Project development - Thinking quick or what happens when weather and web hosting sites are against you

In the previous post I talked about how glad I was to find a whole database with information, addresses and pictures of abandoned houses around Sofia. I even wrote to the page - fading Sofia

 - for collaboration and waited for a response. 

At that point I thought I had done my homework BUT no, nothing like this. 

Imagine my surprise when I searched for it yesterday (Thursday was planned for house-hunting) and saw this message: 

I was absolutely puzzled and worried - after all, I counted on this website to finish my work in progress portfolio - and I have no exact notion of all houses I could possibly visit. So I decided to check out more about the project and it turned out it is more than sever years old (started around 2010) so it is quite possible they didn't pay the hosting fee so they may not be live again within the next few weeks, or at all. So far for the easy way.

Worse still, due to awful weather last week (blizzard and heavy snowfall and then temperatures around -8 Celsius) the only thing I had done were these:

Eagles' bridge - one of the most famous crossroads in Sofia. I pass through it several times a day so this was one of the first images I took (with the smallest compact camera I just had in me)

This image looks very Soviet (or post-Soviet dystopian) to me. This is the monument of the Soviet army in Sofia (unique architecture and quite the controversial history). This boy just passed by and the shot works for me. The scene may be anywhere in the post-totalitarian Eastern Europe (unless, of course you know the place). 

St. Alexander Nevski church - the biggest, most famous and most visited church in Sofia (literally one of the emblems of the city) and this is its main entrance. What you can see in the image is not rain, these are snowflakes.

They may be good in a sense BUT they had nothing to do with the set topic for my work in progress portfolio this module - abandoned buildings. What made matters even worse was the fact that I couldn't roam around the city, looking for something I have no clear coordinates for in the blizzard (which didn't stop for two days - these images are taken on day 1 when it was just warming up). So I had to wait. I am posting the unedited versions of the pics here :) 

So, this week I had to make things work and find at least one house to photograph - fortunately, due to helpful neighbours (and to the subtle yet important fact that Eastern Europeans are highly suspicious to anyone wandering around their neighbourhood) - found three houses - all built within 500 meters from each other, practically on the same land plot. 

One of the neighbours told me that most of them are still in use and, despite the decrepit looks are not abandoned. To my shocked face he reacted with the explanation that the municipality forbade any repair works on houses smaller than 50 (or 70, I am not sure) square meters. For the sole reason that this way these will sooner or later fall down and make way for blocks of flats. Who cares about cultural heritage?!

More information on that in a follow-up post (when I edit the images) :)