The old villa

The old villa is a place long forgotten, and very hard to find information about. We weren't even sure if it actually still existed until we stumbled over it in the middle of the forest, after almost an hour of walking and searching. 

First, we got out of the car at the side of a field, took our backpacks and started walking. We were lost from the moment we started walking 😀 I swear I was sure we were walking in the wrong direction, nothing looked like the directions we had been given. I was already in the "at least it's a relaxing walk" part of my mental decline when we stumbled over one of the locals and asked it for the way:

These little critters are huge! I never knew from just pictures that they are the size of my fist! It was very helpful though, and told us to just keep walking a bit longer, then head into the forest on the left. Very nice guy!

After a while, we found a little forest path to the left and decided to try it out, that sounded like the directions we had been told - but even still, I couldn't see anything quite literally until we stumbled over the building. I always love that about lost places, sometimes they are right next to the road, but you would never know unless you take a wrong turn, and even many of the locals have no idea that a place exists. That is always part of the fascination for me, how many places there might be right next to us that we don't know about. 

Anyway, when we finally found the old villa, it looked... not in such a good state. It was pretty trashy and partly overgrown, and at first it looked like it was impossible to get inside without breaking anything 😕 

Everything was locked up and boarded up tight, but we found a way to get in through a window on the second floor.

Together, we managed to climb in over the roof and through a window - pre-broken by a friendly previous explorer. I nearly cut the inside of my thighs on some glass shards climbing through, but thankfully nothing happened and we were inside. 

It was very fascinating to see the tiny, narrow, cramped rooms, contrasted with the super high ceilings. There was an echo in this tiny room because it was so high up until the ceiling

It took two staircases just to get down to the first floor. The steps were surprisingly usable, I only feared for my life a little bit 😅

Once we made our way down to the first floor, we found something truly fascinating. Someone before us had torn down the wallpaper from the walls (seriously? 🙄), but that turned out amazing as it uncovered super old newspapers under the wallpapers. I had heard of people doing that long ago, but I have actually never seen it myself until today. 

We spent like an hour reading about "Advice in tax questions" from 1926 (!) 

This is my favorite find of this trip for sure! Also, there was a super cringe advert somewhere "how to make your wife happy" that recommended buying shoe polish 🤣 

On our way out, I found this piece of moss on a tree. It isn't special, but I liked it.