Soviet Satellites - Ukraine

06 Jun 2016 . category: Travel . Comments
#Soviet

Intro

Our first country was Ukraine, recently of interest because of its conflict with Russia in the Crimea, as well as the 2014 Revolution which toppled its president. Thankfully, the capital city of Kiev where we visited is now completely safe.

First Night in Kiev

We flew from JFK to Kiev on Ukraine Air, leaving at the bizarre time of 12:30AM EST and arriving in Kiev around dinner time. I somehow managed to break my glasses on the flight (yes, the same pair I broke in Iceland), but the flight was otherwise uneventful. After checking in, we went first to Independence Square where the 2014 Revolution occurred. Of course, the area is now calm, and largely a commercial shopping center, complete with a McDonald’s at which I ate a “Seasoned American Burger.” It was actually quite good, crunchy tomato & lettuce, BBQ sauce, and higher quality beef than in the US!

While we were at the square, there was also a funeral procession of some kind by the nationalist Right Sector party. We weren’t quite able to figure out what was going on, but evidently the deceased was important given the reverence displayed by the attendees:

Those attendees included this wonderful young gentleman with a fabulous shirt, “No Knife, No Life!” During the thirty minutes that we observed the events, he seemed to just mill around the crowd, but never lost his blank facial expression:

The event was a reminder that Ukraine is a country embroiled in an active war, a fact that cannot be missed while walking around Kiev. We passed several displays regarding the war, mostly walls of young men’s photos commemorating those who had died. Even at Kiev Airport by the gates, there were these huge photos of soldiers. And random things all over the country were plastered in their colors (blue and yellow), perhaps a recent surge in nationalism.

Chernobyl Day!

This was the exciting day, a day trip to see the Chernobyl area! It is of course famous for the eponymous 1986 nuclear disaster, the worst in human history. We went on a day trip with Solo East Travel, the originator of these tours, and had a wonderful time overall. Their van proudly advertises trips that “all your friends will be jealous of,” and trumpets tanks and missiles in addition to Chernobyl:

We got off to an auspicious start that morning, realizing that our tour group consisted of exactly 13 people. Our van then set off from Kiev with the ocassional beep of Geiger counters reminding us of the constant background radiation that is around us. Along the way, we were shown various documentaries regarding the events from 1986 and after that were quite interesting. I learned first that the botched response by the Soviet authorities to the disaster resulted in many unnecessary deaths of nearby residents as well as emergency personnel. Also, the initial efforts to contain the radiation were made at great personal risk, with soldiers dropping sandbags by hand into the reactor from helicopters flying above. There was also one video demonstrating that a flight from Toronto to Kiev resulted in more absorbed radiation than our trip to Chernobyl. I’m no radiation expert, but it appears that radiation increases significantly at high altitudes. Given that we were going with a government-approved tour group to sanctioned areas, Aaron and I were generally not concerned about radiation. Though we had taken the precautions requested by the tour company: wearing close-toed shoes and long pants and sleeves for the few areas with elevated radiation.

After a couple hour drive, we arrived at the Exclusion Zone, an approximately 1000 square mile area in which there are almost no permanent residents save a few stubborn grandpas and grandmas who have moved back after the disaster. There are however a sizable number of workers within the zone, working on various maintenance tasks including the decomissioning of the site’s other three reactors (one of which continued to operate until 2000!) as well as the building of a new shield over the damaged Reactor 4. They had evidently made peace with the radiation exposure, as there were several employees just chilling right outside of the reactor which had some of the highest radiation numbers of the day. Our guide told us that they make around 1000 Euros per day spent working there, perhaps that helped?

Highlights of the day included stops at city signs for Chernobyl and Pripyat as well as visits to several abandoned structures including a school, amusement park, and garage. They were of course on the eery side, though honestly no more than other similarly-abandoned structures. Here is Aaron and I on the abandoned Ferris Wheel in Pripyat. There was also a neglected set of bumper cars, an indoor swimming pool with diving platforms, an outdoor track, etc.

The kindergarten and school were definitely the creepiest. Something about these dolls just gets me:

Walking through these buildings, it was quite clear that some of the rooms had been carefully arranged since their abrupt abandonment in 1986. There were books purposely opened and dolls stood up. This perfectly done view of a doll wearing a gas mask was the most egregious:

Of course, we also paid a visit to the damaged Reactor Four. Here it is in the background, with a Geiger counter showing the radiation to be 3.15 microsieverts per hour, about 20x higher than normal according to our guide.

On our way out of the area, we passed two radiation checkpoints, where we were asked to stand on these machines which supposedly checked for contamination. To be honest, I’m not quite sure that they were doing anything, and everyone around us seemed remarkably casual about them. But, I suppose it was somewhat comforting? Overall, Chernobyl made for a very interesting visit and was definitely the highlight of our time in Ukraine.

Third Day

On our last day in Kiev, we paid a visit to the Caves Monastery, the city’s most popular tourist attraction. We neglected to heed our guidebook’s recommendation about purchasing candles, and ended up stumbling around the dark caves which are dotted with the glass coffins of various saints. We were also able to stop by St. Sophia’s Cathedral, which had been closed on the first day when we tried to visit.

We stopped for lunch at Spotykach, where we mistakenly ordered the cheapest wine on the menu. My white wine tasted like watered down wine mixed with vinegar, a real treat! Hands down the worst wine I’ve had, whether of the boxed or unboxed variety. On the bright side, the dumplings and Chicken Kiev were good, and we also tried these bizarre berry dumpling shooters:

I really did not care for the mix of warm dumpling and alcohol though…

In closing, Kiev is really a beautiful city, with lots of greenery and beautiful churches. It was really a much nicer stopover than either Aaron or I had expected. It has a nice old-time European feel without much of a Soviet vibe, while still being very affordable. Up next: Kazakhstan!

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