Here are photos from Medias, taken in the summer of 2006. Back then, I used the Kodak v610 digital camera. If you’d like to learn more about the city of my childhood, I’ll refer you to its Wikipedia page.
Medias was famous during medieval times for its wine, which is even mentioned in Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”. Virtually all of the hills that surround the city (and there are many of them) are terraced or bear the signs of past vineyards. Nowadays, they’re barren. Untended, the vineyards withered away, past glories and all.
The outskirts of the city are interesting. The landscape is dotted with houses here and there, some deserted, like the one below. Houses like these exist in the city as well. If they aren’t reclaimed by their owners or restored, they will perish, and that will be a pitiable loss given their age and history.
Wild garlic leaves make a delicious soup in the spring, they’re wonderful in salads and they’re packed with healthy nutrients, since they grow in rich, pesticide-free forest soil. Here you can see Ligia picking wild garlic this past spring, in a forest near Medias. The forests near our town are full of them!
Spring is almost here and if there’s a forest near you, go pick some wild garlic! The soup is finger-licking good, especially with nice, home-made bread on the side.
Ligia and I went on a refreshing evening walk with friends last night, during a wonderful snowfall which lasted through the night and covered everything in about a foot of snow by morning. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly and of course I took photos, lots of them.
This is video from a sledding outing with our friends, near Medias, Romania. Remember sledding?
I ask the question because most people look at me funny when I talk to them about hauling an old-fashioned sled up a hill, then sliding down said hill at great speeds, only to repeat the process until completely exhausted, at which time we’d trudge on home with big smiles on our faces.
My sled is part wood, part cast iron, with steel feet. It’s a heavy, sturdy monster that I’ve had since I was a kid, and there’s a good chance this sled will last me my whole life. I might even be able to pass it down to my children.
In the States, I rarely saw people sledding. Sure, if you visit winter resorts, there’s bound to be some sledding going on. But the neighborhood sledding slope has been slowly disappearing.
Remember when parents and children alike would know just which slopes were perfect for sledding? And they couldn’t wait to get their sleds and run outside after snowfall? Remember being in awe at the glossy photo of the latest wooden sled in the L.L. Bean catalog? I can’t even find those old sled models in their catalog anymore… All I can find now are kiddy sleds and plastic somethings. I’m talking about real sleds, like these!
When I grew up in Romania, the hills were full of children, yelling, laughing, crying, running about, having snowball fights, sledding. It was the same for my wife. Now, the hills are mostly silent. Medias is surrounded by hills, yet when we wanted to go sledding, we had to drive around for about 1 1/2 hours, looking for a good slope. Nobody knew where they were anymore.
I’d love to see more people sledding. It’s great exercise and it’s tons of fun! I think local governments can help by maintaining sledding slopes at certain locations. Nothing fancy, no artificial snow, just some lights and a man to turn them on and off. Word would get around and people would come.
By the way, this is what the moon looked like that night, after we got home.
Ligia and I went on a walk in one of the beech forests near Medias on Christmas Eve. This is a video I filmed during our walk. I loved the clear, crisp air and the quiet, punctuated at times by snow powder falling from the trees or the barking of distant dogs.
The background music is performed by a talented artist by the name of Donald Betts and is called “A Curious Story”.
Here are a few photographs I took on that same walk.
Raoul Pop 