The city was fascinating; an entire district of blast furnaces, refineries, and other heavy industrial lined the river, belching black, brown, and even yellow plumes of smoke into the air. The reason for the consistently overcast skies seemed to tie directly to the pollutants released by this single metropolis of steel. The inhabitants of the city hobbled and shuffled around the gray sidewalks; poverty and the lack of health care was clearly written across these deeply wrinkled faces.

We turned down a small side street that ran alongside one of the furnaces - a fantastic show of sparks and flames intermittently rose from behind the soot covered wall, and on the other side of the street were run down apartment buildings. Large bay windows were open on the first and second floors, where unkempt prostitutes sat on chairs in lingerie. One was eating a hero. Their pimps waited at the doors, and when the money was exchanged with a customer, the curtains would close. While turning around in the cul-de-sac at the end of the alley, I noticed we were amidst a parade of cars crawling down the street.

The college was a good distance from the industrial district; only a freight rail yard was nearby. We walked up to a tall metal gate, and beyond was a fantastic overgrown scene of courtyards surrounded by dismal looking structures in the overcast light. The shrubs and plants were individually distinguishable, yet they were growing to a point where they were becoming one solid mass of various species. Wide swaths of cracked concrete steps led to large glass foyers, mostly intact save for a few shattered panes. I have never seen an abandoned university of this size, it was curiously different than a hospital or other public facility; unfortunately I didn't have much time to reflect, as the longer we stood there the more likely we would be noticed.

Once we were in the central courtyard, we sprinted along the wall looking for an entrance before the guard made a round (wherever he was). We explored some large industrial spaces, and made our way toward areas that resembled more of a lab setting. One could see a remarkable difference in the amount of graffiti in the industrial rooms than the other areas; sections of rebar welded along doors and windows marked this threshold, and luckily they were cut.

We took to the tunnels, which looked like they haven't been traveled in years. They were just tall enough so we couldn't stand up straight; we walked as fast as we could to get it over with before our backs went out. As we traversed the campus, things got less and less "abandoned;" lights were on, floors were swept, doors were locked, and we might have even set off an alarm... diving back into the tunnels we got turned around in an expansion joint, but eventually busted out in the right place, full of dust and black cobwebs. What a blast!