References to satan, meth, and dildos are scrawled on the walls. Trash, tattered clothing, and furniture parts cover the floor around a stained mattress, a pile of dried shit in the middle, punctuated through the center with a wooden spike. Urban exploring is not for the squeamish or those easily frightened.
It's dirty and often dangerous so what makes it so much fun? Urbex sites (like this one in the Netherlands www.urbex.nl) attract others who love it too, so I know I am not alone. On a recent expedition I was treading carefully over shards of glass and rusty nails muttering to myself to watch every step and beware of used needles. It sounds crazy, but just the thought of wandering an abandoned house or factory...or as my latest partner shared...a former animal hospital in Belgium...makes my heart race with anticipation.
Is it the danger? The thrill of a forbidden act? Sure that's part of it. For me, it is the story a place tells...the stories of the owners, the workers, the place and time, even the squatters who lived there long after the original inhabitants left.