Two Cities: A Tale

Have you ever been to a city with a river running through it?

Of course you have. But have you ever been to a city, where, because of historical circumstances, the river has become an international border, dividing the city in two? Imagine for a moment that Paris used to be one city, but then split in two, with France on one side of the Seine and Germany on the other. Or imagine Budapest being split once again into Buda and Pest. Nonsense, you say.

And yet, this is exactly what happened to the Estonian town of Narva, founded on the left bank of the Narva river, and the Russian town of Ivangorod, which sits on the right bank.