Anyone else here like ghost towns and abandoned buildings?

I have always found them very fascinating. Unfortunately the only ghost town here is on Svalbard. I've never been there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramiden


I'd love to see one if it wasn't full of other visitors; people would just destroy the sensation I'm after.

I like reading and watching footage about them when I'm in the mood to be creeped out. But if given the opportunity to explore a place that is haunted, I'd respectfully decline. I'm a total wuss when it comes to that stuff.

I like them too. I've never been to one, but I like to read about it on the internet. There's a Livejournal community here where people post pictures and stories about abandoned places all over the world. (You can read it even if you're not a member)

Some interesting ones :

Kolmanskop, Namibia, a ghost town in the middle of the Namib desert:
http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/ne ... ghost-town
and more pictures here: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Categ ... mannskuppe

Centralia, Pennsylvania, a ghost town now because of an underground mine fire (the fire's still burning)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania
and pictures here: http://acidcow.com/pics/1177-centralia- ... -pics.html

There are a lot more, but I can't post them all ofcourse

Great thread! I love abandoned buildings, and I've been exploring stuff like that ever since I can remember whenever I would get the chance. I've never been to a ghost town, but I would definitely love to!

A friend of mine not long ago went to an old derelict military base. It has an old hospital & stuff as well. Maybe I'll post the pics up later if she lets me... oh wait I don't want to give my identity away on here oh well, pointless post .

I love abandoned buildings. I'd like to enter an abandoned asylum, especially at night.

Yeah, hanging out in an abandoned asylum would be awesome - except I think I'd prefer to during the day, .

strange.. there's a new ad campaign from levis in which people look around at deserted run down homes and buildings make some comments about how sad it is, then put the levis logo on at the end. i said that i didn't think levis was going to sell many jeans with those ads. this article makes me side with the exploitation criticisms, what do you think?
http://boringpittsburgh.com/boring-pittsburgh/levis-braddock-pa-ad-campaign/

Count me in - at night!

I wish I could explore abandoned buildings. With no one there to harass me, I can be alone with my thoughts.

We won't! But can you deal with it - at night, Noth?

What? Pshh, yeah, of course. I only said I'd prefer to go during the day because that way no monsters or ghosts or anything could hide in the dark if I decided to kick their asses.

Yeah, actually one of my goals for this year is to explore an abandoned building or something like that. My friend is also interested, so hopefully we can figure something out when we have free time

I've always found such places fascinating. There's something about the idea of going to a place that people don't go to anymore and the history and decay of the place that plays on my imagination.

Anyway, if I do manage to fulfil this goal of mine, I might post some pics or videos.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/canada/alberta/blairmore.html

I do wish I had more people who were naturally into exploration like you guys.

Not only because it's cool, but a lot of older buildings around here are practically falling apart. It's always a good idea to bring a friend when you're in urban exploration.

Yes, especially since I have had no experience with urban exploration, I would only be willing to do so with someone else.

Also - wow, that's another reason to go to Canada now . That looks pretty awesome.

I remember stumbling upon this article about Prypiat and I just couldn't stop staring at the pictures. An abandoned city as night is probably as close to Silent Hill as you can get. *gets an urge to shout "road trip!"* Anyway, some places in that city remind me so much of the hospital in Session 9



There are loads of pictures here if anyone's interested. (It takes a while to load, though.)

Believe it or not, I actually live in Coleman. It's not listed as a ghost town, but believe it or not, we have a lot of older buildings, some dating as far back as the early 1900's.

You're more than welcome here. =)



True, if you're going for the otherworld feel. We get a nice fog here now and again. Walking back home either in the early morning in spring or late evening in the fall, when no one else is around? You start to feel alone. And it feels great.

To be honest, i'm quite interested in the idea now that i've read this thread, i would really like to do it, but unfortunately in my city there are not that many abandoned buildings and i would only be willing to do it with a friend that had experience with that (of course i don't have such friend offline) for the first times at least, but i would like to do it by myself as well, but i think there are some things that would make it difficult to me (the fear of getting assaulted, my social akwardness, all supeficial problems).

Damn, I wish I saw this thread sooner. This is one of the things I love doing when I meet up with my friends.
We have traveled quite a distance over scotland exploring many abandoned sites.

We have found and walked many abandoned railway tunnels, hidden underneath the city of glasgow.
Explored three abandoned hospitals, one an infectious deseises treatment facility another a burns / psychiatric
treatment center with a fully abandoned village that used to house the patients. They were in glasgow and by
livingston. The last truily memorable place we went was a long forgotten monestary (huge temple) built in the
center of a forest on the west coast.

If anyone is in scotland and wants some directions to them just PM me.

On the plus side, I generaly forget all of my anxieties while im doing urban exploration like these. I would
highly encourage others to give urban exploration a try, its amazing some of the things you get to see while
doing it. Just remember to take care around these old locations, they are extreemly dangerous.

Just out of curiosity Pantheon, in what sense would you say they're dangerous? (i of course imagined they would be, but i feel curiosity towards the general/particular stuff)

I have found in most cases arsonists have almost always gotten to these places before we explore them so lots of support structures are usually burned out and decayed. For instance, when we explored an underground ROTOR bunker close to my house, a huge fire had caved in 3 stories of iron reinforced concrete. That left a huge pit that we had to skirt around. There is also almost always glass around, and occasional needles lying on the ground.
In some other buildings we have been in, they had wooden rafters and floorboards that had been exposed to the weather leaving the soft under foot. In a multi-story building you can figure out how bad that probably is. In two locations I have been there has been asbestos insulation disintegrating (common because of the age of these buildings) and if inhaled it is toxic and can cause cancer so I've been told. We had to ware gas masks when we were exploring the ROTOR bunker because of it.

The people I have done this with seem to get scared that they might encounter dangerous people in some of these locations, but actually we have never run into anyone threatening. In the unlikely event you encounter other people, they are generally explorers too, taking lots of photos.

Also getting into some locations can be a little tricky so generally I think its a good idea to make sure you have a couple of people to help each other out if it involves climbing. Its a good idea to pack lots of torches too, I've needed one almost every time I've been out.

On the flip side, I find my anxiety pretty much disappears while I am doing this kind of thing, I don't really know why.

For some reason i imagine you and your friends must have looked like a comic book in that moment .



I can quite see how many people would fear that, and i'm no stranger to that, to be honest to you, that was one of the main reasons i was asking you, this relieves me a lot, thanks pantheon!



I can see with all the structural dangers that you mentioned that it might be risky to do that by yourself, but it seems that if you come prepared and are paying attention, you don't have much to worry around.

Again, I find myself envious of the Scottish.
As for me, there aren't much higher pleasures than strolling around in abandoned buildings that are already falling to pieces at night. Just exploring every corner until I find a nice one to sit down, suck up the atmosphere, become part of the scenery and can drift apart in either thoughts or calm nothingness. Wish there was something like this around here now.
Guess, I could even make myself at home at the Chernobyl site, if it wasn't for the food supplies.
A bunker or air-raid shelter can even serve as a decent housing, in my opinion, but makes you paranoid after a while.

Here is a few photos for those that are interested: