#aussiegrunt travel
back in Australia we were technically homeless for a while, and it was cheaper to fly back to europe for 6 weeks than it was to live in expensive-as-fuck Sydney, so without telling him where we were going i took my boy to the middle of Turkey, the land of the giant cocks. the euphemistically named ‘Love Valley’
Kapadokya (Cappadoccia), Turkey
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hired to be an #alphamale on show for the night, tonight I ate #paella and #pussy. thanks #canberra. it’s been real classy like
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Inside Buzludja (feat Burial ‘kindred’)
we picked up Murdoch from Sofia Airport and over the next couple of days slowly drove to the mountains. we briefly stopped at Shipka, a monument on top of a mountain that is a proud point in their history were Bulgaria fought off the Serbs (?) and the Ottomans. tourists of all ages were here, it was very busy with people proudly enjoying the view in all directions but this one - no one would even look in the direction of the enormous crumbling UFO shaped building on Bulgaria’s highest mountain, Buzludja
ignoring roadblocks and warning signs, within in an hour were finally at this building i had become obsessed with for the last 2 years because of this post. for a while after that it had become the Holy Grail of Urban Explorers around the world
we scratched around the building and could find no way inside. any entry had been bricked up or sealed off with thick metal bars. for about an hour we thought of a few ways to get inside, but none would get us inside the dome.
i was a little disappointed and a little pissed. we had driven for days to get here. i threw a bit of a tantrum. bashing on walls, throwing bits of wood, kicking rocks. as i kicked one rock away i threw my foot down on a sheet of wood that was laying underneath it and i fell through the ground
landing balls first to the ground, huge scratches up my bloody leg and metal rod millimetres from ripping through my calf, but i was nothing but pissing myself with excitement - i had found a hidden passage inside
it was a 5 metre drop straight down into the basement. we drove into the nearby town to get rope, braved dirt-faced street urchins in the Lidl car park, approached a nearby lodge about accommodation but after 2 minutes of talking to the manager inside and looking at the decor realised it was a hunting lodge for a militant fringe white pride political group and by the time we decided to camp in the forest near to the HQ it was sundown
while the boys set up camp and cracked open the €4 bottle of Lidl vodka they had come to love so much, i couldn’t wait and walked back to UFO alone
it such an impressive, brutal and intimidating building that i would have converted to communism right there. they knew what they were building here. it has an awesome and sinister power as you approach it. i have not seem anything like it
the next morning as we approached clearly equipped to get inside, there was a young couple and their infant son standing outside. they were locals and thought it better to talk to them an assure the we weren’t there to cause damage - and i’m so glad we did
the father spoke english very well and unlike any other bulgarians wanted to talk about the place. he used to come here as a child. it was like Scouts but compulsory for young bulgarians to be initiated in ceremonies held here. the building was largely ceremonies and most of the time went unused. he couldn’t fully describe how beautiful it was back then, but assured us many times how amazing it used to be inside. it is now a part of their history they do not want to remember, so they refuse to look at it and wait for it to crumble. they wished us good luck and we busted inside
the rest you can see here.
except this:
i had been waiting a long time. the few opportunities i had were either the wrong time or just didn’t have the impact i wanted. when i got the Irish Elk alone inside the dome, after a few minutes of him wide eyed and bewildered by all the beautiful decay, i called him over to me, wrapped my arms around him and for the first time told him 'i love you’. it’s not a big deal for most people, but it sure is for me. i almost never say it. i only say it when i mean it. we had known each other for 12 years and been together 6 months. any son of a bitch can say it at a restaurant or at sunset. for me it to be somewhere fucking amazing that no one had or ever will say something to him like that again.
it was a big deal for him too because it scared the shit out of him. “oh fuck,” he said as two bearded men just kissed underneath the giant hammer and sickle, “i don’t think the commies were expecting this”
so why the fuck am i posting all this? partly to boast and gloat, but also when i’m hooking i try to show guys the best possible time i can and in return i don’t blow the cash i earn on new shoes or getting fucked up or pissing it up the wall. i don’t waste it. i spend it weird as fuck holidays and experiences like this
Former Bulgarian Communit Party HQ. Buzludja, Bulgaria
this is what we had really come to Bulgaria for!
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inside the dome of former BUlgarian Communist Party HQ
pics of mosaics in their original state here
Buzludja, Bulgaria
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mosaics outer ring, inside red star and top of the tower
(i love the cow mosaicbombing the second pic)
pics of mosaics in their original state here
Former Bulgarian Communist Party HQ. Buzludja, Bulgaria
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Bulgaria has 4 types of advertising
1 - sexy chicks
2 - ruggedly handsome men looking metrosexual classy
3 - poorly photographed children that is clearly the offspring of the owner of the cheap-ass company being advertised
and very rarely 4 - the actual product (usually paired with a sexy chick)
it’s just a fucking calculator
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Bulgaria was a strange place
if you love crumbling brutal communist architecture, impoverished cities, beaches, beautiful landscapes and snowcapped moutnians. slightly weary and suspicious but surprisingly friendly people. if you love your women hard faced and your men to look like roided up biker thugs, wrestlers, nightclub bouncers who are all still underworld figures and moonlight as part of the local white power metal band (like i do) then this is the country for you!
i fucking loved this place
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not-so-blue danube
nerves shot to shit from Romania’s hellish roads and their nightmarish driving, we crossed the Danube to Vidin, Bulgaria
my holiday beard was growing into a wild ginger elizbethan frill
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Prometheus above Vidraru dam, Transylvania
not far from the real Dracula’s castle. the castle is in ruins and we couldn’t be fucked climbing a few thousands step to see more ruins. this was far more surprising and interesting
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camping on the side of the transfaragassan road amongst the wild horses
