She Paints Tiny Masterpieces in Her Empty Altoids Tins

Two years ago, Heidi Annalise quit her government job in Washington DC and returned to her home state of Colorado to paint– out of handheld mint cans. She spends most of her days “frolicking in meadows” and painting the wilderness and has since managed to rack up an Instagram following of more than 50K with her adorable…

If Only the Decaying Walls of the Iconic Red Apple Rest Stop Could Talk

The Red Apple Rest was not just any old roadside diner. Open 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, the perfect half way stopping point between New York City and the Catskills Mountains, it became an unlikely hub of talent and a hangout for entertainers in a region that from the 1920s until the 1970s, was derogatively referred to…

Inside a Real-Life Miss Havisham Mansion For Sale

It’s quite an exciting moment when you find that mysterious, abandoned house you’ve been stalking on the internet over the years– never quite certain whether it even really, truly exists– finally appearing on a realtor’s listing, announcing its officially going up for sale. The Howey mansion in Florida is a bit of local legend, built by the 1920s citrus tycoon…

How to Crash a Party at the Communist HQ in Paris

In my ongoing effort to prove that us Parisians aren’t forever sitting around red-chequered table cloths wearing berets and drinking red wine in our leisure time, here’s just about the strangest thing you can do in Paris this weekend: Dress up like a Soviet Cosmonaut and crash a party at the Communist Headquarters in Paris. First of all,…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today Vol. CCXXXII)

1. Inside Bangkok’s First Ever Department Store, Frozen in Time Built in the 1960s, Bangkok’s Nightingale-Olympic store remains unchanged today, preserved in its retro state In Bangkok’s lustrous, tech-fluent cityscape…it remains – madly and somewhat mightily – untouched, refusing to modernize its distinctive Brutalist façade, sun-bleached signage and novel interiors. Full photostory by Phil Dunlop…

Any Takers on this Historic Brothel For Sale?

I‘m always on the hunt for the most unusual properties on the market. We’ve found old churches, lighthouses, trains and entire ghost towns, but never before have we come across an old brothel for sale. And ain’t she a beauty! The small town of Wilkeson in Washington has a current population of under 500 and was…

Oh, Just Harvesting Edible Mushrooms inside an Abandoned Water Park

We don’t hear enough follow-up stories about abandoned places that find happy endings, but today I came across a familiar derelict site from my archives that has secured itself a bright future. The last time I stumbled upon the old Tropicana water park in Rotterdam, it looked as if the mould was making itself quite comfortable around the edges…

What became of America’s Drive-Thru Fotomat?

Remember these? Once upon a time, in an era when mankind had to wait an unimaginable 24 hours to see how holiday snaps and selfies had turned out, there was … the trusty Fotomat. A bright and compact little kiosk easily recognisable by its pyramid-shaped gold-coloured roof, usually positioned in a large parking lot outside a…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. CCXXXI)

1. England’s Smallest Castle is For Sale This is Molly’s Lodge, a Grade II Listed castle that sits on a 0.61 acre plot of land near the village of Long Compton in Warwickshire. Originally a gatehouse for the Weston Park Estate on the northern edge of the Cotswolds, Molly’s Lodge was built by the famous…

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This Ghost Town was aiming Nuclear Missiles at America from just 200km Away

When looking at abandoned places, I often think, ‘how sad’, and, ‘if only it could come back to life’. This place? Not so much. This is the secret Soviet city of Gudym, which once held enough nuclear weapons to wipe out half a continent. And during the height of the Cold War, had things gone south,…

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