**not sure how much I should follow the rules on this, given it's a live location, but I've redacted anything that could identify the site, besides the photos. I know it's an old location, but it was my first visit and damn, is it ever nice! spooky and old, yet quite well-travelled.
Another tale of adventure and mischief, this time within the city rather than above it. I'm sure that most of you are familiar with this site, and I've been told that for awhile it was inaccessible.
Hint: It's not.
It all started when I wandered over on my break from work. I had an hour to burn, and few responsibilities during that time. “Why,” I asked myself, “don't I just hop to an easy rooftop to eat my dinner?”
So I chose a fairly well-known location, and gave it a go. I reasoned that, even if I failed, I might learn something.
And then a co-worker (who knows of my habits) wanted to tag along.
So there we were, sauntering our way in. We made a wrong turn at one point, taking the wrong staircase. Backtracking, we simply crossed the <redacted> and cheated: we took the <redacted>.
And <redacted> all the way up.
We never made it to the roof, but were able to quickly scout out the location. When we were caught it was incredibly easy to play dumb, and I got loads of valuable information out of the person who caught us.
Fast-forward two nights later, and I meet up with my good friend Spotlight Buddha. With a backpack full of roof-beers and a well-dressed, confident demeanour, there was no POE. We simply walked in.
At first it was a little bit confused: we were forced out on the wrong floor, and then had to march with pure confidence past an employee, around the corner, and into the stairwell.
A dead-ended stairwell.
Eventually though we did make it to the top floor: we made our way to the ballroom, the bare fluorescents hanging from the ceiling and the original details fading away quickly under the duress of time.
We took some photos:
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and then continued on our merry way. Our goal was the rooftop, reputedly one of the best locations in the city (with this, I'd have to agree: the view was wonderful, the scale was intimate, and the access was comfortable).
We enjoyed the city views, and had interesting talk while watching the storm approach the city:
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As the rain began to fall, so we descended back to the focus of our explore. The ballroom was the only space that was lit, and so we were able to hide quite easily with the next security patrol.
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All in all, a good night. Certainly, a location I will be happy to return to again and again.
Vanity shots!
16: Spot lookin' like a badass right outa mad max:
17: I could've been a dancer! (Or, I'm full of lies and deceit)
(modification: removing a photo where I can see Spot's face too clearly. Not cool.