被最瘋狂國界線分割的歐洲小鎮

At De Biergrens beer shop, you can walk in from the Netherlands through one door and walk out into Belgium through another. There are two telephones, one connected to the Belgian telecom system and one plugged into the Dutch. There are even two cash registers, at opposite ends of the shop — one in each country.

在De Biergrens啤酒屋，你能從荷蘭的一個門走進去，從另一門出去走到比利時。那裏有兩部電話，一部連接的是比利時的電信系統，另一部連接的是荷蘭的電信系統。店的兩側甚至有兩個收銀臺，每個國家一個。

That’s par for the course in Baarle, a village about 65 miles south of Amsterdam that is sliced and diced by what is probably the world’s craziest stretch of international border. It zigzags up and down streets and right through the middle of stores like De Biergrens, and even people’s living rooms and gardens.

在阿姆斯特丹以南約65英里的村莊巴勒(Baarle)，這是常有的事。這裏被也許是世界上最瘋狂的國界線分割。國界線曲折地穿過街道，穿過De Biergrens這樣的店鋪，甚至穿過人們的客廳和花園。

The bewildering layout dates from the 12th century, when wars and land spats kept morphing the dividing line between the holdings of rival noble families. When Belgium seceded from the Netherlands in 1830, those untidy lines hardened into a national frontier, but they left a number of enclaves: isolated bits of one nation’s territory surrounded by the land of the other. Today, Baarle lies within the Netherlands, but it has 22 Belgian enclaves that, in turn, have seven Dutch enclaves within them.

這種令人眼花繚亂的格局可以追溯到12世紀，當時戰爭和土地爭端不斷改變對立貴族領地之間的分界線。1830年比利時脫離荷蘭之後，這些不規則的分界線變成了國界線，但它們留下了許多飛地：被另一個國家的領土包圍的孤立的小塊土地。如今，巴勒位於荷蘭境內，但它有22塊比利時飛地，而這些飛地裏還有7塊荷蘭飛地。

Confused? Baarle has a system to help. The border is marked on the town’s pavements with white crosses and metal studs. Outside Den Engel, a cafe, visitors can stand with a glass of wine in the Netherlands and lean over a white cross to drink it in Belgium. When closing times differed in the two countries, divided restaurants would move their tables to the Belgian side of the room when last call came on the Dutch side.

是不是很讓人迷惑？巴勒有一套系統來解決這個問題。小鎮路面上用白色十字和金屬釘標明國界線。在Den Engel咖啡館外，遊客們可以站在荷蘭領土上拿着一杯紅酒，傾斜身子越過白色十字線，在比利時領空飲用。兩國的打烊時間不同時，如果荷蘭那邊的打烊時間已到，被國界線分割的餐館就把桌子挪到比利時那一側。

Addresses go by the voordeurregel, or front-door rule: If it opens on the Belgian side of a street, you live in Belgium, wherever the rest of the house may lie. (For easy identification, the national flag is usually painted next to the house number.) A shop like De Biergrens, with entrances in both countries, gets an address for each door.

地址是按照前門原則來確定的：如果前門開在街道的比利時一側，那你就是住在比利時，不管房子的其餘部分在哪裏（爲了方便辨認，門牌號旁邊通常會畫一個國旗）。像De Biergrens這樣在兩個國家都有入口的店鋪，會給每個門弄一個地址。

The intertwined halves of the town — formally, the Belgian parts are Baarle-Hertog and the Dutch parts Baarle-Nassau — have separate town halls, churches and fire departments, but they recently merged their police departments. None of this bothers people at De Biergrens, which is slightly more in the Netherlands but sells mostly Belgian beer. “Yes, we have two addresses, two telephones and two cash registers,” said Karlean Vermonden, an employee. “But it’s not a problem. That’s just a way of life here.”

小鎮互相糾纏在一起的兩部分（以前，比利時部分被稱爲巴勒海託赫[Baarle-Hertog]，荷蘭部分被稱爲巴勒納紹[Baarle-Nassau]）各自設立市政廳、教堂和消防局，不過前不久警察局合併了。但是，De Biergrens啤酒屋一點也沒覺得困擾，這家店在荷蘭的部分稍大一些，但主要是售賣比利時啤酒。“是的，我們有兩個地址、兩部電話和兩個收銀臺，”店員卡琳•弗蒙頓(Karlean Vermonden)說，“不過，這沒什麼問題。這就是這兒的生活方式。”