 600 people (58 died) at an outdoor music venue. Has that ever happened in safer Tijuana?

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chilofiut

· #12 · 10 mo ago

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xzmattzx

Discussion Starter · #13 · 9 mo ago

I spend a lot of time in the Canadian border towns of Fort Erie, Niagara Falls, and Niagara-on-the-Lake. Fort Erie feels the most like a border town, with little bingo parlors for American tourists, and a lot of cottages on Lake Erie owned by Americans.

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