Yesterday I drove about 20 - 30 kilometers north of my hometown and spent a couple of hours in the area around Vodnjan, another small town in the southern part of Istra. On the way there, I stopped at the gas station and bought a bottle of motor oil for my old car. After half an hour of photographing some insects in the morning dew, I decided to put the oil in the car. Like many times before, I opened the hood, put the oil in the engine, and then continued searching for insects, spiders, and other macro-friendly stuff. An hour or two later, I felt inspired to drive further north, maybe to the city of Pazin, to see what could find there. I sat in my car and drove away.
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After the pretty long prelude to the walk, it's time to take a look at the first opening photograph. A photograph that has nothing to do with the text above. It was taken in a car repair shop on the outskirts of Medulin, my hometown. In the area between the town in which I live and the nearby village of Liznjan.
Now, you may ask: "So? Where's the walk? It looks like this post is all about cars. And driving."
Well, just wait a bit, and you'll see how everything is connected.
On my way north of Vodnjan, just five or ten minutes later, the little yellow engine management light appeared on the car's dashboard. I stopped by the road, opened the hud, and immediately discovered the trouble. Somehow, first time in my life, I managed to forget the cap of the oil reservoir of the engine. I just didn't put the thing back so the hole was open and the oil was squirting along the way. I drove back carefully, with engine revolutions kept at a bare minimum, but I didn't find the cap along the way nor in the place where the car was parked when I was photographing macro stuff around it.
The fun was definitively over. I had to drive back home. Carefully, if possible.
And this brings us to today's Wednsdey walk. I walked to my favorite car repair shop to get a new cap. You can see it in the photograph above. It's outside the town, surrounded by pine groves and meadows. It has many old, photogenic cars. Yep, it's a cool place and the owner is my old friend.
The opening photograph was taken at the end of the walk when I reached my destination. In the following picture ...
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... you can see where the epic, one-kilometer journey to get the new cap started. This is my neighborhood. The photograph was taken in the street just outside my yard. A man on the bicycle passed me by, and then ...
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... I photographed this car that came from the opposite direction.
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This is the Church of St. Agnes. The biggest church in town and the most iconic building in Medulin.
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At this point, I was only about two hundred meters from home.
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I passed across the large crossroad behind St. Agnes, and then, about 20 - 30 meters further on the road that leads to Liznjan ...
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... I reached a much smaller church. The Church of St. Fosca.
Here you can take a more up-close look at the detail above the door.
This fairly big snail ...
... has found a nice, shady place on the lateral facade.
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Two or three hundred meters further, while two cyclists shown in this photograph were approaching from Liznjan ...
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... I noticed a painting that was leaning against the wall built around a house in construction. The scene was fairly unusual so I stopped to take a couple of photographs.
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Here you can see some of the cars that were constantly passing by.
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These two circles were photographed another two or three hundred meters further along the road. The traffic mirror and the satellite dish looked kinda cool & stylish together.
Soon I passed by this little gate ...
... and stopped in front of another house in construction. This one was almost finished.
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This sign was photographed behind the last house on the Medulin's side of the road between Liznjan and Medulin. It caught my attention because it looked a bit like a simple, geometric artwork. Quite a few dead-end streets can be found here, at the edge of town.
Some minutes later and about a hundred meters further, I was near the end of the road. I mean, the asphalt road continues and becomes part of the neighboring village a couple of kilometers further, but I took the narrow side road that's asphalted only in the short stretch near the crossroad. That path ends in the large yard with many old cars and various scattered pieces of machinery.
AND THAT'S IT. AS ALWAYS IN THESE WALKS ON HIVE, THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE MY WORK - THE END.