Back to the USSR

Happy to have Vladimir Lenin keeping a watch over us

I will admit that the decision to visit Kiev had more to do with the availability of Avios points flights that coincided with the few minutes of the month that Adrian can go on holiday than a desire to visit Ukraine.  A similar reason ended in a very successful trip to Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic a couple of years ago, so we were cautiously optimistic that Ukraine would be an interesting and enjoyable holiday destination.  It is.


In the flurry of activity booking flights I also booked 3 sets of tickets for the Ukraine National Opera and made various bookings for the same hotel with different bookings sites until I thought I probably had the best deal.  That exhausted my holiday arrangement energy, I was happy to go with the flow when we arrived and ignored Adrians repeated 'I think we should visit Chernobyl'.

We had a little technical hitch at Heathrow when we checked our bags for the flight when we discovered I had booked 2 seats for myself and no seat for Adrian.  All I can say is its a good job we got there super early because it took a lot of head scratching and tooth sucking and pointing out that it was my mistake (why would I want two seats for myself - there is a blocked seat between them so even if I was a 250kg giant that ploy wouldn't have helped) and £40 to change the name on the ticket but finally British Airways decided we were okay to go.   I still maintain that their system should have detected the error - two people with the same names is entirely possible but two people with the same names, passport numbers and dates of birth is beyond a coincidence.

So we arrived in Kiev on a dull and rainy afternoon and found our way to the taxi rank, managed to make it to the hotel in spite of the challenges of communication between people with no common language at all.   I suppose its a British thing to always expect Johnny Foreigner to speak English and it comes as a surprise when he doesn't.  Some, mostly younger, people in Kiev speak English but we found this only really in the hotel.  Three cheers for Uber, no language required as long as you managed to get the pick up point right.

When we were eating dinner on the first night Adrian repeated the 'I think we should visit Chernobyl' comment and I have to say I was not very enthusiastic at first, it took a bit of repetition before I said 'okay you book it and I'll go too' thinking it would never happen.  Who knew Adrian could make a booking online?  It's all about motivation I've learned.  So we went on a day trip to Chernobyl, 83 miles from Kiev.  It was a very interesting and spooky experience and I am glad Adrian was so persistent.

At the checkpoint to enter the exclusion zone

We were instructed to wear long trousers and long sleeves, fortunately it was a little cloudy and not too hot.

Under that dome is reactor No 4, the one that exploded

Inscription at the foot of the monument in front of reactor No 4

TO HEROES,
PROFESSIONALS
TO THOSE WHO
PROTECTED THE
WORLD FROM
NUCLEAR DISASTER.

IN HONOUR OF THE
20TH ANNIVERSARY
OF SHELTER OBJECT
CONSTRUCTION

30 11 2006

Monument to the firefighters 

Incomplete reactor No 5

Chernobyl

We survived the experience with two radiation checks for certainty.

Pripyat, now a ghost town

Pripyat, founded in 1970 as the 9th nuclear city in the Soviet Union and home to 50,000 people, is the town evacuated within 36 hours of the explosion and not inhabited since.  Scientists disagree about when it will be inhabitable again between now and 20,000 years.

Its a eerie experience being in a town that has been abandoned and left for the planet to take back.  Maturing trees grow through town squares and sports and recreation sites.  It's very quiet - and then a - bus goes through (no idea from where to where) - so photographers have to be on their guard.

Abandoned block of flats

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The ferris wheel and football stadium were due to be officially opened on 1 May 1986 but the explosion just a week earlier put and end to those plans.  They have never been used and are now awaiting nature to take its course and shrug off the human intervention.

Dodgems

Football stadium

The football stadium, too dangerous to get any closer than this.  

Turn through 108 degrees.....

the pitch

Antenna used during the Cold War

Chernobyl was also a listening station during the Cold War and this huge antenna was installed there unbeknown to the west.

Monument to the 15 Soviet Republics

Chernobyl was fascinating and thought provoking but being on holiday should have some skittles and beer and we did lots of other sight seeing.  Great food and amazing prices for travellers from the UK.  We were in the stalls for less than the cost of an upper balcony ticket at Covent Garden.  La Bayadere; Julius Caesar the ballet (I still think it is a strange story for a ballet); Gianni Schicci (opera) and Bolero with a surprise of a large company of Spanish dancers.  Even with the language barrier (I wasn't 100% certain what I had booked because the tickets were in Ukrainian) I managed the theatre bookings more successfully than the flights.  

St Michael church

 

St Sophia cathedral

Kiev has some lovely Eastern Orthodox churches, brightly painted and all were being actively used for worship when we visited.

St Andrew church