23-07-2009Ok ok, it's been a month or more since the last update & much of that time has been back in Bulgaria at the Mostel, helping out with day trips & general running of the place.
It's been VERY busy as it's peak season now & backpackers are turning up at all hours of the day & night looking for a bed, which translates to very little sleep!
So all the guys @ Hostel Mostel are good & it's nice to
see them again, especially Rossi who battled with ovarian cancer over the winter & has only just been able to return to her work. It was a hard winter for Ogi & Rossi!
Equipped with a shiny new (second hand new) day trip vehicle in the form of a Toyota Landcruiser we have been carting the backpackers over the countryside & yesterday a new & really cool site, especially if you are into cold war memorabilia!
On the story goes....
me & 6 other backpackers did a day trip in the Land cruiser to a very strange place, Buzludja!An abandoned Communist propaganda center, high up & isolated on the Balkan mountains...
It was an amazing & rather mysterious experience!
Remember to click on the image to get the full size picture, then click the back button to return to the blog.
It's very hard to get any information about this place, even from the local Bulgarians, so much has been left as a modern mystery.
The guys on the day trip,
Two Brits, one Ozzie, one Canadian & 2 from the Netherlands.
We all trekked up the steep path, to this great mammoth they now call the "UFO" with it's tower looming above.
You can almost imagine a huge door opening out the bottom, like on some weird scifi movie... crazy!
You can almost imagine a huge door opening out the bottom, like on some weird scifi movie... crazy!
Looking up at the derelict building which is now the home of hundreds of swifts, swooping above..
Finally after a climb that was a killer on the calf muscles, we reach the top, only to find there was a road around the back we could have driven... never mind! It seemed much more like a real expedition doing it the hard way, a kind of Communist pilgrimage you could call it.
In the foreground are the remains of two monuments, now destroyed (on purpose I would
imagine)
The main entrance with a blatant statement.
I so want to get up there & paint the words NEVER above.
Reminds me of the quote;
"The first thing we learn from history, is we learn nothing from history"
The main entrance was barred & locked.
But we found another entrance, a broken window around the side,
& made our way into the basement.
I forgot my torch!! :(
Maarten, from the Netherlands, climbing & peering out one of the windows
All the walls & floors are made of marble! nothing was spared building this monument!
Entering the main auditorium. The whole sight was a surreal experience, a grand & huge structure, abandoned!
In the middle of the ceiling is the sickle & hammer, ironic that the hard labor & thousands upon thousands of dollars of the "common" people went into something that is now falling apart and despised by the masses.
All around the insides of the building were these intricate & beautiful tile mosaics.
& debris fallen from the ceiling.
Children, from a Soviet Utopia?
Many hands, and some contemplation...
Soviet, might & military, parts of the mosaics have been erased on purpose.
These guys with rocket launchers might have been protecting the nation from evil capitalists!
Who were these men?
A grand view to be enjoyed only by the birds!
The girls admiring the amazing views from the now smashed sweeping windows.
So we explored as much of the structure as we were able, with one tiny torch & a cigarette lighter & the flashes on our cameras....
then reflected on the experience out in the warm sun..
One last look at the entrance, wondering what those fallen letters were saying,
a crumbling Proclamation?
Even as we walked back down the hill, we found them... scattered
Bizarre it was! and so we left, a day we will remember for a long time.
imagine)
The main entrance with a blatant statement.
I so want to get up there & paint the words NEVER above.
Reminds me of the quote;
"The first thing we learn from history, is we learn nothing from history"
The main entrance was barred & locked.
But we found another entrance, a broken window around the side,
& made our way into the basement.
I forgot my torch!! :(
Maarten, from the Netherlands, climbing & peering out one of the windows
All the walls & floors are made of marble! nothing was spared building this monument!
Entering the main auditorium. The whole sight was a surreal experience, a grand & huge structure, abandoned!
In the middle of the ceiling is the sickle & hammer, ironic that the hard labor & thousands upon thousands of dollars of the "common" people went into something that is now falling apart and despised by the masses.
All around the insides of the building were these intricate & beautiful tile mosaics.
& debris fallen from the ceiling.
Kerian the Australian about to make his Socialist propaganda speech!
Children, from a Soviet Utopia?
Many hands, and some contemplation...
Soviet, might & military, parts of the mosaics have been erased on purpose.
These guys with rocket launchers might have been protecting the nation from evil capitalists!
Who were these men?
Who was this??
No, I know the guy standing there ;) it's the one that has been erased from the wall & as the revolutionary hopes, history as well. It seems they want to forget their failed leaders...
A grand view to be enjoyed only by the birds!
The girls admiring the amazing views from the now smashed sweeping windows.
So we explored as much of the structure as we were able, with one tiny torch & a cigarette lighter & the flashes on our cameras....
then reflected on the experience out in the warm sun..
One last look at the entrance, wondering what those fallen letters were saying,
a crumbling Proclamation?
Even as we walked back down the hill, we found them... scattered
Bizarre it was! and so we left, a day we will remember for a long time.
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