A bit of snow fell these days on the mountains at the northern edge of Istra, the peninsula on which I live ...
... but I reached that winter wonderland only through the zoom of my camera.
Didn't drive that far.
When these shots were taken, a group of friends and I stopped after an hour of driving to stretch our legs in the autumnal landscape about forty kilometers from that snow.
We left Medulin, our hometown late in the morning, and after an hour of driving reached the place where you can see the road and railroad meet ...
... on the small crossing near the village called Zarechie. There was a wedding recently somewhere there, that's why the town sign is decorated with ribbons
The town sign wasn't the only info sign put there at the entrance to greet the visitors. It was accompanied by six more informative traffic sign circles deployed on two poles ...
... and this rusted outdoor noticeboard ...
... with a piece of paper that has something to do with the current pandemic. Above that COVID - 19 document there is a small piece of an old election poster for HDZ, the leading, by far the most successful political party in Croatia. I won't go too deep into politics here, but HDZ it's an interesting political jewel and deserves a couple of words. Since Croatia was established as an independent state in the 90', HDZ it's the governing party practically the whole time. In that period the mighty patriotic organization has managed to accumulate great wealth, spread a large, intricate web of capillary corruption and some spectacular court cases. HDZ has currently one prime minister behind bars and as an organization, a recent court sentence for a criminal enterprise which means that the most popular party of Croatia has to pay (or has paid) a half million EUR fine and has to give (or has given) two million EUR back to the state budget. HDZ has currently a nice majority in government, of course. With all that said someone could come to a conclusion that I'm living in a country run by organized crime. I don't know. Maybe. I heard a wide array of theories on the TV.
If you take a look back on the first in this line of photographs dedicated to the village Zarechie, you'll notice only one house behind the town sign. That's because the actual village it's situated a kilometer further, near the top of the hill.
This small wayside shrine surrounded by a trio of iconic trees is actually the first thing to greet you on the crossroad at the entrance to Zarechie.
I like these old wayside shrines very much. There is a certain fantasy feel to them. With this thing around, it's a bit like entering a town from the videogame Oblivion. You know, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The last game I played before my computer got too old for new games, and I got too busy to play immersive RPGs. From what I saw on Youtube it could fit in Skyrim even better.
Here you can take a look at the landscape across the road, with the northern mountain range in the background.
This is an isolated house near the rails. While sniffing around it ...
... I found this old-fashioned weighing scale used mostly in agriculture. I haven't seen this piece of equipment since my childhood. My grandparents had one.
This is another look at the hills that can be seen from that side of the road, while in the following photograph ...
... you are watching a small detail of that landscape.
After some more driving, ten kilometers or so ...
... we stopped again. Fascinated with snow, I took another shot of the mountains, and then ...
... I photographed the children playing on a small mountain of gravel in the yard of the isolated house by the road.
A couple of kilometers further we stopped again ...
... attracted by a long line of empty car carcasses ...
... that ends with this lovely blue oldtimer, still in relatively good shape.
here you can see a friend that first noticed the cars.
After taking a couple of photographs we continued our road trip.
In this and the following two shots ...
... you can see some pretty big protuberances on the branches of the oak trees ...
... that become visible only in this colder part of the year when the foliage falls down. They were photographed when we stopped on the small hill a bit further along the road.
While there ...
... I photographed also this isolated property in the valley below.
All the photographs, including this one, that you saw in the post were taken in the area around the small city called Pazin, in the central part of the peninsula, about fifty-sixty kilometers from where I live.
When I took this and the following five photographs we made a short stop on our way towards Draguch, one of the most picturesque old towns in the central - northern part of Istra.
I photographed the dense vegetation by the road ...
... and the only car that passed while we were there.
Some minutes later (five or so) I noticed a buzzard on the top of a distant tree. When the bird flew, we drove away ...
... and soon reached Draguch, the old town that I mentioned a few pictures ago. At this point, we were about eighty kilometers from home.
The medieval urban layout and the overall atmosphere of this place can easily transport the observer out of the current moment in history and bring him several centuries down the timeline or in some imaginary, fantasy land. I photographed this town on the hill while standing on another, slightly taller hill ...
... from which I could see a good chunk of that inland region.
With a bit of zooming ...
... there was a lot to see ...
... so I took quite a few shots ...
... while watching the stuff along the horizon.
Five or six kilometers further we stopped again.
I took another zoomed-in look at the distant mountains ...
... and some other stuff visible from that place.
This fence looked kinda cool ...
... and in an orchard not far from the place where we parked ...
... a friend noticed this piece of clothing that added a bit of vivid color to the brownish autumnal landscape.
Here you can take yet another wider look at the area.
Here you can see three layers of colors, harmoniously spread across the landscape, while in the following photograph ...
... you can admire the snowy hill that appears for the first time in this post. After taking this shot ...
... I entered the car. My friends were already there, ready to continue, and a minute later we were on the road again.
This and the following six photographs ...
... were taken a bit later ...
... on the plateau not far from the small city called Buzet, about a hundred kilometers from Medulin, our hometown.
Here you can see the lichen-covered tree that stood out in the landscape.
We spent only about thirty minutes here.
Only one car passed ...
... and soon we were continuing up this road.
We passed Buzet and stopped on another hill, about ten or fifteen kilometers from that city. The first thing that I noticed on the ground when I stepped out of the car was this decaying mushroom. The shaggy ink cap (Coprinus comatus)
We had a great view of the surrounding landscape from our elevated point.
The mountains weren't so far ...
... and looked great in the late afternoon.
In this photograph, you can see some transmitters and other equipment on the crest of the peak called Vojak, the tallest peak on that not particularly tall mountain range.
Here you can see more layers of that pretty photogenic landscape, while in the following photograph ...
... I zoomed in on a detail.
Some kilometers further we stopped one more time ...
... to photograph Dolenja Vas ...
... the photogenic village under the steep rocks.
At this point, we were about ninety kilometers from home.
I was pretty tired, the weather was getting gray and cloudy ...
... so we drove away ...
... headed south.
First sparse raindrops started to fall soon.
It was raining heavily when we reached our hometown.
AS ALWAYS IN THESE POSTS ON HIVE, THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE MY WORK - THE END.