2007 The border opens againHranica sa znova otvára

Slovakia and Poland both joined the European Union on 1 May 2004 and the Schengen area on 21 December 2007, and on that date the crossing north of Trstená at Chyžné stopped being a border post. After eighty-seven years of passports and customs sheds it became simply a road again — and in fact it has never been quite this open, because even in the fourteenth century the crown kept a customs post on it at Tvrdošín and took a thirtieth of the value of everything that passed. Slovak shoppers now drive north and Polish shoppers drive south, depending on which side is cheaper that month. Almost every chapter of this town's history is an answer to what is happening on that road.Slovensko aj Poľsko vstúpili 1. mája 2004 do Európskej únie a 21. decembra 2007 do schengenského priestoru; v ten deň prestal byť priechod severne od Trstenej v Chyžnom hraničným priechodom. Po osemdesiatich siedmich rokoch pasov a colníc je z neho zase len cesta — a otvorenejšia než dnes vlastne nebola nikdy, veď ešte aj v 14. storočí na nej mal kráľ colnicu v Tvrdošíne a vyberal tridsiatinu hodnoty všetkého, čo prešlo. Slováci chodia nakupovať na sever, Poliaci na juh, podľa toho, kde je ten mesiac lacnejšie. Takmer každá kapitola dejín tohto mesta je odpoveďou na to, čo sa práve deje na tej ceste.