House full of memories (part 3), Salo, Finland

One of the funniest things was a Swedish barometer that expresses today's mood of the house's lady. The arrow was pointing to "angry"! I also liked how the fireplace's paint was breaking away like a rose flower. The postcards on the writing desk revealed that the house was inhabited at least in the year 1984. It really is a huge mystery why this place has been abandoned and it's bothering my mind when looking at these photos. The place looked just like someone had left in a hurry, packed quickly some of their clothes and searched for important papers, throwing them all over. Maybe taken some photographs with them as well. They had covered the bed with plastic, though. I guess it is the distinctiveness of this house. It is very clear that here was not living any poor old couple who died and the house was abandoned when their offspring didn't know what to do with it (which seems to be the usual story), but a relatively young, modern and prosperous family. From time when people were allowed to smile broadly in passport photos.

House full of memories (part 2), Salo, Finland

This place definitely wasn't an ordinary Finnish house. It was situated in a thick bush of wild, southern plants like old oaks, the house itself had white plastering, red tiled roof and window shutters which gave me a feeling like being somewhere in Central Europe. Badgers were inhabiting the house nowadays; their paths were clearly visible at one end of the house. Also the interior was very special. There was souvenirs from almost all parts of the world, postcards, photographs and flight tickets from places like Hungary and Hawaii (at a time when Finnish people mostly traveled to Rhodes and Gran Canary). It was natural, though, because the lady that had lived in this house had been working in a travel agency. I had to use my old camera since my new one's only objective was being repaired and I was pissed off because the quality of these photos is quite poor.

House full of memories (part 1), Salo, Finland

Visited by jonahi & skkye 4.7.2013. This house was one of my favourites so far. When we are exploring all these empty places the things most catch my heart are old-smelling books, letters with that hard-to-read handwriting, black and white photos & postcards and worn-out old instruments. In this beautiful house with loads of forgotten stuff were all of them.

Some parts of the floor were so rotten it sank under our feets, the peat inside the roof had turned into mold and spread its odour everywhere. The old piano was out of tune and its sound made the whole place feel surreal. We had that feeling people who had lived in this house had had to leave very quickly and maybe had time to pack just one suitcase with only the most essential things and leave everything else. We made stories about bankruptcy and things like that - tried to play detectives but I think we will never know what happened to them. And it's a good thing. One of the best things with abandoned houses are all the exciting stories that take over my mind when exploring them and which I can believe to because I can't know the truth (which will probably be much more boring).