Maybe that was my initial kick to go to Ukraine – Chernobyl. A place I wanted to visit since ages. Now I am here. Not really cheap to go there but an unique place to visit. Didn’t book my trip in advance and so I had to wait in Kiev for a whole week till I could go.
You can book a day trip or trips which last for two to four days. I went for the day trip. The tours are booked through agencies but guided by a governmental guide. So they are supposed to be the same. It takes about 2 hours to the first checkpoint where you enter the 30km zone. And another 30min to the former power plant Chernobyl. So a lot of transportation …
You are not really supposed to take pictures of any officer in duty or checkpoints. But … I had to take this at least this. Sorry for that :p
The first place of the trip is the city of Chernobyl. Its still home for all the maintenance crew and the rangers. They all work for 15 days before they have another 15days off. Its also the place where you get a quick overview over the region.
The above pictures shows all the names of those towns which were evacuated after the catastrophe in the block 4 of the power plant. This place is one of a few where people can stay. But half of the town is abandoned since 1986 and mostly taken back by nature.
While driving to the plant you could recognize a lot of hazard warnings. The geiger counter will show you surprisingly high levels 🙂
Our next stop was at one of the Kindergarden inside of the restricted area. We had some time to discover the abandoned building which is somehow in really bad shape (more pics on picasa).
The tour is pretty much straight forward. Not much time to wander around and explore the area. So we soon ended up at the block 4 of the power plant. Right, the place where once many liquidator fought against the radioactivity and to save others life. Many of them died in the hours, weeks and months after the catastrophe. Nowadays stupid tourists like me can stand next to it and have a look at the gigantic sarcophagus. Its fine to expose yourself the radiation for a couple of minutes but then you should move on and leave this place…
… and enter the ghost town of Prypiat. Once home to all the power plant workers. As all the nuclear power plant cities in the UDSSR it was a place with a high living standard where people enjoyed their wealthy life. These days its a abandoned place with fascinating ruins.
The only hotel in the place used to be a top hotel which is now a empty ruin. Emptied by ukrainians in the 90’s after UDSSR collapsed and poor people took what they could. Unfortunately there was no time to enter every place beside that its officially prohibited since some buildings collapsed a few years ago.
The luxury playground which was never opened. Through out UDSSR there were many similar play grounds like this. But this one became famous after the catastrophe of chernobyl
Some art work most likely done by some artists during the 90’s.
Prypiat had everything a proper city needs. The theater looks for its time quite modern. There are even some requisites around from which you can see in what time this place was used the last time.
As everything else also the river harbour is a abandoned place. Rusty boats which are partially under water are the left overs of the old good days.
Nowadays, the area around Chernobyl is an abandoned place with a few places where people settled down again in the 90’s. First illegally and later legally. On the way from Kiev to Chernobyl the street became empty. Only visitors, the settlers and some workers come to this place. Either for sight seeing, living or work.
I really like to see how nature takes back places. Places which were left behind for different reason and became what they are now. Prypiat its special because it was evacuated in just 3 hours. Unfortunately people returned later to take get everything with a certain value. But there is still a lot to see and to discover. A great place for everyone who is interested in abandoned cities, soviet history and nature.
