Entering Liberland: Our Unlikely Success Story
At 7:00 pm, we drove up to a barrier blocking the only road ahead of us. We were in the middle of nowhere, Croatia, with only two houses in sight, neither of which seemed occupied. The sun was setting, and we still had to drive 5 more hours to get to our next AirBnB in Budapest. It certainly didn’t help that we were sleep deprived and hungover from our last night in Dubrovnik. According to Google Maps, we were a mere 6 km away from Liberland, yet our ultimate destination never seemed farther away.
Unless you live under a rock, you’ve surely heard of Liberland, Europe’s youngest unrecognized nation state. It’s a small sliver of land wedged between Serbia and Croatia in what is known as a terra nullius — territory that is not claimed by any other sovereign nation. It was established on April 13, 2015 by Vít Jedlička and was meant to become a libertarian paradise. Within weeks of its founding, the tiny country attracted 200,000 citizenship applications and stirred up a great deal of controversy.
What’s more fascinating than a libertarian utopia in the heart of Europe is the attitude of its neighbors towards it. While Serbia has officially renounced any claims to the land, Croatia has taken an ambiguous stance, arresting and detaining anyone who attempts to cross into Liberland either by land from Croatia or by boat from Serbia.
This amounts to a small feat of cognitive dissonance on part of Croatia. If its border patrol prevents people from crossing into Liberland from the Croatian side, then it is implicitly acknowledging that the territory lies beyond its borders. Yet at the same time, it also prevents crossing into Liberland from Serbia, which means that it is de facto treating the territory as part of Croatia. As a result, nobody actually lives in Liberland.
As an avid follower of the libertarian school of thought and someone who is mildly obsessed with non-UN member states, I simply had to visit Liberland. Our 2017 summer eurotrip was the perfect opportunity to do so.
Now that the only road ahead was blocked, the most reasonable thing to do was to ditch our rental Škoda sedan and continue along that dirt road on foot. Two of us armed ourselves with water bottles and an iPhone and crawled under the barrier. We left our other two friends behind and told them to continue driving for Hungary in case we were not back within 3 hours, which would mean we were probably arrested or dead.
Liberland, here we come!
We kind of expected getting into Liberland to be tricky, so we came up with a plan: we were going to cross by water from Croatia. Looking closely at the geography of Liberland, one can notice that most of its border with Croatia is delineated by a small creek that merges into the Danube River. Curiously, we couldn’t find any reports of people attempting to cross that creek; everyone crossing from Croatia tried to do so by land from the north and was often stopped by border patrol. So we pointed Google Maps to the narrowest point of the creek and hoped for the best.
Five minutes into our crusade, we encountered the first real roadblock — a tall fence with a gate blocking the way ahead of us. We faced a dilemma: we were about to do an illegal border crossing anyways, so hopping over that gate seemed like a fairly minor infringement, yet trespassing on private property surely went against the libertarian ideal.
Weighing the pros and cons, we decided that we mean no harm and that our noble cause justifies the means. Plus, we could always act like confused tourists and say we got lost. One water bottle flew over the gate, then the other, and then myself.
As my fellow companion was climbing over, I noticed a large guard dog in the distance heading our way, likely curious to meet its new foreign friends. I was quickly back on the other side with my water bottles. A border guard with a gun is someone you can reason with; a German shepherd with sharp teeth is not. The dirt road was a no-go and our cause seemed doomed.
Luckily, right next to us there was another gate that was actually wide open. Behind it we found a path which ran parallel to the dirt road but was separated from it by a fence that seemed too high for the dog to climb. This was surely a positive sign from the higher powers. We went right through the open gate and strode along that bushy narrow path.
Around 7:15 pm, we reached another high fence that marked the end of the path. The weeds on the other side were pretty high and there were no signs of dogs. If we went there and kept walking parallel to the fence that separated us from the dog and the dirt road, it seemed like we could get to our ultimate destination. And since we were technically already in someone else’s yard, jumping the fence that blocked our way would only get us out of it. Thus we climbed over and continued our journey.
The weeds on the other side were indeed high. And they stung. And there were bugs. Lots of them. But the vision of Liberland kept our legs moving and our spirits high.
Around 7:25 pm, we found ourselves in front of another locked gate, leading back onto the dirt road — this time outside the fence with the dog. We jumped over and found ourselves back again on the road, headed straight to Liberland.
Here the road passed through what seemed like some sort of national park. In the span of 5 minutes, we saw a hawk, a jackrabbit, a wild boar with its babies, and a huge flock of gorgeous deer. We later found out that this was once a hunting ground that had since been turned into a natural reserve for deer breeding. It was beautiful and that part of the trip alone made the whole endeavor worthwhile.
At 7:40 pm, we reached yet another gate that blocked the road. At that point we had lost track of whether we were inside or outside someone’s private property, so we just hopped over. Five minutes later, we saw the levee beyond which was the little creek beyond which was Liberland!
Once we reached the levee, we realized we had another problem: there was no way we could reach the narrow part of the creek before the sun set, and we definitely didn’t want to be walking back in the dark. And the creek looked more like a wide swampy forest. We couldn’t even see the other side. Crossing it seemed impossible.
We couldn’t give up now though. We set ourselves a hard stop at 8 pm and continued walking along the levee, hoping to find a spot where we could cross.
Around 7:55 pm, we finally saw a little path that went straight through the swampy forest. We strode briskly through the woods.
At 8 pm sharp, we reached the shore of the most disgusting murky river that I had seen in my life. The shore was muddy, the water was still and smelly. There were rotting branches on the bottom and you could see small white spots of unknown origin floating along the entire surface.
We opened Google Maps and confirmed it — we had reached the border of Croatia. And on the other side of that river we could see the shores of Liberland.
At this point, it was not really a decision. The decision had already been made on some deep subconscious level a long time ago. I left my clothes on the muddy shore and waddled through the brownish water.
After what seemed like an eternity, my feet finally touched the mossy river bed on the other side. I climbed onto the shore.
Setting foot on Liberland was as surreal as it was underwhelming. I was covered in gross water and sweat. Bugs were literally eating me alive. I felt the taste of rotten wood in my mouth.
And that was the taste of victory. I had finally made it to Liberland and that was all that mattered.
It was already 8:05 pm and we were terribly short on time, so I couldn’t really do much exploring of the nascent micronation. I just peeked through the woods and confirmed that it was just as deserted as I expected. My brave companion took a few photos from the other shore (she can’t swim unfortunately; something else we didn’t really plan for) and I swiftly swam across the border back into Croatia.
The way back felt much easier. Our mood was elated, and our legs felt light. We even jogged for a little bit. We had just achieved the impossible and that was truly exhilarating. We were happy.
In hindsight, to say that what we did was stupid would be an understatement. It was scary, gross, itchy, sketchy, and we were extremely lucky that we didn’t encounter any vicious canines or border patrol agents. So I would totally discourage anyone from attempting anything like this. But in case you do, you should definitely consider bringing the following:
- Water
- Bug spray
- Sausage. For the dogs
- A clean change of clothes
- A ziplock bag for your phone
- A friend
- A big stick. Just in case, you know
I want to thank Julia for sharing this incredible experience with me and also helping me write this blog post!
