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 seen anything like it. i would have converted right then
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.
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 - that opportunity can happen anywhere everyday. 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”
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