The name sounds Mediterranean, the looks are kind of Mediterranean, yet the Casa Marina wasn’t anywhere close to Italy, Greece or Spain – but it was still a memorable exploration…
It’s not easy to admit to acting stupid, especially in a public forum like this, but I guess every once in a while we are all guilty of it – and in the greater scheme of life the following story probably ranks a 4 or 5 out of 10; it’s not like I was trying to smuggle drugs out of the Philippines or that I voted for Trump (which would have been double stupid, given his health care plans…).
As you probably know I seriously twisted my knee leaving an abandoned location back in January – the first of the day on an urbex weekend about four hours away from home. Instead of seeing a doctor right away, I pushed forward, resulting in the exploration of the *Kurodake Drive-In*, a surprisingly interesting location. At that point the problem was walking with a rather wobbly knee, but by the time me and my fellow explorers (“It’s probably not that bad!” When did I hear that before? Oh yeah *when I tore a ligament and fractured an ankle* and was told by colleagues that I probably just sprained it, because people wanted to continue to play airsoft instead of driving me to a hospital…) arrived at the Casa Marina, my knee was swollen by about 50%, probably limited by the width of my jeans at that point; and of course it was pretty much stiff in a 90° angle. So what to do with the Casa Marina, an abandoned apartment building construction ruin? Waiting in the car for my friends to finish? Pah, humbug! Instead I used my tripod as a crotch and followed inside – admittedly with some problems, because there were metal spikes sticking out everywhere, trying to fend me off like a rose fends off bugs with its thorns. Not only did I explore the ground floor, I even explored the upper floor and made it another half staircase to the top of the counstruction ruin, where things were prepared for another two or three floors. While exploring I barely felt any pain, I was just happy to be able to explore, despite the obvious injury. The following night though was a living nightmare as I woke up in pain at least once an hour. The next morning I decided to cut the weekend short and returned home as I wasn’t able to walk like the day before – just sitting in the back of the car for 45 minutes to the next Shinkansen station made me sweat like a medieval whore in church. In the weeks that followed I saw half a dozen doctors, used active versions of medical devices I’ve only seen abandoned before, and received absolutely zero healing treatment (!), not even crutches to walk on – just diagnostic stuff and pain killers (which I refused to take, but the doctor insisted me to pay for anyway). Luckily nothing was torn or cracked, so now, four months later, I am able to walk and slowly run without pain, but I am still slow on stairs, always worried that the knee might twist again… which is a horrible feeling. Nothing that limits me much in daily life or while exploring though – since the accident I’ve successfully explored more than two dozen locations and I don’t intend to slow down!
As for the Casa Marina – it was a mid-size construction ruin. I like that kind of locations, so I had quite a good time there, but the king of concrete still is and probably will be forever the *Nakagusuku Hotel Ruin*!
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Abandoned Kansai 
interesting design of the house 😀 not gonna say the exploration given to your leg was a stupid idea,as i think pretty much everyone did something like this at some point 😀
I’m glad I did it, especially since I have a thing for empty concrete shells. I kinda like construction ruins…
I must have neglected to read your post about that knee injury. Goodness, be careful Florian and don’t disable yourself on my account! p.s. I like the death trap pic, gave me a very visceral reaction D:
I think I actually wrote more on Facebook than here about the knee injury, lucky it’s not that much of a deal anyway.
That hole could become really dangerous one day if twigs and more leaves fall on top. Urbex is a rather dangerous hobby… but so rewarding! 🙂
Ah that must be why I didn’t hear about your injury. I don’t use facebook.
I continue to be fascinated with your blog and have had several friends particularly interested in Korea- in a good way. I think Korea needs reassurance that their bombs and stuff re nice and equal to the task and not to always be referred to as slaves and the leader as a freak and that they are always torturing people. I have read there are cultural reasons that they are isolated and think they are the pure Koreans, Also there aren’t many Communist countries left. I would like to see more diplomacy and a picture tells a story even more than a extremely edited movie, lol. Anyway, as long as possible I think diplomacy and getting to know one’s neighbors in the world is good since it is such a closer place than it was since the Korean War, when the U.. tore up almost all of Korea. Would you mind if I ever shared anything of yours on my humble YouTube site. I don’t know if hardly anyone would see it, but maybe eventually :). I mostly have clips from videogames I play.