The boats are resting in the harbor. There isn't much fishing these days.
The ancient Forum, city's iconic main square ...
... emptied by the current pandemic, has a dreamlike atmosphere, like some place out of De Chirico's painting.
The big shipyard, part of the city since 1858 is closed and empty. Although all the desolation in the city looks like a part of the virus - induced phenomenon, the shipyard, along with the whole Croatian ship building industry died some months ago, victim of decades - long mismanagement after the shady privatization.
It's a wonderful day ... from the meteorologic prospective ... the empty buildings are basking in the sun ...
... and sporadic people are wearing masks.
This is my first visit to the city since the pandemic situation begun. The quarantine measures are still tight, the movements pretty restricted ...
... but I had to renew the registration for my car, the little silver machine on this photograph, so I was given the permission to leave my small hometown.
I had to do all those road worthiness tests and stuff ...
(Warning! The car on the last two shots is not mine)
... and since is a relatively old car that did more than 200 thousand kilometers ... there is always a possibility that something will have to be repaired.
I had to wait a bit. Fortunately I had the camera, so I was motivated to observe and explore the surroundings instead to be bored. The old lady was waiting near someone's big black vehicle. She arrived with a small yellow car.
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Two young office workers from that vehicle testing station went out for a coffee break. The work is pretty complicated with the many health protecting rules. Simple things can be really exhausting in the new conditions.
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When the tests were done ...
... I learned that my car didn't pass all of them ... so I had to find some repair shop that's working in this dramatic conditions. I found it at the outskirts of the city ... almost in another town, really.
While waiting for the repairs to be done, I took this shot of an empty road.
And then another one from the opposite direction.
The plum tree was in bloom ... by one of the neighboring houses.
The people in the repair shop were great ... fast and effective ... very soon the job was done ...
... so I decided ...
(Warning! The car on the last two shots is not mine)
... to immediately do the test again.
This time ...
... I had to wait much longer ...
... but ...
... the camera saved me again.
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I was observing ... photographing ...
... and the time flew by. This time the test was ok. I was very relieved.
With this registration stuff finally done, It was time to be a tourist for a while. I decided to visit the old town, to see how the things are going there ... but first ... I went to the shopping mall not far from the testing station. I thought that will be a good idea to buy a mouse for my PC, because my cats often destroy those mice while playing with various objects on my table, but there were selling only garden & agricultural stuff on the outside, near the entrance, the store was closed for other stuff.
So I sat in my freshly registered vehicle ...
... and drove to the center ...
... to take a little walk ...
... through the quarantined city.
In the open market area, there were some new little stands to provide controlled and very sanitized conditions for the fruits, vegetables and other local, home made agricultural products.
The guard was there to overlook the social distance ... the guards and police are very present, but they are very nice and polite ... and so are the people ... I never saw such solidarity, organization and thoughtfulness in people here. This is one really precious thing among many problems and tragedies this virus brought. The atmosphere feels like civilized seriousness not like repression, as it could with many police around.
Here the people are waiting in front of one of the few opened banks.
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While passing by the large, glass covered office building ... I caught the opportunity to shoot my first pandemic selfie, with the mask and gloves on ... I'm very satisfied with the Fallout video game feel of the scene :).
On my way to the historic old town I saw this historic little car, from a different era in automobile industry ... I will encounter the same car later in the post and later in my walk ... but about this - later. Right now ...
... I'm passing by the contemporary motorcycle parked near some old administrative building.
About 50 meters further is the locally famous Café bar called Uliks ... named after Ulysses ... the tables are empty, all restaurants and bars are closed ...
... but here, on this terrace, there is a man watching the empty square. He's always here, stuck in this place ... maybe for eternity.
James Joyce was living for some time in this building, that's how this peculiar Café bar monument ended up here. Joyce, the real one, ended up in Pula in the year 1904, and remained in the then big Austro-Hungarian port about four months.
After that I arrived in the empty park ...
... covered with flowers.
The stuff on the children's playground was enveloped in barrier tape.
The pigeons looked like real owners of the city ...
... on a delicious afternoon picnic.
From the park I noticed ...
... some work in progress on one of the neighboring buildings ... and then ...
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... I witnessed a cool example ...
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... of quarantine communication with appropriate social distancing. On the following photograph ...
... I'm approaching the main square.
On this shot ... on the left is the ancient Temple of Augustus ... and building on the right is the Town Hall.
The security guy at the Town Hall's entrance is walking up & down while talking on a mobile phone ...
... then some administration lady wearing the springtime color, comes out of the building.
I continued my walk ...
... along the harbor ... passed by the big fishing boats ... equipped for hunting the sardines ...
... took a few shots ... collected a few photogenic details ...
... from the buildings across the street ...
... these succulent plants sprouting kind of wildly from a balcony, were the highlight of this segment of the walk.
On my way back ... near the Outdoor market area ... I photographed the Post office vehicle ... this yellow gets very well along with the clear blue sky and the surrounding buildings.
Here is a small delivery scooter ... on the same crossroad.
A bit further, by the wall of the central Post Office ... on one of those scooters ... another detail and visual clue to the viral situation ... the mask under the rearview mirror.
A bit before that ... when I was photographing the Postal van ... I noticed this place where you can sell your gold ... with kind of too many yellow adverts all around the facade ... with most of the businesses closed it definitely catches the attention ... I don't know how much it has to do with the pandemic, but the scene looks kind of iconic ... but I can't tell you why.
Soon after I was near the Post office ...
... then I passed by this payphone, the last one in the entire city, as far as I know ... sat in my car ... and drove away, directed to the suburbs.
I stopped on the large parking lot near the general hospital ...
... to take a few shots from there.
The signs of spring were everywhere ... and ...
... do you remember the old timer car from the central part of the post ? I saw it again, parked here.
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This nylon bag caught on the thorns of the roses looked kinda cool ... the scene had some vague symbolism, with those suburban buildings in the background ... so I took the shot.
There were some Eurasian jackdaws (Corvus monedula) ...
... on the blooming lawn between the parking lot and the street ...
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And some humans were sitting on the benches of the small suburban park between the ordinary suburban buildings.
At this point I entered my car, and drove away again. I had one more thing to do before returning to my hometown.
I had to visit a good friend ...
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... he works with a Yellow-crested cockatoo ...
... in the coolest little shop in town.
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The place is called Happy Zoo ...
... you can find some interesting characters there. And now ...
... with these last few shots ...
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... that I took while approaching the car ... is time to end this pandemic walk ... as always in these posts on HIVE, all the photographs are my work ... THE END.
[//]:# (!pinmapple 44.870421 lat 13.843179 long d3scr)