# Other Places Around The World > Europe Travel General Discussion >  >  Kiev/Chernobyl trip report

## Petri

L is going to Havanna so I had to figure out something as well..  Last June it was North Korea, now Ukraine.

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My first flight with Ukraine International Airlines.  They fly to Helsinki with the new Antonov An-148 regional jets, over 100 has been delivered although they are mainly used in Russia, Ukraine, India, North Korea and Cuba.  Interesting.  Rest of their fleet are Boeing's.

Any suggestions what to do there?    I'm sure some of you can guess where I'll be spending some time.. :)

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## katva

Always up to something interesting!!

the very best thing about attending an International School in Europe for 4 years, was making and retaining great friendships with people from around the world. 

I emailed a good, old friend who has been living in Kiev for many years--- he offered to meet you for a coffee or drink, and give you some ideas. He's a very interesting person--- and from reading about your adventures, I'm sure you would have fun! Send me a PM if you like---and I can put you in touch.

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## george

> ...I'm sure some of you can guess where I'll be spending some time.. :)



oh boy... Chernobyl, right?

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## Petri

At the airport..  I don't remember the last time I flew with carry-on only.

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## amyb

Happy journey, Petri.

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## katva

Have fun!!!

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## Petri

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Antonov An148-100.  Pretty uneventful flight, short one (less than 2h), staff was quite friendly "the russian way".

From what I've seen so far (it's dark), the city architecture looks stunning.   The bell boy said this is the first and only design hotel in Ukraine and referred to the heavy weight world champions in boxing, the Klitschko brothers.  Of the brothers, Wladimir is probably better known for dating Hayden Panettiere.  Anyway, super friendly staff at the hotel.

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## Petri

Around the city

It was a short trip so I just wondered around the city, walked to the wrong direction, and simply didn't plan much.

Kiev felt relatively busy but green city, and like many similar cities, plenty of big SUV's, Porsche Cayenne's and Panamera's, and S-class Mercs around.  There were a lot of history around, churches, old buildings from the very early days, USSR architecture, and surprisingly lot of green.

And everybody remember from now on; Borscht soup is from Ukraine, not from Russia or any other eastern European country.

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When one thinks about the largest country in Europe, you think about Germany, perhaps France or UK.  But the Ukrainians think Ukraine is the largest country in Europe.  They feel they're part of Europe and by geographical area, they are the largest (excluding Russia).  By population they are slightly smaller than Spain.  When money was involved, they referred to the euros although their own currency is begged to the US Dollar.  One could easily feel their interest to be part of Europe, not (former) part of Russia.

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What I didn't know before was that Ukraine was really devastated by the WW II, more than Germany.  They were devastated both by the Nazi Germany, who used Ukraine for food, minerals and labour, and then by Soviet Russia, of the 16.000.000 soldiers who died for Russia, 10 million where from Ukraine.  No wonder the WWII monuments are such a prominent sight in Kiev and pretty much every town in Ukraine has a small monument for the victims.

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## Petri

Ukraine State Aviation Museum next to the Zhylyany airport is one of the largest display of Soviet aviation technology and the great part is that most of the planes are unfenced, you can get really close to the flying pieces of metal.

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Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-29A jet fighter.

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Mil Mi-26 heavy transport helicopter.

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Beriev Be-12PL with some other smaller plane.

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Your favourite airline maintenance at work.

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Tupolev Tu-142MZ maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft.

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YAK-40, this was the world's first regional jet aircraft.  We flew with the big sister, YAK-42, in Cuba a few years ago.  Something very different from your average Airbus, Embraer or Boeing..

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Spare parts or a new display item?  This was behind a fence next to a scrap yard..

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People walking by Tupolev TU-22M Long-range bombers.

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Antonov AN-71 AWACS.

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Antonov AN-26 from Uhuru Airlines (Congo).   Any frequent flyers?

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## Petri

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Ilyushin Il-18.  AIr Koryo is still flying one in North Korea (assuming it's flying).

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Ilyushin Il-86 wide-body airliner.   CCCP-86000.

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Mil Mil-24D gunship and attack helicopter.  There were quite a few kids around, must be quite a thrilling place for them!

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Ilyushing Il-76 strategic airlifter.  This plane is still used by a number of weird Air Forces around the world.  The boy run to climb the ladders next to the plane..

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Ilyushin Il-62 long-range jetliner.    Remember this?

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It's the same plane type I used to fly from/to North Korea last June  :Triumphant: 


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Ilyushin Il-14.  Love the colours and penguin on the tail.  Linux plane!

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Tupolev Tu-104, the world's first successful jet airliner.  Such a beauty!

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.. and so many other wonderful but weird flying machines.

If you like planes, this place is a must-visit!

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## JEK

Marvelous! Thanks!

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## Petri

And the next part will be about this place..

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## JEK

Glowing remarks!

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## Petri

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Welcome to the town of Chernobyl; or something.  Notice the pipe behind the sign; as there is radiation deeper in the ground, they have built new waterpipes that are not burried underground.

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In the town of Chernobyl, which is about 17 km from the actual power plant, there's a memorial for all the towns and villages that have been evacuated and no longer exist.  There's also a monument with a map of the area with a holder for a candle at the place where each town was -- they're lit every year.

Today Chernobyl is fine to live in, the workers stay here and if one books a two day tour of the site, one will stay in a small hotel/restaurant there.  I had lunch there and it was pretty good.  But if you planned to move there, just don't plan doing gardening..  (and no, you can't move there)

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Chernobyl reactor #5 that was never finished.  Reactor #6 is behind this one and it was only 10% finished at the time of the incident.

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Reactor #4 on the left, the one that exploded.  In the same building next to it is reactor #3 which was up and running until 2000.  The two smaller black and white buildings on the right, between the tall pipe, are reactors #1 and #2.  #2 was shut down in 1991 after a major fire and #1 was shut down in 1996.

The power plant was originally known as V.I. Lenin Nuclear Power Station.

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#4 and #3 closer.

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And here's the birthday boy.  Is it radiating?  Yes.  We had a dosimeter with us and this was the only place where it's safety threshold started beeping quite frequently.  Just a few meters from the place where the photo was taken, there would be even more radiation.  Radiation decreases exponentially by distance so the simple precaution is to walk away.

One wasn't allowed to photograph the green building on the left, or the grey building next to it (not photographed :-).   Why?  Well, there's plenty of uranium still left on the site.  They don't want the bad boys to get too much information.

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This is the NSC, New Safe Confinement or the first half of it.  The plan is to remove the chimney from the plant (there's a crane next to the plant but it's not working, perhaps because of the radiation?) and put two of these on top of the plant.  There will be cranes inside the NSC that can be operated to remove the old sarcophagus and see what's happening in there.  The NSC is world's largest moving structure.

There is about 6000 people working on the site in four day shifts so it's far from a "ghost plant".  Taking a photo without people actually took some effort..  The workers carry two dosimeters, one two show the current exposure and one for dose log, when the exposure limit is reached, they need to leave the site.

There's a good wiki article about the NSC, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Safe_Confinement

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## Petri

Some photos from a small evacuated village near Chernobyl town:

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No more joyful messages of communism here.

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Typical radiation today in the area is in "hotspots".  Basicly there's something radioactive in the ground, totally invisible and you can't see anything.  Just next to this playground there was a tree and by the tree there was over 10 times more radiation than usual.

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## amyb

The photos, especially the toys, hurt my heart, Petri.

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## Grey

Petri, thank you for the trip report/photos.  This is very interesting.  To tour Chernobyl you book an official tour?

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## Petri

Welcome to Pripyat

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Pripyat was the nearest city to the incident, with 50.000 people and just a mile or two from the power plant.  Most men worked at the power plant and the city was full of young people and considered a prime example of modern (soviet) living.

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.. no more concerts.

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.. do not eat the apples.

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.. on top of the building "Peaceful Atom" sign.  The sign actually collapsed some time ago and someone had gone there to put it up again.

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Some years ago french street painters visit Chernobyl and left their tribute, the children of Pripyat.

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.. the amusement park that was never used.  The Pripyat Ferris Wheel has become a symbol of the city.

Despite being one of the visited sites here, the amusement park is actually full of "hotspots".

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The most amazing part of Pripyat is the nature.  As time passed, the city no longer looks like a ghost town missing people.  Today it looks more like an abandoned city where the nature is taking back what belongs to it.  The sports arena, the roads, one can hardly tell which is what.  One cannot help from thinking if people abandoned a city anywhere in the world (Detroit?), would it look like this in 20-25 years?

There is plenty of wild life that has been brought back to the area.  Both to let nature do it's thing but also to study how things work out.  I didn't see any wild horses or the others, only one frog.

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Wondering the gas masks?  It was the cold war era after all.  All the soviet schools had classes how to protect against a nuclear attack from the US.

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## Rosemary

Thanks Petri.  You never disappoint; that's for sure. I'm a big fan of borscht-now I know the origin.  Your pictures of empty homes and abandoned toys are humbling.  What a trip!

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## Petri

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The clock in the background has been set to show the time of the incident.  The pool was used by all the staff cleaning the incident and it wasn't closed until a few years later -- why?  It failed sanitary inspection.

Wondering about all the mess?  There was no blast that messed everything up.  The people left the city quite calmly, after all they were told they'd be returning in just a few days.  The city was used by all the people who did the unfortunate work for trying to contain and clean the incident.  They needed things and they stole things, too.  The city has been looted for over 20 years now -- pretty much every book in the city has been turned down in order to find anything valuable.  Electric wires have been torn from the walls.  In the past the formers occupants have also been given permission to visit their homes to collect items.  The government has also given some companies permission to extract more valuable metals from the buildings as long as they're not too radioactive.

While people haven't really brought anything to the city, everything was there before, a lot of things have been "set up" for the visitors.  You'll find a V.I. Lenin book there fore sure but try finding a radiator :)   But still I guess the mess does show the story of this unlucky town pretty well.


Was it worth the trip?  Of course, they always are.  Chernobyl is changing and soon it will not look the same, eventually Pripyat will be taken over by nature.  Already now one is not allowed to enter the buildings as many are on the brick of collapse.  As I didn't enter the buildings, the photos above are from the interweb :-)  There was a two-day trip available but I'm not sure if it would have been worth -- mostly about more sites in Pripyat.  While the ghost town was interesting, I think the most excitement was by the reactor itself.  Overall I think North Korea was a more special place, it hasn't been looted yet.

Radiation?  About the same as two days in Kiev.  I got more radiation on the 2-hour flight.  But yes, I did wash my shoes when I got back to the hotel..

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## Petri

> To tour Chernobyl you book an official tour?



Yep, there are a few companies doing the tours.  I booked a private one so that I could see more than with a bigger group, plus they're more relaxed with the rules.  

I had the guide and a guide trainee with me.  There was a loose russian group in Pripyat town square at the same time and suddenly the guide yelled "only Ukrainian women wear high heels in Pripyat".  She didn't like the russians that much, and the trainee with us was wearing high heels :)

Obviously this was a too short visit to really learn anything about the country.

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## katva

Wow, just WOW.

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## andynap

Last year I worked with a woman attorney who grew up about 50 miles from Chernobyl when it blew. She told me stories that made me shiver. No one in her village knew what had happened for a while. They kept seeing helicopters and army every day but had no clue and no one would say anything. One day all people in hazmat suits came to test them for radiation but she didn't what the test was for. They were then forcibly moved out and relocated. It was then that she found out about the accident. She came here to be educated. She has stories.

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## GramChop

Petri, your photographs do indeed tell hundreds of haunting, sad and painful stories.  Thank you for sharing.

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## cec1

A great travelogue . . . thanks for sharing!

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