BUJE IN FEBRUARY

It happened a long time ago. More than a decade has passed since. The year was 2010. I used to drive around Istra quite often in those days, sometimes for work, or more often, for fun.

(Enlargeable)

On the 14th of February, around noon, I spent a few hours in Buje.

(Enlargeable)

Buje is a small town in the northwestern part of the peninsula, only a few kilometers, four or five, from the border with Slovenia.

(Enlargeable)

The town has a long and interesting history, still visible in many corners of its old center, but I won't talk about that stuff here because I'm far too lazy to do it. you will hear only some frivolous observations and unreliable memories from me today.

(Enlargeable)

The most fascinating thing about that February excursion was, and still is, the blur that pervaded most of the photographs I took on that occasion. I don't know how it happened. Can't remember the details of my ancient personal history. Maybe there was something wrong with the camera. Maybe I used it in the wrong way, which isn't very probable since I took mostly technically correct photographs in other places that year. Maybe there was something with the town. A curse of some kind or some invisible evil that spoiled the shots, something demonic, perhaps. You never know what medieval times could have left besides the charming urban layout and rugged but lovely architecture. Anyway, I collected most of those crapy, blurred shots in the above picture made of twelve photographs, each of which lacks more than enough focus to be considered bad.

Here you can see the front facade of the Chapel Of St John The Evangelist. The small church was built in the 15th century.

It seems that I was very focused on doors and windows back then in 2010.

(Enlargeable)

Not only did I photograph quite a few in Buje, but most of them are actually in focus, the shots are fine, with no blur in the wrong places.

Most but not all, though.

This heavily blurred one shows the entrance to the small fish market I didn't expect to find in Buje. The name Papalina derives from a small fish very similar to the sardine.

Here you can take a look at one of the many picturesque corners of the old town. Stones give an interesting, rugged texture to the old houses, and therefore to the photograph as well.

(Enlargeable)

Mid-February was carnival time in 2010. At any other time, Spiderman would have been out of place there. Pirates and witches-not so much.

The first settlement on the hill that hosts the town dates from the Bronze Age. The next phase was a Roman fortification that turned into a Medieval town, whose urban layout can be still seen today.

Here you can see a green detail from some old facade.

At some point, I came across something that looked like a weird worm but it could have also been something even more mysterious, a larva of a Medieval dragon, for example - who knows. The thing was coming out of a small hole in some type of brick. The original photograph was vertical but I liked the horizontal version better so the horizontal one was uploaded to the post. Maybe mighty Dragons evolved into these things through the centuries. Evolution in the Fantasy realm has its own rules and does things much quicker.

I know is hard to believe in some stuff I say, but I swear - I also saw one little black dog on the 14th of February 2010. Now you know that the little black dogs are real just like Dragons and all that usual stuff. In the following photograph ...

(Enlargeable)

... you can take a look at the interplay between shadow and light displayed on the facade of some very old building.

(Enlargeable)

Here you can see the lovely details of another old house.

At one point I came across this red table that stood out from everything else around it. Believe it or not, this priceless thing belonged to Elvis Presley who never died, of course.

Here you can see another little alley nicely illuminated by the winter sunlight.

Some reparations were being done on one of the old houses. Who knows how that building looks today?

A bucket filled with "building-related something" was hanging on the nearby wall.

(Enlargeable)

Here you can see the same scene from a different angle and in a different light.

The blinds of the window shown in this photograph are heavily rusted. That's all I can tell about the shot.

In this last photograph, you can see some lovely plants in front, and some lovely curtains behind the lovely little window, selected to end the post in a fairly lovely way.

AND THAT'S IT. HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS SILLY OLD JOURNEY I HAVE NO RECOLECTION OF. THE STORY ABOUT THAT WINTER DAY WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHS. FROM THE VISUALS AND THE JPEG METADATA. AS ALWAYS HERE ON HIVE, THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE MY WORK - THE END.