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Welcome to the Ukraine, say goodbye to the EU, the Latin alphabet and any chance of finding locals who speak English. It’s a bit of a culture-shock coming straight from Krakow but I guess that’s what travelling is all about!
The country used to have the same complex visa procedure as other former Soviet states. When it hosted the Eurovision a few years ago visa requirements were temporarily dropped for most Western travellers. Since then they just never bothered bringing them back.
The border marks the point where European style rail tracks end. So there are a few long hours at the border as the train is adjusted. When they finally checked passports the border guard didn’t seem to know what Ireland was let alone where it is. Luckily he just scanned my passport and I got the free visa.
I managed to get from the train station to the hostel pretty easily but was for the rest of the day I was pretty lost. The maps in Lonely planet have all the street names listed in Latin letters which makes it easy to read but not that useful when all the street signs are in Cyrillic! I
eventually found my way to most of the places I wanted to see but it was mostly by chance. The city is a real change architecturally the cities else I’ve been to on this trip. There are beautiful gold domed churches dotted all around the city while the centre is dominated by Stalinist blocks.
The most impressive churches are located in the Lavra monastery complex. A museum during Soviet times it’s now been returned to the Ukrainian Orthodox church. Just beyond the monastery are Rodina Mat and a world war two museum. There are several Soviet memorials, statues, tanks and planes in the area but Rodina absolutely steals the show. The 62 meter tall statue of a female warrior called the Defence of the Motherland Monument (or colloquially tin tits) is visible from areas around the city.
When I first arrived at the hostel I asked about going on one of the tours to Chernobyl. They said you usually have to book well in advance, but rang anyway and there was a place available the following day! It’s actually one of my favourite things I’ve done on this trip. The area is about 2 hours from Kiev and
on the bus they play a documentary about the effects of the disaster. It was pretty one-sided, didn’t mention anything about the causes of the accident and it kept quiet on the controversial issue of how many people actually died. It was still a good introduction.
First stop is Chernobyl town where you have to sign some legal papers signing your life away etc. Although no one lives there anymore the town acts as a centre for the 4000 people who work in the area. The tour starts with stops to see some of the tanks and even ships used in the cleanup operation that have had to be abandoned. There’s a memorial outside the town to the liquidators how worked tirelessly to clean up the site, preventing a second explosion which could have potentially wiped out most of Europe. It was paid for my friends and family members, receiving no support from the government.
After a brief stop at reactor 4 you visit the area’s only real mutants: the catfish. Because of a complete lack of predators, competition and human fishing the fish have grown to be absolutely massive. The largest chunk of time is spent wandering
around the ghost town Prypat. Built from scratch for workers at the plant it’s a model soviet town frozen in time since the accident. The tours go through the bus station, hotel, school, supermarket, swimming pool and even fairground. The whole experience is like being in a post-apocalyptic world. Such an interesting tour, highly recommended. Do it soon if you can though, there are plans to recycle the whole Prypat town! And no you don’t need to worry about suddenly sprouting an extra arm or gaining superpowers thanks to the radiation. During the whole trip you’re exposed to less radiation then on a trans-Atlantic flight!
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Ger
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Great Blog
Bet you miss the Roman ruins. The Cat fish look wierd