Like I said earlier, I’ve developed a reputation among my friends for touring Finland and visiting abandoned buildings. I call my long roadtrips and explorations simply adventures. And I often get asked the question: when do we go on an adventure?
Once again I was asked this question, and I again had something in mind. There was a rather large abandoned building a few hours away, which I wanted to visit. And my friend loved national parks. So we agreed that we’d spend two days in my summer car. First we’d drive to the building, sleep on the roadside somewhere and the following day we would go hiking in a national park.
We agreed that we wouldn’t be in a hurry. We didn’t take the large roads, but insted opted for the old highway, which is now a regional route. Usually some interesting things can be found by them.
And how right we were.
This is an old petrol station. According to old maps and old aerial photos it appeared in the 1970’s. A new highway was built in the late 1980’s demoting this road to a regional route, which obviously made business a bit difficult.
We didn’t know the date of abandonment just quite yet.
Somebody’s keys were in the area. My guess is that they belong to a fellow urbexer, not the actual service station. You will soon notice, why.
So here’s the station building. It took me a while to figure out, which brand it had been, but it was a former Esso. Thank you, Google!
All the windows were smashed including in the upstairs. People haven’t treated this place well.
Another selfie. Why do I always wear the same shirt while exploring?
Either the chair was very old or very dirty. Or both. It didn’t look very tempting.
The station was pretty small by modern standards.
Behind the station was a small terrace, where people have been enjoying their coffee breaks during summers.
It looks like somebody tried to break the lock in all possible ways. In the end they’ve just broken the window.
And here we go. The station really was pretty modest by modern standards. I guess, I just remember the modern standards.
I’m not sure if they are window panels or tabletops, but they are smashed.
It looks like the place has found residential use after refuelling ended. The nest was empty, though.
A candy catalogue, but there’s something strange about the prices. They are in marks, which were used in Finland before the euro until 2001. And quite right, the text on the top says that the prices are valid in the autumn of 2000.
I had to google what that box has contained. It’s a system for analyzing contaminated soil. That’s something you have to do at abandoned petrol stations, so it wasn’t really a surprise to find one here.
So a contamination analyzing system and a can of pea soup. And this adds up to…
An ice cream ad.
And here’s another one with the prices written on it. Again in marks. This place surely can’t have been abandoned for 20 years?
The magazine doesn’t have a date on it but the ad in the lower part of it tells to buy euro coin holders on time. Even this must be from the early 2000’s.
A look behind the counter.
A mailbox? Inside?
To be continued.