Thursday 30 April 2020

The great - deserted - outdoors


I wasn't planning on doing another hiking post like the one I did on the 29th of February. Reality, however, caught up with me and while hiking is not a recommended activity during a lockdown, this little walk was done by necessity. Yes, I do go out, occasionally, only to go to the chemist's who is very near my house and i don't bother with taking photographs. I don't even go to the supermarket, I order by phone and the goods are delivered to me. But this time, I had to go to the bank. Not exactly to the bank, but to an ATM. I wanted to withdraw some cash, although this is not a big necessity since I pay for everything using a debit or a credit card. But I also wanted to pay the bills of those aforementioned credit cards.


Unlike the chemist, there isn't a bank near my house, so I would have to take a longer walk. So I thought that this time I should take my camera in order to capture the outside world during a lockdown. I chose an area near the National Road (that's the motorway for the Brits among you) partly because there wouldn't be any people walking around and partly because a deserted motorway would be a perfect photo opportunity. You see, I didn't want to go into a bank (I had no desire to mingle with other people), I wanted to go to an empty bank and use its ATM. Moreover, in that particular area there are three branches of three different banks.



I headed first to the bridge over the motorway to take some pictures. Then I headed toward the banks taking more pictures along the way. The first two banks are on my side of the motorway, while the third one is one the other side. I used a subway that is nearby to cross over. There weren't many people around. I only met some who were having a walk, two bikers, one walking her dog and I also came across on an open kiosk and shops that were selling food. The employees however were sitting either inside or outside waiting for the time to pass.








The success rate of this expedition only measured a meagre 50%. I was able to withdraw the cash that I wanted, but none of the ATMs would accept deposits so I wasn't able to pay my card bills. Well, if they don't want me to pay them, I won't pay them. At least I had a nice walk after almost a month indoors. And since my walk was in a different area to the one on the 29th of February, I didn't come across any wild boars. I'm sure however that with so few people around they must be more of them wandering in the streets back there...

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