EARLY MORNING IN PICHAN

Today I spent a couple of hours in the village that goes by the name of Pichan.

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This opening photograph was taken on the way there. I stopped a couple of kilometers from Pichan, on the hill with a good view of the village.

The next stop was just outside the historic medieval gate to the old, compact Pichan. I parked my car and continued on foot. This is the start of today's Wednesday walk.

This detail was photographed on one of the connected, merged houses that form a wall around the gate. I didn't pass through that gate immediately.

First I took a walk along that first line of houses.

Like most small towns and villages in the central part of Istra, Pichan is situated on the top of the hill ...

... with a great view of the surrounding landscape.

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Here you can take a look at the factory down in the valley.

These scenic shots were taken around 6 AM.

There was still a bit of mist in the distance ...

... but the scenery was slowly clearing.

The early mornings here are noticeably colder than in my southern seaside area. But from around 9 AM on, it gets equally hot these days.

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After taking this shot, I walked back to the old town's entrance ...

... and passed through the gate. You can see me defining Pichan as a village in some sentences, while in others I use the word town. That's kinda confusing, but it makes sense. Nowadays Pichan is a village and a pretty small one. But in medieval times, it was regularly described as a small town in written sources.

Once inside the settlement, I had plenty of interesting details to photograph.

While I was photographing these abandoned houses ...

... one of the local cats entered the scene.

In this photograph, you can take a look at the small square and some nice old houses that aren't abandoned. Across the square from these houses ...

... there is another line of smaller buildings and the forest behind them. I had a great view of the surroundings from here ...

... so I zoomed in on this pretty deep stone quarry.

Some minutes later, I came across another lovely ruin.

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Two young cats soon appeared from the neighboring yard.

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They were pretty curious but too scared to come close.

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After taking this shot, I said bye-bye to the cats ...

... and continued my Wednesday walk. Here you can see the damaged door of yet another abandoned house. In the following photograph ...

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... you can take a look at its green interior.

There was another door nearby. This one was completely open. Or more like non-existent.

The small room looked like an improvised bathroom because a relatively good-looking bathtub found shelter in it.

From here ...

... I photographed the church tower of the biggest church in Pichan.

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A bit further, I came across a small bird that hasn't mastered the art of flying yet.

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I'm not sure about the species. It could be a young starling. Or a juvenile blackbird. Maybe. I don't know.

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The bird was jumping down the street and soon entered one of the abandoned yards overgrown with dense vegetation.

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After some more walking ...

... I encountered this little dog ...

... on the square near the town's gate. It was time to walk back to the car and drive back home.

Before ending the post, I would like to show you a few more shots taken before reaching Pichan.

These last photographs were taken about ten kilometers from the village.

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AND THAT'S IT. AS ALWAYS HERE ON HIVE, THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE MY WORK - THE END.