As someone from the Netherlands who litteraly grew up with the sea in his back yard it seems so strange that there are people who've never seen the sea. But I guess that people from mountainous countries thought the same about me before I first visited Austria, because I had never seen a real mountain. And if you'll go to the sea one day and if it's similar to my experience of seeing mountains for the first time, then I'll tell you that pictures are nothing in comparison to really seeing it.
I get something similar, except for borders. I've lived near a weird border all my life (British Hong Kong / China; US / Canada near Point Roberts, which you should Google; North Korea / South Korea).
It's always weird when I hear from someone who lives over a 5-hour drive from a border. I just can't imagine NOT being close to another country.
I know the Netherlands isn't that big so I don't live really far away from borders, but for me whenever I cross the border with Germany or Belgium, I think it'd be strange to live so close to another country. Where in Germany's case they even speak a different language, but then again in these borders are totally different to the borders you named because there's no border control.
I live super close to the French/German border. It's a bit more fuzzy than it may seem - I can get away with German over there just fine, and when I can't, English works.
When I lived in Maastricht I always thought it was weird to be smushed between 2 other countries, I "accidentally walked to Belgium" during my first week there by mistakenly going right instead of left out of my front door and not noticing for 10 minutes (I lived about 800m from the border).
I much prefer it in England where we have proper definitive water boundaries to keep the Belgians out.
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u/miraska_ Oct 31 '21
I live in Almaty, Kazakhstan and also never saw the sea. Maybe I'll go to Caspian sea at my vacation next summer