October 2008 - Ukraine
I fired an AK47 surrounded by a lake of bullets (not mine).
I had an Amish beard for a while.
This happened...
And I got so drunk in Lviv that after going out with the hostel owner at a vodka bar on Ukrainian Nationalist Day, I ended up throwing his laundry all over the floor in city center and had an angry conversation with police officers in a language I don't speak(luckily I don't have any photos of this).
Of all of these things, the most memorable moment had to be my short journey to Chernobyl.
It all started in Kiev the day after I fired the gun.
The very creepy Danish hostel owner told me he had a "deal" with certain people to get tourists into Chernobyl (it was still illegal to visit Chernobyl at this time).
In hryvnia (Ukranian currency) the one day trip cost around £100. That was a big chunk of my travel budget but when was I ever going to get a chance like this again.
We left the next day, a group of five packed into an army truck with a guide.
It's roughly a two hour drive from Kiev to Chernobyl, after which there are around five checkpoints to go through until you get to Chernobyl proper.
As mentioned earlier in 2008 it was still illegal to visit Chernobyl as a tourist. But with Ukraine having as much corruption as it does, money changed hands each time we went through a checkpoint.
The first strange thing I noticed when going through the checkpoints was that there were a lot dead birds on the ground surrounding the check points. I have no idea why but I'm guessing the check point guards don't have much to do but target practice.
After we passed through all the checkpoints we came across the memorial to the firemen who died instantly trying to put out the fire.
There are small houses behind this statue, all abandoned, trees growing out of the roofs and windows. This is a reoccurring theme of Chernobyl. Nature taking over.
I wasn't really sure where the truck was taking us but we were driving alongside a riverbed for a long time. Abandoned boats everywhere. When we finally stopped to take a look outside we were shown the reactor on the other side of the river that was half-way to completion before the meltdown. The cranes are still in the same place they were that day.
After a few photos it took me a while to realize that just to the left of this reactor...
Reactor number 4 was a stone's throw away on our side of the river.
Oh dear.
"It's OK" I thought, "I won't be getting any closer to it".
Five minutes later...
The coolest thing about this is that there were people in lab coats walking around the reactor going about their daily jobs. I hope they have good insurance!
The next stop on our tour was the abandoned town of Pripyat.
The main piece of advice we were given by our tour guide whilst walking the streets was not to step on the moss as it absorbs radiation for the longest time.
Having said that we saw two other tour groups all wearing gas masks so a little bit more advice would've been nice.
Pripyat is covered with trees and graffiti, it's incredibly eerie.
The photo above was taken from the top of the hotel which is one of the more famous buildings. Some of you may know it from Call of Duty... well I did.
Inside the hotel is proof again that nature takes over with trees growing inside rooms on all floors. Apparently there are over 10,000 wild boar living in Chernobyl. Like the DMZ zone in Korea it has become a kind of accidental nature reserve.
Whilst taking several photos from the top of the hotel, I noticed a structure hidden away in the trees.
This was our next destination, the Ferris Wheel is probably the most iconic "attraction" in this strange tour. We had to walk through a country lane to get to it - avoiding moss and grass along the way.
I really want to know what the theme park looked like 30 years ago before the meltdown. It must have been pretty popular with the families here.
As well as the Ferris Wheel there are a few more rides stationed around it and a ticket stall, some of the rides also have rusted drawings of Disney characters all around them.
This was the last part of the tour, unfortunately we didn't get to see places like the school or the swimming pool (dodgy and still illegal tour).
When leaving we had to go through radiation detectors before being able to go back home to Kiev. Apparently the worst that could have happened was that our shoes would be taken away from us... a good enough reason not to step on the moss!
For a few months in 2008, I took some time off work and travelled to the Ukraine and Belarus, through the Baltics and also into Scandinavia for a while.
Ukraine holds some very strong memories for me - mostly embarrassing ones.
I fell down this drain when it flipped - Warner Brothers style - and I had to crawl out in front of a bus stop full of pensioners.
I fell down this drain when it flipped - Warner Brothers style - and I had to crawl out in front of a bus stop full of pensioners.
I fired an AK47 surrounded by a lake of bullets (not mine).
I had an Amish beard for a while.
This happened...
And I got so drunk in Lviv that after going out with the hostel owner at a vodka bar on Ukrainian Nationalist Day, I ended up throwing his laundry all over the floor in city center and had an angry conversation with police officers in a language I don't speak(luckily I don't have any photos of this).
Of all of these things, the most memorable moment had to be my short journey to Chernobyl.
It all started in Kiev the day after I fired the gun.
The very creepy Danish hostel owner told me he had a "deal" with certain people to get tourists into Chernobyl (it was still illegal to visit Chernobyl at this time).
In hryvnia (Ukranian currency) the one day trip cost around £100. That was a big chunk of my travel budget but when was I ever going to get a chance like this again.
We left the next day, a group of five packed into an army truck with a guide.
It's roughly a two hour drive from Kiev to Chernobyl, after which there are around five checkpoints to go through until you get to Chernobyl proper.
As mentioned earlier in 2008 it was still illegal to visit Chernobyl as a tourist. But with Ukraine having as much corruption as it does, money changed hands each time we went through a checkpoint.
The first strange thing I noticed when going through the checkpoints was that there were a lot dead birds on the ground surrounding the check points. I have no idea why but I'm guessing the check point guards don't have much to do but target practice.
After we passed through all the checkpoints we came across the memorial to the firemen who died instantly trying to put out the fire.
There are small houses behind this statue, all abandoned, trees growing out of the roofs and windows. This is a reoccurring theme of Chernobyl. Nature taking over.
I wasn't really sure where the truck was taking us but we were driving alongside a riverbed for a long time. Abandoned boats everywhere. When we finally stopped to take a look outside we were shown the reactor on the other side of the river that was half-way to completion before the meltdown. The cranes are still in the same place they were that day.
I had shaved by now.
After a few photos it took me a while to realize that just to the left of this reactor...
Reactor number 4 was a stone's throw away on our side of the river.
Oh dear.
"It's OK" I thought, "I won't be getting any closer to it".
Five minutes later...
The coolest thing about this is that there were people in lab coats walking around the reactor going about their daily jobs. I hope they have good insurance!
The next stop on our tour was the abandoned town of Pripyat.
The main piece of advice we were given by our tour guide whilst walking the streets was not to step on the moss as it absorbs radiation for the longest time.
Having said that we saw two other tour groups all wearing gas masks so a little bit more advice would've been nice.
Pripyat is covered with trees and graffiti, it's incredibly eerie.
The photo above was taken from the top of the hotel which is one of the more famous buildings. Some of you may know it from Call of Duty... well I did.
Inside the hotel is proof again that nature takes over with trees growing inside rooms on all floors. Apparently there are over 10,000 wild boar living in Chernobyl. Like the DMZ zone in Korea it has become a kind of accidental nature reserve.
This was our next destination, the Ferris Wheel is probably the most iconic "attraction" in this strange tour. We had to walk through a country lane to get to it - avoiding moss and grass along the way.
I really want to know what the theme park looked like 30 years ago before the meltdown. It must have been pretty popular with the families here.
As well as the Ferris Wheel there are a few more rides stationed around it and a ticket stall, some of the rides also have rusted drawings of Disney characters all around them.
This was the last part of the tour, unfortunately we didn't get to see places like the school or the swimming pool (dodgy and still illegal tour).
When leaving we had to go through radiation detectors before being able to go back home to Kiev. Apparently the worst that could have happened was that our shoes would be taken away from us... a good enough reason not to step on the moss!
