Ben's Photo Blog: Exploring Salou; Hotel Cala Vina

I should of gone back in..................I should of gone back in.

We've recently been on holiday, Laura and I, to Salou in Spain. The weather was hot and the food was good, what more can you ask for?

When walking back from a meal in the local resort we walked past a hotel that was abandoned.......result!

Laura, kindly waited as I jumped over the fence surrounding the hotel and searched for an open door, I didn't find one though.

A couple of days later I decided to have another look. I started by going round the back and taking a selfie.

Real exploring clothes, swimming shorts and a vest

I then walked around the site and climbed up a low level building. It was then when I see possible entry point. The downside, I had to climb again to get to it, not so easy when you've got short shorts on and a camera bag hanging off your shoulder.

Oh well.

First I had to balance on a flimsy open ventilation pipe that was just wide enough that if I fell in I would be stuck, I mean really stuck considering no one would know where I was. The next step was to push off of a wall and then jump to a very unstable piece of scaffolding. The scaffolding wasn't supported at the end I was to climb up on, when I put weight on it moved and sunk and swayed. I really had to either man up and go for it or just give up.

I went for it and jumped and balanced on my stomach before I brought my leg up and climbed. Rough work when I was in little shorts.

So I was on the scaffolding but I still had to get in. The way in was a small opening made by pushing a piece of boarding back, getting on my knees and crawling through.

Safe to say it was absolutely roasting inside. I mean damn it was hot.

The corridor I crawled into. The gap i crawled through is on the left hand side.

My goal was to run upstairs and get on the roof, I was stopped immediately on the next floor up, an ALARM. To say it was surprising is an understatement. There was no way I was going up on the roof to then have police or security turn up when I had no other way of getting down.

I lost my bottle!

So I turned round and went down stairs to the ground floor.

It was weird.

The reception and office behind looked as though the hotel employees had downed tools one day, turned off the lights and locked the doors behind. I mean everything was still there; computers, paperwork, pens, pencils, you name it.

The alarm was still going off and it was dark, not ideal for photography as I felt rushed so I didn't have time to swap lenses, I just took 2 shots and another selfie and then ran back upstairs to get out. I had crawl out and jump down yet.

I really wish I went back in, I just know that there would be a dining room full of tables and chairs and kitchen full of pots and pans. That's not too mention the guest rooms, there was probably 100 of them.

I did however take a couple of shots of the outside.