Central Europe

When I was a child we were used to hike a lot in mountains with my family. One of my memories from such trip takes place probably in Krušné mountains on the German-Czech border, where the path, on which we were walking, follows precisely the line of the official border. The two countries are separated from each other only by country names containing bollards there. As we were walking on the path, we met our first two bollards and watched the signs on them. But there was a problem; they had the names of countries reversed, probably was one of them just put on the place in wrong direction. Because the nature on both sides of the border looked pretty much the same; coniferous forests, meadows and rocks, and I didn’t remember picture of the map where we are going, I couldn’t say on which side of bollards is which country, therefore in which country am I.
At that time, I recognized, that it really doesn’t matter much for me, honestly it looks the same as my home country, so why one of them should be something strange? I started feel like I belong to both sides no matter which one is which and as I walked on the border line I didn’t realize that it has not always been matter of course for citizens of my country to consider these two countries as connected. I am glad that I live in the age of Schengen Area, peaceful Europe and connected societies and economics, from which I can earn so much that I can think of myself as about citizen belonging to both sides of this previously impenetrable borders. This experience is one of those I remember always when I hear someone praying for having such borders and fences again, because I will never want to experience that type of separation.