Week 3: Urban Exploring

Greetings, readers! I'm Martyna and this is my first post on this blog, so please share your thoughts if boredom level hits your high point or my monologue sounds like gibberish to you. In my presentations, I would like to share with you my knowledge and passion in one exciting matter - extreme tourism! Sounds dangerous? Well, it should, but it also gives a lot more fun than anything a travel agency can provide... For some people, at least.

I have always been passionate about traveling. When I was younger, I saved all the money I got or earned to spend it during the summer. Every June, when the school gates closed, I packed my bags to go anywhere, and by "anywhere" I really meant it, sometimes getting into the first train that arrived on my station. My parents were mad at first, but as they were the same in their younger days, I soon got my permission to go abroad, where the real adventures began.

Fortunately, you don't have to go far away or spend a lot of money to start your own adventure with extreme tourism. Have you ever heard of the term "urbex" or "building hacking"?

There are a lot of fascinating places in every town or city, but most of them are unknown to the public. People tend to have a minimum knowledge of places they live in, and in the meantime, few groups of urban explorers go from city to city to discover every underground tunnel, bunker or beautiful interiors of abandoned buildings, which often are ignored by those who live nearby. Ventures into uninhabited spaces are often followed by photographic documentation, as a lot of urbex fans are also talented photographers or camera operators. You can see some examples of their work on ukurbex.com, a special discussion board created to share experiences connected with urban exploration.

This form of extreme tourism has a huge group of supporters in Poland. Our country attracts a lot of foreigners interested in this matter - Wrocław is listed next to Paris and London in terms of the amount of places to discover! Did you know that Germans basically wanted to build the "second Wrocław" underground, with bunkers connected by streets huge enough to handle a car traffic? They began their work during the Second World War and unfinished results still are under the real streets of the city.

But the real pearl in the urbex universe lies not far away from the Polish border. Chernobyl - famous for the tragic disaster that caused a massive radiation in the central part of Europe and resulted in evacuation of the whole city of Prypyat. Ventures into the  radiated area began almost 20 years ago, when first hitchhikers and bikers published their journey diaries on the Internet. Holding Geiger's counters in their hands, they put their health at risk just to explore the "post-apocalyptic" region. They also helped to secure this terrain by counting radiation levels. Now, dangerous areas are protected by special signs and the disaster site is a lot safer. However, there is no chance to get there alone (I tried :-) ) - journeys without a special guide were forbidden after last year's accident, when two urban explorers tried to take photos inside one abandoned house and the floor collapsed.

What do you think of this kind of tourism? Do you consider it a crime of private property trespassing, or is it ok if the place is uninhabited? Have you ever had a chance to enter an abandoned building, and if so, how was it?