Exploring an abandoned apartment part I

April 14, 2016

It was a cool, breezy day, Perhaps the coolest in the month. Eyeing the abandoned apartment block for a week, we carried out our own recce runs and determined that the best time to get in would be around sunset as the chances of being caught would have been minimal. Though, we had to leave around 2 hours later as that would be the only perfect window of opportunity to escape unseen (prayer time).

Breaking in was the easy part, there is a reachable balcony that has a negative of being in open view of the public. After a hasty entrance, we had to turn on our flashlights as almost nothing was visible. After prepping our gear up and putting our N-95s on, we headed on towards the inside.

At the lobby of the apartment block, we tried to take a picture of all of was staring at the ceiling but the image got botched due to lighting issues. 

Lighting issues and borderline butchering of the exposure effect

The ground floor was mostly empty, there were signs that people had broken in but it appeared that very few people had actually gone further. We mused that it must have been due to a supposed fear of jinns(google the term if you do not understand). After walking around a bit, it felt that our searches for anything interesting would not be fruitful. Heading in upwards, it suddenly turned pitch dark, after all, the place was abandoned for >20 years....

In an earlier visit, we had explored the first floor but left soon due to that one cat(mentioned in a earlier post). This time, we headed straight for the rooftop. The third floor was a penthouse which only had one door, albeit locked. After my failed attempts at opening it, which left me with a scratched up. Grudgingly dragging ourselves along the roof while simultaneously hurling curses at the door.
Walking around large swathes of grime and what I can only assume were dried bird droppings, we reaches the roof. T was taking pictures, though we were fumbling with all the gear. We crashed at the top, which was a small 2x4m platform raised above the penthouse.  A large portion of the city was visible from the rooftop. We decided to chill there for half an hour. Listening to deadmau5 tracks like Slip and Faxing Berlin, it felt like a perfect moment.

Rusty Elevator engine

    ince we didn't have much time left, we hurried downstairs to explore the rest of the building. Each floor had two apartments. At the second floor, we split up into 2 groups; I(A2), along with E explored the left bloc while the others explored the right one. T found a furnished living room, complete with an Arab style lounge. There was a layer of dust several centimeters thick and in some areas, the tiles cracked if you put weight on them, probably due to heat damage. I, along with E had found several remains of dead pigeons. We drew an upside down pentagram on a nearby mirror as it fit the moment

                                     

That's where we found the hoarder's paradise.

A room, chock full of abandoned 90s memorabilia. Cassettes, magazines, books, even old pepsi bottles with the PEPSI-COLA logo. 

We tried to film the entire visit, but many areass were completely dark and could not be shot. We had taken a few pictures which we uploaded and posted onto reddit.

On June 23, 2016; we(A2 and T) decided to visit the location again, this time in broad daylight. We found much more and condensed 1h30m footage into a 15min video. We took much better pictures on that day compared to the ones from the earlier expedition. Some of which, we posted  here 


-WATA