Photo: Katvic/Shutterstock

TikTok User Shows How to Walk From the US to Russia in the Dead of Winter

News
by Eben Diskin Mar 1, 2021

Walking from the United States to Russia might sound like an impossible feat, but not when you consider the presence of two unassuming islands in the Bering Strait. One of the two islands belongs to the US, and the other to Russia, but they are so close that it’s possible to walk between the two when the water that separates them freezes solid. Therefore, it seems possible to walk from the US to Russia in just 20 minutes.

TikTok user laubandrew is calling attention to this geographical quirk with a video they posted on the platform.

@laubandrew

Anyone wanna walk to Russia with me?

♬ original sound – Big Facts

They begin by pointing out the existence of Little Diomede Island, located 16 miles off the coast of Alaska and populated mostly by Indigenous people, and Big Diomede Island off the coast of Russia. “These islands are only two-and-a-half miles apart,” they said, “which means that in the winter when the water freezes, you can walk from the United States in only 20 minutes.”

But that’s not all.

“To make matters even crazier,” they said, “Big Diomede Island is 21 hours ahead of Little Diomede Island, which means that if you were to walk from the United States to Russia, you’d literally be walking into the next day. This is why they call Little Diomede ‘Yesterdayland’ and Big Diomede ‘Tomorrowland.’”

Discover Matador