The lockdown law was quite clear – stay home unless you had a very good (and clearly defined) reason to go out. Harsh, perhaps, but it did seem to have limited the spreads of the virus. I understand the law and the reason behind it, and while I complied, I was missing my regular walks around the city.
Towards the end of the strictest period of lockdown, I had cause to go into the office, and naturally enough I took my camera along. The trains were (as expected) very quiet, making it easy to maintain several metres distance from the nearest other passengers. The stations likewise were nearly abandoned. There were more people than I expected in the main thoroughfares, but the side streets, laneways and arcades were a completely different story. Popular dining, shopping and tourist haunts which just a few weeks earlier had been bustling were all but abandoned, with just the odd masked figure going about their business almost apologetically. Even in the traditional lunchtime peak, the few eateries which remained open were forlorn. It was eerie enough, and I can only imagine what it must have been like at the peak of the lockdown.
