Big Cedar

The Bureau of Secret Tourism is happy to inform you about the newest executive decision of the Executive Cabinet Task Force In Matters of Internal Affairs to establish a new department in our venerable organisation – The Committee of Recreational Hiking and Countryside Exploration! Effective immediately!

We are happy to present you the pilot project of our newest branch committee – the report of the Big Cedar trail, just north of Vancouver city.

The Big Cedar tree. Its about 600 years old and can give one the idea of what the ancient forest looked like before it was destroyed by the early settlers.

Getting lost can be quite easy, there are markers, but one can easily loose sight of them in the dense shrubbery.

Kennedy falls. Cold air and moisture rush down from the mountains along with the water, making the area around the falls considerably cooler than in the forest above the creek.

In conclusion – A great hike, and a great pilot project for the new committee. Exploring nature is quite different from the usual procedure of dealing with rusted ladders and railings, climbing over barred up fences and avoiding security guards. Indeed the overconfident exploration on my part resulted in a certain amount of falls, soaked shoes and lacerated hands.

But deter us, from exploring new frontiers this shall not!

Exploring Vancouver 1 – Lions Gate Bridge

So… I moved to Canada! If anyone lives in Vancouver and wants to do some exploring, give me a shout.

Children’s hospital / Antakalnis

Today we dive into an abandoned children clinic in Vilnius which is located in a good neighbourhood – Antakalnis.

From outside it looks quite good with beautiful autumn colours enveloping the walls.

When you pass the arch you can see the first sign of abandonment – an old burned up minivan, parked right outside the main gate, but out of pedestrian view. It was once lit on fire and now you can see patches of rust where the flame ate away the paint.

A squeeze through a bared metal door and I’m inside. This clinic is in my old neighbourhood, as a child, and as a teen later, I used to visit it quite often, but now the building is striped and gutted.

The pool area. Time was not kind to this building. Even the floor boards are pried to get to the precious metal underneath.

The smell in some rooms is foul, in some of them the floor is sprinkled with dried shit. There is a plan for renovations, but I was still a little sad to see it in the current state.

As I climb to the second floor I am are greeted by a graffiti which makes quite an impression as the light from the windows behind and above me is reflected by the silver paint.

Delving deeper I stumble upon a sad chalk painted dragon. I guess it was painted before the building was abandoned.

Although almost everything that could have been stolen was stolen or broken, miraculously something of the old spirit still remains.

The roof level floor. The ventilation vents snake around the ceiling, I decide to follow them. As I trudge forward into the dark a pigeon leaps from the top of one of the vents. This is their home now and no one usually disturbs them here.

The door from the roof lay defeated by my feet and the quest is over. A quick look around the roof with nothing impressive to see and its time to go. Walking back I hear footsteps from the floors below me. I freeze, who could that be? Perhaps the homeless or the metal thieves?.. As it turned out it was just a group of teens exploring the spoooky clinic. It seems the place became quite the attraction as i had passed another group of young people when i was getting in (actually they ware the ones who pointed me to the “secret” pried door as I was considering the climb to the second floor via a big, metal framed, glazed window spanning the first 3 floors with a portion cut out in the middle).

The clinic was a nice trip with the added nostalgia bonus, its a shame the building was quite empty and not much remained to see inside, but such is the fate of most buildings and I was lucky to get in when I could because, as far as I know, the reconstruction started not long after my visit.