2024-03-12 32 34

Location

In an abandoned building at the west end of the grounds of the old Haifa Central Bus Station.

Based on Yerushalmi (talk)'s research, the building is *probably* the garage at which buses were serviced. The building was abandoned in 2013 and purchased by the Nitsba Group in 2018. As of January 2019 (the latest Street View) it was still unused and surrounded on all sides by either train tracks or fences. From some angles I can see the building has broken windows and graffiti.

Satellite photographs on both Bing and Google, which are undated but will be more recent than 2019, show no vehicles, construction, or other activity anywhere in the complex - neither the main bus station to the east nor any of the smaller buildings.

Haifa GIS labels the building as having the addresses Hahagana 22 and Hahagana 24. There are a couple of companies listed as having those addresses, which gave me hope - but the pictures uploaded by those companies make it clear they're elsewhere on the street, confirmed by Google Maps. Even Hahagana 20 and 18 are found elsewhere. I haven't checked lower numbers than this.

It's virtually certain that all of the buildings that belonged to the station, including this one, remain completely undeveloped and unused. And probably inaccessible to boot.

Participants

Plans

Yerushalmi

I'd been sick since Saturday morning, though getting better. If I'm feeling okay in the morning, I'll go with my wife to Tel Aviv to drop off her artwork at a gallery, then continue to Haifa to the point, coordinating with MetricSystemDude and / or January First-of-May to meet them there if possible. If my return home is early enough and lucky enough, I might even try to reach 31 34, making this my first two-hash day.

MetricSystemDude

Seeing that Yerushalmi was feeling better, and also having no plans that noon, MetricSystemDude decided to meet up with Yerushalmi (and hopefully with January First-of-May) at the geohash.

January First-of-May

I was heading to Haifa that day anyway, with my mother and brother, to drop said brother off at Technion for a math test. My mom was very receptive to the idea of trying out for the hashpoint, but she did have other plans so it wasn't very clear when we'd get to there. Hopefully early enough that we could still pick up brother from his test and get back home ~~while line 5 is still going~~ at reasonable time.

Expedition

Yerushalmi

I woke up in the morning feeling perfectly fine. I took my temperature - a very, very slight fever of 36.4 degrees. Only an hour later, however, it dropped to my normal body temperature of 35.9. A-hashing I will go!

My wife and I got on the 09:59 train to Modi'in, and from there another train to Tel Aviv (we didn't take the direct route so as to avoid crowds, because I was carrying a large plaster cat and she a large painting).

We took the #4, famously the worst bus in Tel Aviv, to the gallery, dropped off the paintings, and walked back to the train station. Here we parted: me to Haifa, she home to Jerusalem.

Arriving in Haifa, I decided before leaving the train station to see if I could see the building from the platform. It looked as abandoned as in the satellite photos. On the one hand, active construction would probably make it impossible to enter; on the other hand, if it's still abandoned, there are probably fences.

But I didn't come this far to give up. I left the train station, turned right, turned right again, and as I approached the central bus station that looked as abandoned as ever my jaw dropped: to my right, the main roads in and out of the bus station had been turned into a parking lot!

Not "officially", as in there weren't guards or costs or anything like that. It was just open, and dozens of cars were parked along both sides of the road. I could just walk in. This is great!

As I walked down the street, I heard the barking of dogs to my left, inside the abandoned bus station. This will not turn out to be important at all.

At the end of the parking lot, a quick right (the road is still paved) and then a left (the road is still paved) and I'm right there, in front of the building that contains the geohash. As I suspected, it's a massive and old and disused garage for repairing and maintenance of the buses that used to serve this bus station.

I was about to enter when MetricSystemDude called, so instead of trying for the point just yet I gave him directions on how to reach where I was. When he could see me in the distance, I hung up and went inside.

Ah, but we're in Haifa, and thanks to the war the GPS jamming is pretty much non-stop. It's supposed to prevent Hizbullah attacking with its precision-guided missiles, but it also prevents me from knowing where the point is. This time those terrorists have gone too far!

Well, according to the satellite photo, the building is a large pink rectangle, with a small white rectangle attached to its western edge. I can see the white rectangle, it's an outdoor shed-like thing. The point is inside the pink rectangle, opposite the southern edge of the white rectangle.

Easy enough. I walk in, reach where I'm pretty sure is the point, then to be safe walk into the shed and reach the matching opposite side of the wall. I come back out and MetricSystemDude has arrived, so I explain to him my findings; his GPS is jammed too. We take photos and chat for a bit, then I suddenly realize I have only 20 minutes to pick up my wife's artwork from a gallery in Haifa before it closes. I apologize and run off.

At the Dolfin intersection, I miss three different buses that would've been good for me while I'm waiting for the crosswalk to turn green, and a fourth one while I'm crossing. I ended up missing the gallery closing by less than ten minutes; it was entirely locked up and nobody was there.

Dammit.

Nothing to do about that. I walked from the gallery to the train station and took the train to Modi'in, where I planned to try for my next hashpoint of the day: 31 34. But that's a story for another page.

MetricSystemDude

My last expedition took place exactly 1 month ago, so I was excited to join Yerushalmi again. This geohash also took place near a train station in Haifa, which was easy to get to, and also in graticule (32, 34), which I haven't visited before in my geohashing endeavors.

I took bus line 5 to Karmiel's train station, and then the train to Bat Galim train station in Haifa. I called Yerushalmi upon arrival, since he was already at the geohash, and he kindly and professionally assisted me in navigating to the geohash. Our GPS service was spoofed for reasons explained above.

I greeted Yerushalmi upon arrival, we chatted for a bit, and took a few pictures. My adventurous spirit made me suggest the idea of trying to get to the roof, which Yerushalmi wasn't too keen on. Worrying about your personal safety is smart, but oh so boring..

Anyway, Yerushalmi had to run soon after we met, but being a fan of street art, I stayed for a little bit to take more picture of the graffiti in the area, which looked pretty cool! I also explored the building's rooms, including those on the second floor. I tried my best not to wake up any potential squatters, and luckily, there were none - however, I did get jumpscared by a few pigeons, taking off from their nests in the darker corners of the building.

I tried restarting my phone to see if I could get my GPS service to work again to get the proof, since that method worked during my first expedition. However, even after 5 restart attempts, my efforts were in vain - my GPS service was still spoofed. I gave up and started heading back to Bat Galim station.

As I was heading back, I figured I could take an alternative route around a different abandoned building which belonged to Haifa's old bus station, which I passed to my left on the way there. I walked back to its right, examining the different signs of old stores. It was at this moment when I saw a bike, and a few meters to its right, a tow minitruck, both of which looked in a good condition. What I failed to notice were 2 dogs without mouth guards, who started barking at me loudly.

"Oh shit", I thought to myself, and without making any eye contact with the dogs, or making a run for it, I made a a full 180°, and started walking back.

That's when I heard a man's voice yelling at me: "STOP!"

"Oh shit", I thought to myself again. I didn't know if was gonna get mauled to death, or robbed of my pants by a squatter - but I did in fact stop in my tracks. When I turned around, I saw the man who yelled at me was wearing pants, which would have normally been a relief, but I was too scared of the dogs. He told me to keep going forward towards him and back to the main street, not before asking what I'm doing there and assuming I was a little lost - otherwise, what possible reason would I have to be there? As I got closer to my escape route back to the main street, the man was kind enough to keep calling his dogs back so they won't jump me. As I was leaving, the man reassured me: "This dog is nice, it won't harm you. But this one.."

He pointed at the other dog, who loyally stayed back, far away from me - "If this one gets hold of a person, they're wasted". I thanked the man for letting me live another day, and quickly proceeded to Bat Galim train station, from which I took a train back to Karmiel, and then bus line 5 back home.

January First-of-May

Bus 24 to Dolfin Junction. Currently 5ish kilometers away apparently. Would be interested in any information on how to reach the point. -- January First-of-May (talk) @32.7897,34.9974 15:40, 12 March 2024 (GMT+02:00)

Arlozorov street. Haifa is full of traffic jams and we need to cross pretty much the whole city. Now less than 3 km left... -- January First-of-May (talk) @32.8096,34.9967 15:59, 12 March 2024 (GMT+02:00)

Dolfin Junction. Map thinks I'm in Beirut. This might be tricky. -- January First-of-May (talk) 16:19, 12 March 2024 (GMT+02:00)

Grand Kenyon. Expedition successful. I wonder where it's going to put this entry. I don't think the coordinates are right but at least it's the right city. -- January First-of-May (talk) @32.7905,35.0079 18:01, 12 March 2024 (GMT+02:00)

[more detailed description incoming, eventually, hopefully; it was quite an adventure, though fortunately we didn't meet any dogs]

Photos

Yerushalmi

The building with the hash inside it, as photographed from the end of the train platform. Still abandoned, and does not look promising.
The tower of the central bus station, which probably had offices in it at some point.
Surprising parking lot! The abandoned building is accessible! I hear barking dogs to my left. Let's not go that way.
The point is in this building.
Photograph of the rest of the building, from the point
The corner of the room, where the point is
Panorama at the point.
Cables hanging from the ceiling that were presumably used for bus maintenance, somehow. I know nothing of bus maintenance.
I'm guessing these channels in the ground used to hold massive jacks to lift the buses.
From the outside, a view of the white shed on the western edge of the building. I went in to that weird 104 graffiti area, just in case the point was on this side of the wall (but it's almost certainly on the other side).
Proof that I was in Beirut the whole time