URBEX?!

  Urbex, urban exploration, ue...?! You ever stumbled across these terms and wondered what is that?

  First, what it's not! It's not burglary! It's not vandalizing or braking places! It's not what only kids do!

  How about illegal? Yes... well in some cases! Dangerous? It could be? Interesting? depends! Fun? Well, in my and many other peoples opinion, definitely YES!

  Here's a wikipedia definition of urban exploration  and what it might include.

  For me and so many others entering and exploring abandoned places is one way of coping with stress. It's also away to be interested about history, people and how they lived and what they did before. And for me personally it's a way of challenging my self. Why? I've always been a bit of afraid of  darkness, so for me every time I enter a new abandoned building or place, it's like a conquer. It's like competing with my fear and winning! And then the photos you can make in such places, they are just marvelous. Of course there are some risks. Some places are already falling apart, so you can end up falling and hurting yourself or the ceiling might fall on you. Asbestos, mold, glass! And then occasionally you might bump into other people, like for example junkies, vandals, homeless, other urbexers... and as you know people are people, some are good some are bad but you never know who's what, and in an abandoned building or such it's pretty "interesting" to meet people. So there definitely are some risks to consider. But then you can always minimize some of them. Good shoes and clothing, a torch, good physical and mental health, minding where you step, good skills in communicating with people etc.

  Do you feel intrigued? Me too! How do you find all those abandoned and interesting places? I'll return to that in some other post. For now, enjoy the images from different locations... and by the way, do you love to explore abandoned and decaying places? If you do, please comment below why!

   

Mustavuori caves / Mustavuoren luolat

  One day when in a local book store I noticed a book, or actually a book cover, which intrigued me quite a bit. In the image a person was standing in a place which reminded me of something similar like "Tomb raider" or some other action / adventure game scene. Could this place really be in Finland?! I opened the book and tried to find the pages where the place was mentioned, but because I was in a bit of a hurry I was left clueless , I didn't have time to find it! Good for me, there's always uncle Google, and with a few search words I came to the conclusion that the place has to be the WW 1 bunkers just on the east side of Helsinki. Of course I had to go there! So on Friday afternoon I jumped in my car and headed for this interesting spot. I parked my car on a nearby parking place, and because I didn't have any Idea where to start my search I once again checked the coordinates from the world wide web. Pretty easy I thought, the place was marked pretty well in the map, so I just started my walk which wasn't too long. Some 10 minutes later I had found a cave. The cave actually was a tunnel which had been pierced through rock. Made a few images and walked through the cave to the other side. Even if it was pretty cool place, it wasn't the place I was looking for. "Never mind", I thought, "The spot I'm after can't be very faraway!". So I started my search. Allover in the forest there were trenches dug in the rock, remains from the time when Russians tried to fortify Helsinki during the WW 1. I walked here, and then I walked there, and I just couldn't find the place I had seen on the book cover. Then finally when I already thought I'm in the wrong place I stumbled across this fairly deep pit, with two man made caves in the stone wall, and there it was! The place I had been searching. And how was it down there? Here's some images...

  Aina välillä törmää uusiin tutkittaviin paikkoihin ihan sattumalta. Kirjakaupan hyllyssä pisti silmään kirjan kansikuva joka minusta näytti enemmän "Tomb raider"-pelin lavasteilta kuin joltain Suomesta löytyvältä paikalta. Vaikka äkkiä yritin kirjan sivuilta löytää paikkaa, niin kiire kun oli jäi koordinaatit saamatta. No, onneksi on ATKn ihmeellinen maailma. Ei tarvinnut kauaa hakea niin olin jo melko varma että paikan on pakko olla Mustavuori ja sen linnoitukset Helsingin itäpuolella. Uus tuttavuus meitsille, joten ei muuta kuin sinne. Alue löytyi melko kivuttomasti, ja eka luola tuli nopeasti koluttua läpi ja jopa pari kuvaakin otin. Mutta se kirjan kannessa ollut paikka? Ei muuta kuin kiertelemään. Siellä täällä kuljeksittuani ja kiveen hakattuja vallihautoja kierrettyäni alkoi jo olla fiilis että oon väärässä mestassa, se kansikuvapaikka on jossain ihan muualla! Sitten melkein puolivahingossa jalkojen alla avautui se kuvassa ollut syvänne ja sen pohjalla olleet kaksi isohkoa luolaa. Sinne ja äkkiä kameran kanssa. Harvoin on pohjalla oleminen tuntunut niin mukavalta. Mielikuvituksellinen paikka ja  toisella kertaa palaan sinne mallin kanssa. Tässä muutama maisema kuva...

   

Abandoned leather factory / Hylätty nahkatehdas

  Trespassing old abandoned places... Just how cool is that! A week ago I where on my way to Ostrobotnia and the town of Kokkola. Just a couple of days before the trip I made a Google search for old abandoned buildings and places in the area just to see if there would be something to explore nearby. Bingo! In a not too faraway village there seemed to be this abandoned leather factory. With the help of the old trusty Google Earth it was pretty easy to find the exact coordinates for the building. I was waiting for a mostly empty building, but it was a nice surprise to notice that there were quite much of the old equipment left on its place, so exploring the factory was very exciting. Here's some images..


  Aina on niin mukavaa löytää ja tutkia hylättyjä rakennuksia ja fiilistellä ränsistyneitä mestoja. Oli pieni hetki vierähtänyt siitä kun viimeeksi oli päässyt mitään hylkyä pällistelemään, joten kun oli tiedossa että ollaan lähdössä Pohojanmaalle ja Kokkolaan, niin pakkohan se oli pistää pieni haku "Kuukkeliin" ja tarkistaa mitä ympäristöstä löytyy. Montaa klikkausta ei tarvinnut vaivautua tekemään kun löytyi hylätty nahkatehdas ihan Kokkolan liepeiltä. Google earth-palvelun avulla koordinaatit pystyi paikantamaan aika helpolla ja heti kun oli mahdollista, niin sinne. Monestihan hylätyt tehtaat ja talot on melko tyhjiä. Firmat ja omistajat ovat vieneet kamansa pois tai sitten joku mukava kanssaihminen on ne sieltä sosialisoinut ja jäljelle jää vain tilaa ja pintoja joita kaiken maailman vandaalit sitten käyvät yksinkertaisuudessan koristelemassa spraymaalilla ja oman mielikuvituksensa tuotoksilla. Ja jos jotain irtaimistoa on paikalle jäänyt niin ne on pitänyt pirstoa, polttaa tai vähintäänkin kaataa. Tämä mesta oli iloinen yllätys. Paljon ihan suhteellisen ehjää kalustoa ja ihan makeita tiloja. Toki töhryjäkin löytyi mutta niillehän nyt ei voi mitään. Joten seuraavaksi kuvia kivasta pienestä urbexkohteesta Pohjanmaalla...

  

Torpedo launch station

  There's places you just need to go to when you hear of them. One such place for me has been the abandoned torpedo launch  station in Rijeka. Built in 1930's and now just falling apart, this is just an amazing place to visit. Sticking up from the sea like some kind of a skeleton, it somehow feels a bit creepy. Then when you know that it wasn't just an ordinary warehouse, but a place where they used to test torpedoes, weapons meant to destroy and kill, it just ads to the feeling some new dimension. If you want to go there, just use Google maps. We left our car in a nearby shopping mall, but it definitely would have been better to drive there as close as possible, we definitely would have saved a lot of time. This time I hauled quite a bit of equipment with me there, and in the end I just ended up using one camera, one lens, no flashes, tripods or stands, just and only natural light provided by the setting sun. I just didn't want to make it an urbex or architectural shoot, so I asked my lovely wife to model a bit. Despite of the mosquito, she did a wonderful job. Here's a few pics...

     

Katarina naval base

  I guess for a change I should be blogging about something else than Urban exploration and abandoned buildings, but because I love to combine things I love, in this case photography and UE, please forgive me, one more text and a few images of decay...
  As I told in a my last post, to find places to explore internet and Google Earth are good tools. For a while ago when checking out if there would be something interesting to explore near Pula, I came across this former naval base somewhere near the town. Just opened Google earth and started scouting. Established somewhere in mid 19th century and abandoned in the late 20th century this place have probably seen lots of things going on. Austro-Hungary, France, Italy and finaly Yugoslavia have been using this base for their military purposes. The area is huge, and to be honest I could have spent some more time there easily, but the clock is usually ticking and you have to know your limits. ("The kid is healthy when it plays, but sick if it don't understand to stop", that's what they say back home.) All the movable stuff is gone and the place for sure have seen pretty much vandalism during the years it have been abandoned, but there still is that pretty light, interesting colors, windows, stairs, some interesting communist era murals, paint that's cracking and that "you never know what's lurking behind the next corner" feeling. You can access the place by car if you don't want to walk too much. Everything is open and it seems that no one cares if you enter the buildings, so no fear of someone popping up and making inconvenient questions. So if you ever visit Pula and you are interested in abandoned places and history, why not to take a walk in Katarina naval base.

   

Sarajevo (Part 2)

  If there's lots to see in Sarajevo for the ordinary traveler, so will there be for the one who's interested in urban exploration as well. The city and surroundings are full of cool abandoned places. I had the possibility to visit a couple, and I can tell that there's so much more to see, but the clock is always ticking and when traveling with others who are not so much into urban decay and abandoned buildings, you know time is just limited for fulfilling your dreams.
  When I search for places of interest I rely heavily on internet. Google the city name combined with "urbex" or "urban exploration" and most likely you'll find at least some place where to go. In my case mt. Trebević came up, and most probably if you ever visit Sarajevo or did it already, and you are into forgotten and ruined stuff, you'll end or ended up there at some point. Mt. Trebević is the place where the winter Olympics were held in 1984. So a must see thing would be the abandoned bobsleigh track. While there you could also walk to the Bistrik kula or as it's called too, Čolina kapa observatory. It's just a couple of minutes walk from the bobsleigh track. Two interesting towers, one from the Austro-Hungarian period and one a bit newer, both which have been used as observatories. Cool abandoned buildings and the view down to Sarajevo is amazing. On the way up, by the road there was this abandoned hotel, so I stopped my car there, entered the building and made a few images in there as well.
  An other tool I frequently use is Google Earth. Scrolling over a city with a help of a satellite map can reveal some interesting spots. Of course it's not always guaranteed that you'll have the access inside the building when you finally arrive to the location. In my case there were two spots I was interested of. In the satellite map they seemed just perfect, but in the real world they both where some kind of military related places and guarded by soldiers. Both places where a mess, I definitely would have loved to get inside, but as I'm happy with the holes I'm born with, I thought better not get any extra  from a gun, so I decided to vanish from these places quite fast. So no images from these places.
  A third method for me to find places of interest is to keep my eyes and ears open. When driving here and there you see possible places where you could go. Sometimes when speaking with locals they may know some good spots. While driving one day a former resident of Sarajevo who was travelling with us showed an abandoned complex on the other side of the road. He told that it had been build just before the war, but now it's completely desolated. For me it meant a place of interest, and after two disappointments with the "military bases", this was a perfect spot. No guards, easy to enter and so I went there.
  Then just one more thing! There's lots of abandoned warehouses and larger buildings in Sarajevo, but just don't overlook the smaller houses. They used to be someones homes, places for families wanting to live in peace with their neighbors. Today they are a sad reminder how fast everything can change.