I thought the tattooed building I explored in Bratislava was a sensation, but when I saw it, I just assumed that all the art appeared after the building was abandoned. And obviously a lot of it was. But it never occurred to me the possibility that some of the painting may have been created while people were still living there. This thought didn’t pop into my head until we came across this:
(click on the composites to see 'em in their larger glory)
It’s where or friend Mark lives, and we kill a couple hours here. At first I figure it’s a squat, but apparently the 12 people that live here all pay 50€ a month. I’m not sure that the 9 dogs pay any rent. There was actually more dog food in the house than human food. Which is understandable, seeing as there’s no way I would risk ingesting anything other than hard alcohol in this house, just cause that’s guaranteed to be, and stay, sterile.
It’s a fascinating place, and I feel like a bit of an ungrateful dick when the first thing I think is “you’ve got to be kidding me”. The entire house is decorated inside and out, and not just with spray-painted images. Plastic fish, old band posters, anarchistic slogans, magazine cutouts, and anything else that could be pasted or nailed to the wall was up on display.
In the end though, I had to spend most of my time outside. I can’t decide if I loathe the smell of wet dog or the smell of wet dog food more. Both seem to fill my nostrils and invade my olfactory lobes - at first I can stand it, but the scent doesn’t just enter and leave with each breath, it persists and pervades until my head is heavy with the pungent fog. It’s a bit like being in a small Subway™ while they’re baking bread. It’s just not for me.
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