Sports Venue, Varna - August 2017

My first explore of the day with Darmon Richter, we had a wander round with the cameras and had a cheeky beer whilst hiding from the harsh afternoon sun.

History is somewhat lacking for this abandoned sports venue, apparently built to be a showcase to the world as to what Bulgaria could offer as a possible Olympic venue.

Built on the Black Sea coast, the building is unfinished and abandoned for an Olympics that never happened.

Please forgive me for repetition of similar photos, I just found the place very photogenic and one of them very special chill out type of locations so very sorry the over indulgence - the cold beer and company did also add that extra to the visit.

 

For me this is one of those special places without any Indiana Jones type shit, simply sat hiding in plain view on main city road hidden from the world by the undergrowth around it.

I give it a resounding 10/10 chill with beer score.

The Monument to the Bulgarian-Soviet Friendship, Varna - August 2017

Earlier in the year I managed to persuade Mrs Hunter to book the family holiday in Bulgaria. Why persuade you might ask ? Well you see a rather splendid chap whom I infrequently meet up with is based in that part of the world and if you travel all that way it would be very rude not to pop round and well, meet up and see some stuff.

I sat in a local cafe waiting for Darmon Richtor, and him not being a morning person he was late, sorry hang on he wasn't - I was early, having had only 3 hours sleep I sat hiding from the midday sun drinking coffees with fresh lemonade chasers. I hadn't seen him since our Latvia and Lithuania road trip and well I knew he had something rather good to show me and I will be very honest, I was a little excited.

This place was in our second explore of the day.

The Monument to the Bulgarian Soviet Friendship or as it is sometimes called The Russian Monument is a rather grand monument perched 110 metres up on top of a hill above the city of Varna overlooking the Black Sea. A rather deceptive monument which is in fact building with a big secret (more on that later).

Built over a four year period from 1974 the monument acts as a memorial for Russia's support of the Bulgarian people during the 1828-29 Russo-Turkish War.  The political changes of 1989 saw the monument fall into disrepair and without going into any politics, the monument splits opinions.

On with the explore

Hang on, 301 steps and although I didn't count them it was a killer in the early mid afternoon sun, oh you will have to trust me on this, it was hot - very hot.

This shot does not really give a sense of the size of the monument, but it stands 23 metres in height with a width of 48 metres.

So now having reached the summit it was time to go in and unfortunately the entrance sadly had been recently sealed preventing our access.

Fortunately my guide knew of the "servants" entrance and with a bit of a wiggle and limbo in we went to darkened snaking maze of corridors taking us up thru and ultimately onto the top of the monument.

By this time I was hot and bothered, however it was nearly time for some of that cold beer that we had cunningly picked up from the shop before our ascent.

We then started to make our exit and for that promised beer, via the "Star Room".



Pausing to look in the darken depths to a sealed lower level.

Out back into the heat of the day we paused and chatted for a catch up since our last meeting drinking our hard earned beer and then Darmon teasingly let slip "there is more".

We carried on towards the base of the hill, I heard mention words of warning about snakes in the undergrowth - great !!!

Resembling a Dharma Initiative hatch way from an episode of Lost and all we needed now was the dreaded Smoke Monster as we entered some kind of military bunker.

It was vast....

Really, really vast and a sprawling maze.

After a good wander around Darmon directed me to a shaft which rose up thru the hillside into the monument above.

 

Under our feet lay uniformed guillotine cut stone and we stood a few feet below the surrounding floor level. The shaft seemed to continue below us and had been obviously filled in, but someone had been busy removing the stone by hand - perhaps the bunker complex continued below into further levels ?

Wellington Rooms, Liverpool - July 2017

The Wellington Rooms, Liverpool. Also known as The Irish Centre this Grade II Listed building sits rotting despite a £121,000 grant to fix the roof which to date has clearly not been done.

Built in 1815 the property has sat empty since 1997.

Having seen the building on a BBC4 documentary back in 2016 I had desperately wanted to take a glimpse of the the inside of the building. So myself, Blacksnake and Tbolt did when the word came around.

The simple fact is that in its heyday the Wellington Rooms would have been spectacular.

Having survived the damage of  the German bombings of Liverpool in 1941 it remains to be seen in what form this building will be saved in its latest fight.

Coalite, Bolsover, Derbyshire - April 2017

Visited with Tbolt and Snapt, bumping into Judderman as he appeared from the marsh grass like some kind of big game hunter.

This place used to be a vast sprawling production centre for the smokeless fuel Coalite, a byproduct from the fuel known as Carbon Black was also processed for use as a pigment in the manufacture of vehicle tyres.

Opening in 1937, the 140 acre site finally closed in 2004, and has been sitting in development hell ever since.

There is talk of houses being built after a clean up of the land contamination, which is needed as the place stinks to hi heaven with a kind of weedkiller type smell.

Rather liked this place, seems to be the new place for good graffiti including a good few by Coloquix.

Whilst I'm sure this place will not be everyone's cup of tea, I loved the place and giving it 8/10, a revisit on the cards at some point to see the evolving canvas.