Returning to the places of childhood always brings nostalgia for times gone by, times that have been honed by the passing years into wonderful and, of course, unrepeatable moments!
An unexpected and sudden decision, following an invitation, of course, led me to make a trip to the small town in northern Romania where I grew up. The town is called Falticeni, it can be said to be an obscure and insignificant place in Romania, like a few hundred others, and yet...
...for me, it was a wonderful place, where I didn't feel, or at least don't remember now, the hardships of a life sixty years ago. I only remember the magic of childhood.
There's something else... Falticeni means something else, it differs from many other towns in Romania, big or small, with something unique and totally unexpected. A large number of personalities from all fields were born or grew up here. I'm not saying this to make you think I'm somehow including myself, that's not the case at all. It's just a pride of local patriotism.
Fălticeni is one of Romania's important cities in terms of culture and national science. A great number of outstanding personalities, writers, scientists, and artists, have been formed and created in Fălticeni. Fălticeni is the third city in the country in terms of the number of local writers, after the same important cultural centers of Bucharest and Iași, on par with Botoșani. However, in relation to the number of inhabitants, Fălticeni ranks first in Romania. Fălticeni has given Romania dozens of men of letters of national stature and world recognition. The town has produced 16 academics, 12 generals, and 60 doctors of culture and science.
It is now December. My childhood memories associate this month with the harsh winter. Decades ago, when I lived here with my grandparents, in these moments before the winter holidays, snow covered everything. Not just any snow. It was a big snow, often three feet high.
Now it's like a Mediterranean climate. It's warm, no snow, just fog. I spent three days surrounded by fog!
Through the window of the house that's all I could see... I mean I couldn't see much!
I like fog, I mean I like the effect of clouds falling to the ground. Photographing places in fog is a special and extremely spectacular subject. Revisiting past walks, I also passed by the part of the city that borders the lakes. Because there are many lakes here. Where there's water there's mist and this is what I saw!
I left my camera at home!
I figured I needed to devote all my time to relatives and children whom I see quite rarely, and the camera takes up a lot of my time. When I have the camera in my hand I often forget about the people around me and concentrate more on looking for great images.
I didn't expect to encounter such a spectacular fog. Obviously, I really regretted not having my camera. I was forced to shoot with my smartphone.
I used the #pinmapple tag even though I know this post isn't really about travel. I hope the moderators will forgive me for that and for using up a little of their time. To explain why I'm doing this...
I want to put my childhood town on the map, I don't think anyone will do that and I think it deserves to be there. It's about nostalgia and gratitude.
I used black and white photos because I think this way best suits nostalgia. Even though the photos are taken a few days ago, they show places I loved long ago, when color photography didn't exist in my life. Back then I didn't even think I would ever own a camera!
This is my entry for the #monomad challenge...