The year was 2010. The February of that year. A bit of snow fell in the mountains, about a hundred kilometers from where I live. Three friends drove there to take a walk in the winter wonderland. This is the short summary of today's post, and arguably, all that there is to be said about it.
Here you can see the road that leads to the higher parts of the mountain called Uchka.
Some kilometers further up that road, in a restaurant closer to the top, we - my two friends & I - sat to eat a warm meal in the fairly cold winter air. But more about that later.
For now, we are still in the car, climbing the way to the central part of this post. When the following photograph was taken ...
... we were walking.
We were still walking here. And we reached the restaurant already.
We left the car in front of the restaurant and went walking through the surrounding woods. An hour or two later we ate there. In the restaurant that is. But more about that later.
As I said, we were walking, and at one point ...
... we passed by this elongated building. Can't tell you what its function was back then in 2010, but nowadays, this thing looks very different, it has been enlarged & modernized, and serves as a souvenir shop & info center for visitors of the Nature Park Uchka. Well, maybe. The only statement I'm sure of is that I didn't know what this building is about back then in 2010. I came to the conclusion that the building was changed and modernized after seeing some stuff on the Internet, I haven't visited the mountain since 2013 or 2014, and I'm not sure that I understood the Internet articles correctly. In defense of my ability to understand my native language, it has to be said that those articles were kinda confusing. Especially when it comes to matching the photographs to the text that explains them.
Anyway, Uchka is a lovely little mountain, and we were walking through its winter wonderland.
Here you can see me and one of my friends walking side by side. I'm following the road, he's following the wall by the side of the road. The photograph was taken by a third friend, of course.
Here you can see the same friend walking the same wall. But the photograph was taken from a different direction. And it was taken by me. In the following photograph ...
... the same old friend looks like a shady figure hidden among the trees.
This photograph was probably taken in front of the restaurant. I'm not entirely sure about that but the place definitely looks like a large parking area in front of the restaurant. You can see another group of visitors here.
Here you can see the small souvenir shop that was firmly closed on that occasion.
In many places, you can see the Adriatic sea from the mountain.
And now ...
... is time to sit down and eat something.
I can finally present to you ...
... the central theme of the post ...
... the meal in the mountains promised in the title. I like photographing people in poses like this. They look cool and funny in mundane situations. Much better than when posing for a shot that is supposed to be cool and represent them at their supposed best. Or funniest. Or sexiest. Or whatever.
We went walking again after the meal but more about that later, because now ...
... I have one more photograph from the restaurant to show you.
We came across a pile of horse shit on that walk after the meal. You can see me standing next to that stuff. The photograph was taken by a friend. Don't know which one of the two.
That shit gave us the opportunity for a small, healthy dose of sophomoric humor that has many beneficial effects on the whole mind and body, including digestion.
I'm pretty sure that we were in the same mood when this photograph was taken.
THE END
