Urbex

[RoseGoesToYale]

Turns out there may be a few more enthusiasts here than I thought. Who else here is interested in urban exploration/abandoned places? Any actual urban explorers here?

 

I've never been, but it'd be cool to try. I wouldn't want to do it alone, though, I'd want a veteran to show me the ropes. Already enough senseless idiots out there, e.g. tourists sneaking into Chernobyl to takes selfies, ugh.

 

Got any favorite photo archives? Detroit Urbex is my favorite, those guys are pros. They've documented every architecturally significant building in decline in Detroit, and they do update on renovation/demolition. They also give detailed histories of each building. For the death of American consumerism, deadmalls.com and Labelscar are excellent, though it doesn't look like either are being updated (probably because we're running out of malls ).

 

Any sites in particular you find fascinating? Chernobyl and other old Soviet sites are neat, many look just like every former inhabitant just up and vanished. Plus it's weird to see Soviet emblems just sitting there. Most of them are brutalist (stick it in my heart... nobody wants to care for these buildings, they're so misunderstood).

[RoseGoesToYale]

Oops, mods, this wound up in the wrong forum. I meant to put it in Off-A.

[argar]

Have you seen the movie "Only Lovers Left Alive" which make out maybe 5 years ago?

 

I just mention it because in the movie one of the characters also mentions the decayed past of Detroit, and it works well within the context of movie. 

[daveb]

42 minutes ago, RoseGoesToYale said:

Oops, mods, this wound up in the wrong forum. I meant to put it in Off-A.

I thought so. Moved it for you.  

[RoseGoesToYale]

43 minutes ago, argar said:

Have you seen the movie "Only Lovers Left Alive" which make out maybe 5 years ago?

 

I just mention it because in the movie one of the characters also mentions the decayed past of Detroit, and it works well within the context of movie. 

I just watched the trailer. One of the scenes is in the Michigan Theater, which I hear is pretty popular among filmmakers. Though the building's day job is now parking garage, of all things.

[ColeHW34]

I wanted to explore on my own but I hardly have any motivation or muscle strength (due to minor atrophy) and poor agility.

[Captain_Tass]

3 hours ago, RoseGoesToYale said:

I've never been, but it'd be cool to try. I wouldn't want to do it alone, though, I'd want a veteran to show me the ropes. Already enough senseless idiots out there, e.g. tourists sneaking into Chernobyl to takes selfies, ugh.

I've been really interested in urbex for a couple of years now, but I haven't tried it yet for the same reason. Plus, I'm not nearly fit enough for an activity like urbex yet. But hey, I'm getting there and there's been some progress!

 

I know that this is like, the opposite of urbex but I still found it cool. Yesterday I went to a village on the mountains near Nafpaktos where most of my family is from and I was bored so I went to look around with my cousin. It was really cool, we found butterflies, a tiny bridge and a goat. Then we took a bit of a dangerous road (a steep path near a cliff) and ended up at a crossroad. I suggested that we take the path uphill in order to have the high ground and proceeded to dramatically quote Obi Wan Kenobi, so my cousin agreed to it. Well, up there we found a bunch of abandoned houses. We didn't actually go in there, because the entrance (and windows) of the nearest one were built right at the edge of a small cliff and the rest were built at the base (and because I could see that my cousin was kind of scared and I didn't want to make her feel as if she should do anything she didn't want to, just because I did it), but I did manage to take a good look inside. It was pretty empty, but I remembered that I really had to try urbex sometime.

[CelesteAdAstra]

I have done it a few times with a friend, although none of us has a car and we can only visit nearby places which are very rare.

 

One of the most interesting and simultaneously depressing places I have ever visited (before I knew anything about urbex) was a giant building complex from the second world war. An endless row of concrete buildings that looked exactly the same. It was supposed to become a beach resort for nazi Germany, but was never finished. Absolutely creepy. I don't usually feel freaked out by abandoned houses, but that was one especially dark place.

Spoiler

 

On a lighter note, here's one of my favourite places I visited so far: an old waste incineration plant. It felt like I had stumbled into a post-apocalyptic action movie.

Spoiler

 

(photos are mine)

 

There's a beautiful abandoned brick building in my city, a former hospital, but sadly it's completely sealed off and there are always people near it.

 

I hope to be able to see some old mansions or hospitals one day, like this:

Spoiler

 

 

I would love to see Pripyat too, I'm very interested in its story, but then I'm far too afraid of radioactivity to actually consider it.

[Karst]

My hometown has a lot of interesting sites, but most of them are in places where I genuinely would not feel safe without another person with me.  It's odd, since I have absolutely no fear of being out in the forest by myself.  Then again, I'm much better at wilderness skills than I am at defusing potentially dangerous encounters with other people.  I once had an irate farmer rush up to me on a Gator (the vehicle, not the animal) to confront me, because he thought I was a hunter.  I was just shortcutting across his property to get home safely before dark.

[AspieAlly613]

6 minutes ago, Ardoise said:

the vehicle, not the animal

Thanks for clarifying.  I had imagined the animal.

[AspieAlly613]

Honestly, I don't think I'd be able to handle to social situation of having someone come charging at me riding on a live alligator.

[ColeHW34]

I always wanted to climb onto my house and eat McDonald's for some reason.

[J. van Deijck]

I am totally interested in it, but I haven't done that much about it yet. I'm particularly fascinated with Chernobyl area and the old location of UVB-76.