it is a massive building and section owned by what i think was a kind of collective, more like a commune then a squat, they bought it for something 1.5 million euros ten years ago, when it was valued at 3 million. i think the government wanted it to be privately owned, so it wasnt squatted or something? bear in mind that this is through deciphering stuff from between language barrier shit, and i could be wrong. it has actually been really annoying though, because some of the places we have seen like this have been really amazing, but i still cant really get a clear idea of how they function and whether or not people pay to live there, or if theyre legal, or whatever. this one was definitely legal though, they owned it outright.
this place was really so cool. there were fifty rooms i think, and about that many people living in the whole place including some young kids. some of the sqat places you see in eastern europe can haev a really militant feel to them, an angry kinda fighting vibe, and be covered in graffitti, they can feel quite intimidating and also a bit transient. i have also thought, that for these places where it is supposed to be an ´alternative´ lifestyle, they can be pretty hung up on what ´mainstream´culture is, and how to go against it, rather than cultivating a unique culture of their own.
this place was not like that at all. it genuinely had a vibe of being a peaceful creative oasis, somewhere where people who didnt like the way a lot of the world worked and functioned, could go to find a healthy and happy alternative, that was its own entity, not something that was purely a knee-jerk reaction to something they thought was evil, or wrong.
there seemed to be a lot of different people around too, not just one uniform way of dressing, which was again different to a lot of what i have seen. there were oldies and youngies, and hippies and kinda stylish girls. this was good too, sometimes at more kinda punk squats, there seems to be a negative feeling attached to woman worrying about their appearances, or wearing slightly revealing or feminine clothes. i mean, this is all fine, but i dislike the fact that in places like that which are supposedly ´anarchistic´, there seem to be a whole lot of rules in place that the people subconciously or conciously adhere to.
so anyway, this place is i think 5 stories high, and looks like it is in two wings. we were staying in some girls room, who had donated it to us for the night, and bunked up with someone else. i think if i lived in this room, i would write the most amazing book, and do the most amazing pictures and pretty much just be the most creative person in the world. it was quite big, had two sets of windows along one wall which looked out over one side of the gardens, there was a loft for the bed and underneath she had a cello i think, and a music stand, like a little music ´zone´, there were these cool looking screens in one corner where she had set up a little lounge area with a tiny coffee table and this really pretty pastel velour furniture, she had a little sink with her makeup and paints and stuff on it, the a desk up against the window with her computer and stuff looking out the window, she had a sewing machine on the floor and little pictures dotted on the walls. it was so cool. on each of our beds set up on the ground, was a little paper origami swan, and a rice snack!
in the morning we went up to this turret almost, to the upstairs kitchen. it was a large room on the top floor that kind of jutted out a little from the rest of the building. it was completely round, and surrounded with windows, with a round table and all this yum food set out, which i didnt eat cause it was too early, and it kind of scares me eating around strangers that early in the morning. to complete the the idyllic-ness, there was an older hippie woman with long wavy grey hair playing guitar at the table, you know, like soothing sounding nylon string guitar. it was kinda cheesy, but straight after i thought that, i cursed myself for being so jaded that i could find something so inoffensive and lovely, cheesy. shame on my name.
after breakfast, lisa, this gorgeous girl who kinda reminded me of J. when she was young and we all werent so old and craggy, took us up on the roof of the round room, to the highest point of the whole place. there was a round deck and deck chairs, and you could hear the wind rustling in the masses of trees below if you looked over the edge.
so basically, i want to live there. or make my own version somewhere. oh the bathrooms.....so all the bathrooms and stuff were nice and new, and even if they werent, they were clean and cool looking. everything looked like someone was looking after if, on each of the stairwells there was plants, or piles and piles of shoes stacked up on shelves, and on the bigger landings or in the foyer parts of the inside, there was cute little lounges set up, with rad looking old furniture. i am trying really hard not to say funky, cause that maeks me sick, but it really was a bit, like old and styley and artsy looking.
heaps of points, for making somewhere great to go, for making a cool life for people that you like.
