Impressions from the Borderlands of Europe

Gavdos - The southernmost part - Greece

Nordkapp/Finnmark – The northernmost part - Norway

The Urals – The easternmost part - Russia

Sintra/Cabo da Roca – The westernmost part - Portugal

"Here… is where the land ends and the sea begins..." wrote Luis vaz de Camoes, the poet, about Cabo da Roca.

What is a border and what does it define, after all?

For Europeans, the word “edge” has the sense of an ending, not a beginning. As for borders, they have always defined the limits of the safe, European world.

What makes us different from those on the other side?

I embarked on by first journey, to Gavdos, in December, 2006. From south I went north, from east to west. The same questions brought me back to my last destination, Sintra, in Portugal, in February 2008.

Do we Europeans have a common history?

Europe’s four "edges" enclose a world with as many differences as there are similarities between their people. Gavdos in the south with its rugged landscape, Nordkapp in the north and the white silence of the tundra, the tourist center of Sintra in the west, with the glory of its old summer palaces, and the Urals in the east, with their dark heritage of gulags, nuclear plants and the region with the most radioactive pollution in the world.

Is there a European identity?

The most important but most immeasurable factor is the people themselves. Whether Russians or Greeks, Portuguese or Norwegians, these frontier peoples appear to have gone deep within themselves.

The Russian scientists who chose to live in Gavdos,Artemis Damorakis the oldest man on the island leaving in the abandoned village of Ampelos, Boris the Russian artist, who lives in Gavdos and he is building the house underground ,the Kids of the island in Halloween costume,Maria the English teacher in Trypiti the southern most point of Europe, Maja and Sofie in Hammerfest,the football team in honningsvaag,Nils Somby and his wife near Nordkapp,last citizens of Europe,Johanna Vali ,Rune Nygaard in Mehamn,Jiang Ping and his friends in Cabo da roca,Alberto da Ricarda and Jollie,Soares chef in Neptuno restaurant,Carlos Santos in Sintra ,Mario in Azoia,Roza in Kourmanovo,Katja in Yekaterinburg,Evgeni Kirienko and his wife in Ordzonikidje,the Wrestlers,Rafik in Muslyomovo,Dima in Vorkuta, are all guardians of Europe’s edges which, after all, might be its beginnings.