Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin is still ridiculed for her claim, during the 2008 presidential campaign, that she could see Russia from her house in Alaska. But that sound bite never came from Palin. It was actually a Tina Fey line from a Saturday Night Live sketch, spoofing a Palin interview where she said, "You can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska." You could argue that this bit of cartographic trivia didn't make Palin an authority on geopolitics, but it's factually correct: Russia and Alaska are close enough to make eye contact. On a clear day, you could climb a hill on Cape Prince of Wales and maybe make out mainland Siberia, just fifty miles away. But it's much easier to get a view of Russia view by heading out into the Bering Strait to one of America's weirdest destinations: Little Diomede Island.

These islands are neighbors, but a world apart.

There are actually two Diomede Islands, both bleak, flat-topped rock outcroppings in the Bering Sea. In 1867, when the United States bought Alaska from Russia, the treaty used the two little islands as a benchmark to draw the border, which would divide "equidistantly Krusenstern Island, or Ignalook, from Ratmanov Island, or Noonarbook, and [proceed] due north, without limitation, into the same Frozen ocean." Big and Little Diomede Islands are just over two miles apart, but they've been part of different empires—and different hemispheres—for exactly 150 years.

The Ice Curtain closes.

For the first half of that time period, the Inuits of the Diomede islands could travel back and forth freely between Siberia and Alaska to hunt, fish, and visit cousins. Every January, an ice bridge even forms connecting the two continents, so you can walk between America and Asia. (Building a real bridge or tunnel has long been a possibility as well.) But when the Cold War began in 1948, a political "Ice Curtain" descended on the strait, closing the border and dividing families forever. Both Russia and America built military bases on the islands.

Lynne Cox was the Cold War's coldest peace ambassador.

In 1987, American Lynne Cox announced her plans to swim the Bering Strait between the Diomedes as a gesture of global friendship. The two-and-a-half mile distance wasn't a problem for the accomplished swimmer, but the freezing Arctic temperatures were. Cox's fingers turned gray in the water and she found she had to keep moving constantly just to stay alive. The night before the swim, Mikhail Gorbachev himself intervened to grant Cox permission to make landfall on Big Diomede Island, and she was welcomed with a small beach party, and samovars full of hot tea, when she arrived on Soviet soil. At a Washington D.C. summit that summer, Gorbachev and President Reagan jointly toasted her achievement that helped thaw the "Ice Curtain."

Look across the Bering Strait and see the future.

The international border dividing the Diomedes is also the International Date Line, so a two-mile kayak ride between the islands is literally a trip back in time. Big Diomede is 21 hours ahead of Little Diomede, so locally they're often called "Tomorrow Island" and "Yesterday Isle." Before the Republic of Kiribati jumped time zones to celebrate the Millennium, the Bering Strait was the first place on Earth to ring in the New Year every January 1. But before you book your tickets, take note: the village of Diomede has no hotel and alcohol is banned, so it won't be much of a party.

Explore the world's oddities every week with Ken Jennings, and check out his book Maphead for more geography trivia.