I grew up there.

I have seen the last relics of an era long bygone.

Old factories, huge behemoths on the horizon, monsters rising to the sky.

In the west, the last remnants of a dying world slowly drifting into the 21st century.

A deep black plateau draped with a sea of lights, millions of glowing destinies under the night sky.

And in the east the great plain; forests and fields; fertile soil on grey-brown greens.

Villages where life stood still for centuries.

The world had stopped and yet tumbled at breakneck speed into an uncertain future.

This is my tribute to these times.

To a home that vanished long before I entered it.