Finding Our Way to Special K
Special K, Control room, Budapest, Hungary.
We're in Budapest, Hungary, but our precise location is even more intriguing than that. In fact, it's very special!
“Special K” is legendary. Once you've seen a picture of its green Art Deco control room, you’ll want to visit it. Every detail in the room looks like something from an old science fiction movie, with all its hundreds of dials and levers, but in addition, the room has a decorative elliptical light ceiling that allows light to filter into the room directly from above - and it’s precisely this light that makes this rooms atmosphere so special.
Now, my friend Kata and I are here in the control room, waiting for that light. It is still dim, and we can hear the faint, steady hum of the power plant's machinery and it is actually a bit unnerving because we both are used to complete silence in abandoned places.
It is a very early Sunday morning, we have done our homework well and managed to get here without any incidents and unnoticed by the guards. The power plant is active, and the area is under surveillance. The control room is located in an abandoned building on the power plant’s grounds, which is connected to the operational parts of the plant. Just a few years ago, guided tours were organized here, but those days are now over, we have to help ourselves.
It's not as easy to get here as you might think. Even if you do get to the area, you can't just walk into the control room; first you have to find it.
By “doing our homework well,” I mean figuring out the route to the room. In other words, we have watched videos of the power plant, reviewed, rewound, and internalized them. Late the previous evening, we made our final plan in a nearby hotel and woke up at three in the morning to execute that plan.
Now we have reached our goal, we are here in this weird green room, and it is absolutely incredible. I am full of adrenaline, wide awake and my clothes are dusty and oily. Dawn is gradually breaking, and we start taking photos.
Let's not go into too much detail about the route, nor describe its stages in chronological order, but if I say that the route has everything one could wish for, I’m not lying at all. Dust and darkness. Dense thickets followed by open areas that must be crossed quickly because there is direct visibility from the active part. Claustrophobically low concrete intermediate floors where you crawl through oily dust and dusty oil. Narrow, rusty and unnervingly creaking metal bridges over old deep cooling ponds. High fences and tangled barbed wire. Gaps that need to be crossed and drops into dark voids. Small windows you need to quickly slip through. Ladders in narrow shafts that require both hands to climb, with a flashlight held in your mouth. Gloomy corridors with concrete floors covered in scrap metal that must be traversed silently. It is all just perfect! Finally, you climb up the stairs to the control room through a opening in its floor, breathe its stale air, and above you, a beautiful skylight arches magnificently.
The better you know the route, the faster you reach your destination. Every minute in a guarded area is an increasing risk of getting caught, and directly takes away from the time you dare spend photographing the place. What took about 20 minutes now could easily have taken an hour or more. I believe that if we hadn't figured out the route in advance, we might not have found the room at all, because not all sections of the route were obvious.
We photograph the space at the same time, but from different sides of the room. While photographing, we are very aware of our surroundings. We try to be as quiet as possible, and besides the power plant's steady hum, only the sound of our camera shutters can be heard in the room. We hear a few random bangs from somewhere near and that makes our hearts race, but they are probably caused by birds or a cat, or maybe an open window somewhere that the wind occasionally slams shut. Fortunately, no one steps into the room while we are there.
The fear that someone might step in is constant. We have no way of knowing if someone has seen us in the area either from their window or on possible cameras - in which case it is only a matter of time before a guard arrives. We had previously agreed that we would photograph efficiently and spend about an hour taking photos before leaving the site. And that's what we do.
The journey back along the same route goes even faster than the way in, everything is already familiar. And we know we have succeeded when we are outside the area. We did it!
Life is about fleeting moments, and at their best, they are very, very special. These moments come only once and never return. In the future, I might have another entry to another place, but it will be a different story with different emotions. I plan to visit Special K again to take more photos in July, as we will pass through Hungary on our way back to France. But nothing beats that first impression, and it will be less intense then. That's why it's crucial to immerse yourself fully when things happen. Savor every detail, embrace the emotions, and let yourself be present. Because once they pass, you'll be grateful you truly lived in that moment.
