Nuclear disasters, underground drains and drinking games… the most romantic honeymoon destination? Kiev, Ukraine October 31 – November 3

When we told people we were going to the Ukraine on our honeymoon we received mixed reactions, most of them, why? Then after telling them we wanted to visit Chernobyl, nearly every reaction was the same ‘why would you want to go there? ‘

Booking a flight from St Petersburg to Kiev on UIA (Ukraine International Airyways) was one of my less confident decisions I made on this trip. After reading a few reviews on them, lets just say they weren’t going to win airline of the year. But I must say, the hour and a half flight was pleasant - we left on time, the plane and staff were all nice and we even got a fresh sandwich during the flight. We landed in Kiev on time and had a car waiting for us to take us into the city.

The city was completely different to what I was expecting, it didn’t feel like a former part of the USSR, it had no soviet feel at all, but more European. Cobble-stone roads, coffee and bar stalls lining the streets and people out and about socializing. I definitely didn’t expect this.

We were dropped to our hostel and immediately I saw Ben, a friend I met two years ago in Russia, who had organized to meet us in Kiev for a few days. After hugs-all-round we quickly cracked open some beers and caught up. After a couple of beers we ventured out and met Nastia (short for Anastasia) a Ukrainian local Ben met in Latvia, and she gave us a little tour of the surprisingly pretty city.

After a walk and some dinner we made our way back to the hostel as Seeds’ flight had just landed. Seeds made it to the hostel in no time and it wasn’t long before we had made a trip to the bottle shop and we were all knocking back a few of Ukraine’s finest lagers. As well as us four, there were a couple of Ukrainians, a Swede, and then one Belarusian. The Belarusian was extremely drunk, and even though none of us spoke Russian, he continued his onslaught of Russian-verbal-diarrhea for hours until finally passing out.  We called it a night around midnight though as the next day was a big day, and the main reason we were in Kiev.

Chernobyl, one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters. It is one of only two nuclear disasters that have been graded with the highest (level 7) International Nuclear Event Scale. An explosion and fire that released large quantities of radioactive particles into the atmosphere that spread over much of the western USSR and Europe. 200,000 people were evacuated from Pripyat and Chernobyl within 36 hours of the accident and have never returned.

I could go on and on about the disaster as it truly is such an interesting, but horribly sad story, and after watching a few documentaries on the Chernobyl disaster and seeing countless photos, I wasn’t sure how it would feel to go there and see it first hand.           The only word that comes close is - surreal.

We had opted to pay extra and get a private tour with just the four of us. I mentioned that Ben and I were photographers and listed a few things we would like to see off the normal tourist trail. This was a definitely a great move.

The day started off with a big red van coming to collect us form our hostel, and then taking us to meet with our guide. Our guide moved us to a less conspicuous car, a standard white sedan. It was cosy, but suited our needs! In no time at all we were on our way to Chernobyl.

At 10.50am we arrived at the 30km checkpoint (30kms from the reactor) and we had to wait till 11 till the gates opened. Up until this checkpoint everything seemed quite ordinary, a small country town with few houses. Clock ticks over 11am and we have our passports checked and we are now inside the exclusion-zone.

We found ourselves driving along an empty road with houses lining either side of the street - abandoned, run down and overtaken by nature. My face was glued to my window, already wanting to stop and take photos. We made our way down a winding road and through the trees we could see water and as we got closer we could see shipwrecks in the distance. 20 plus large boats all scattered over the shoreline, I needed to get closer! Our guide spoke to the guard and unfortunately tourists were not allowed in this area so we had to look from a distance (which was still awesome).

Next stop we visited the memorial for the firefighters and workers who lost their lives during the disaster, and also a little display of some of the machines they used to clear the radioactive rubble. They looked like little Tonka trucks, but they had a big job, and are still extremely radioactive.

The first building we visited was a kindergarten, which looked to be located in the middle of nowhere with no houses or other buildings nearby. It was strangely pretty; autumn leaves on the ground and trees forming a canopy towards run down building, once inside, it was no longer pretty. It was dark and eerie with paint peeling from the walls, children’s toys and storybooks scattered across the floors, tiny shoes and clothes hanging in an old cupboard, bunk bed frames reflecting only a shadow of the life that once was. We felt like we had stepped in to a horror film.

We climbed back in to our car, slightly shaken from what we had just seen, but eager to continue. Ten minutes later and we reached the 10km zone in the town of Pripyat, and the source of the whole disaster, Chernobyl Reactor 4. The Chernobyl Power Plant was going to be the biggest in the world by the time it was finished, with multiple reactors being built around the area. Many of the reactors were never finished and look as though they have been frozen in time mid way through construction, with cranes and scaffolding still poised around them.

You can get surprisingly close to the reactor now (about 300m) and it’s relatively safe. The sarcophagus that was built at the time of the disaster had a 30-year lifespan, which is coming to an end. It is still containing the worst of the radiation, but not for much longer.  Luckily they are in the process of building a new (and very impressive) sarcophagus at the moment and is close to being finished. This new structure is being built in stages several hundred meters away from the reactor to provide the workers with protection and a little more distance from the heavy radiation of the reactor. When three of the four walls are complete, the sarcophagus will then slide across a rail system and cover the reactor, and then the final wall will be built, sealing the reactor in. The radiation will be contained for hundreds of years with this new structure.

There are surprisingly a lot of people who live in Chernobyl (and not just those who have returned illegally). There are many working families, and you can see the engineers and constructions workers all around the reactor site. Around 3000 people live in Chernobyl now, with all 3000 living in the 30km zone, as the 10km is still classified as uninhabitable.

After checking out the old and the new structures, and reading the radioactivity level on the Geiger meter/counter (which looked to be measuring very high! But still apparently safe), we got back in the car and headed for Lenin Street, the main street of Pripyat.

We arrived, and we were completely alone. You could cut the silence with a knife. We could see an abandoned supermarket, unit blocks and an old gym from where we stood in the middle of the town square. Our guide had made it clear that it was off-limits to go inside any of the buildings, since they were old and could be quite dangerous with debris and decaying floors. He led us to a building just off the square and he stopped, picked an apple off a tree and bit into it. Stunned, we asked if they were safe to eat, but he said no its fine, so Seeds grabbed an apple and had a go too – a brave man!

When we continued down a narrow path we caught a glimpse of the famous ferris wheel through the trees.

The Chernobyl Amusement Park was set to open shortly after the disaster happened. So the ferris wheel, the swinging chairs, the dodgem cars and all the other carnival rides were never used. This area should have been filled with kids laughing, family fun and a general feeling of happiness. As we all stood there looking at what could have been, it felt very sad. The only sound that could be heard was the squeaking of the wheel turning in the wind. Very creepy and very sad, but a photographers dream.

I had seen countless photos of this park and I was excited to shoot it, as this was up there on my Chernobyl hit list.

After a long time in the park, we were once again walking amongst the silence when a short sharp whistle split the air. With one wave of the guide’s hand he had us trailing behind him like dogs following a bone. It wasn’t long before we had entered a doorway and were climbing stairs overlooking a huge gymnasium.

Along with the gymnasium in this building was a pool, a basketball court, theatre and a boxing ring. (So much for not being allowed in to the buildings!)

Pretty stoked with our entry to a building in an area that it is forbidden to enter, we thought this private tour had already paid off, I had seen all the things I had on my list, and it wasn’t even 1pm.

We piled back in the car, all pretty impressed with what we had seen and commenting how eerie it felt. We kept wondering what it must have looked like it it’s hey-day and how sad that it never got to really be used.

Another short car ride from the main square and we entered another building. Our guide led us through a series of hallways and doorways until we reached a huge swimming pool equipped with tall diving boards and starting blocks. Through one of the other doors, a basketball court, with deflated basketballs spotted over the floor. The court was so decayed that the wooden panels were lifting and you could hear the water dripping from the ceiling. This truly was an amazing, yet unbelievably eerie experience. It just felt so surreal and like we were walking around a movie set of Walking Dead (minus the Zombies).

It didn’t stop there; our guide drove down small streets and took us to multiple buildings, including two schools for young children. One of them had children’s gas masks covering the cafeteria floor and educational posters still plastered on the walls. We also visited a high school that had posters and paperwork teaching youth how to shoot, throw grenades, build bombs and other light-hearted subjects. There was even an old stick of dynamite surrounded by old gunpowder still sitting on one of the tables.

We stopped off at an old library as well, and when we got there the shelves were still stocked with books. Books and ruined-pages from books scattered all around the room, including a few books on learning English. It was amazing to see how well a lot of the books had kept for nearly 30 years, even though they are exposed to wind and moisture.

Then one of the final stops inside a building was a brisk 16 floor climb up an apartment block building and onto the rooftop that provided us with an amazing view over the whole of the Chernobyl. This showcased the extent of the disaster, as far as the eye could see there were abandoned buildings and structures, and there was not a sound to be heard. It was very eerie.

Caught up in our exploring it was 4pm when we finally headed to the cafeteria for lunch. Afterwards we had one final stop back at the shipyard where the guide hoped the guard had gone home and we could venture inside and check out the wrecks a little closer. The guard on the gate had gone home and we all ventured over the bridge to the little island in the middle and walked toward the main area of wrecks. There were still workers around, cutting up the metal and lurking about, but we ignored them and kept on our way and finally we reach an area where there were 10 wrecks. We climbed onto one and got ready to shoot. Just as we were getting started a guard came up, and we were informed, no photos, which was kind of the main reason we came out here. So with our tails between our legs we left and got back in the car, and were on the road back to Kiev.

It was a long, interesting and amazing day. Such a sad, dark place, but at the same time just so interesting and surreal.

On the drive from Chernobyl back to Kiev, the scariest event of the day and possibly of my life occurred. At one point just before the 30km zone checkpoint, half of a bridge was closed and you had to drive over the other side of it to pass. Our driver was going about 80km and heading straight for the concrete barriers. Closer, closer and too close, all out hearts were beating and simultaneously we all said/yelled HEY! HEY! and with a quick jerk of the steering wheel, we were safely on the other side of the road away from the concrete barrier. The driver had seen them and laughed to himself, it’s a joke he plays on the tourists to get a scare out of them. Well it worked!! Our hearts were beating out of our chests for a good while afterwards.

Who would’ve thought that wandering around the site of such devastation would’ve been so tiring? We were all ruined by the time we got back, and we were trying to pump ourselves up for a big night, but it just fizzled. We washed the radiation off us, had a few drinks and some drinking games at the hostel and then ventured out, but there was just nothing worth going to that didn’t involve a huge line-up. So we settled for a few beers at a pub and then home for some much needed rest.

Saturday was spent sleeping in and taking a walk around the city to see what Kiev had to offer. It seems like a very social city, a lot of people out and about, hanging around drinking beers and coffee, and even a random dance off was happening on one of the main streets. Overall it’s a pretty cool city.

In the afternoon we had planned a random tour that was called something like ‘Abandoned Dungeon Drainage System Underground Kiev’, which sounds kind of interesting. So we met up with our guide who looked like a Ukrainian Robert Pattinson, and in no time we were walking down a leafy hill toward a sewer lid, just like the ones in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He opened it up and down we all went, into the complete darkness and dankness of Kiev’s underground.

The first passage was small, and Ben, all 6ft+ of him was already having a hard time fitting in the tiny tunnels. Luckily though it didn’t last for long and we reached a more open tunnel. It was kind of cool, a big open old drainage tunnel, pitch-black (we did have lights though) water trickling at our feet and no idea where we were. So on we went, and pretty much from here, it went down hill…

The tunnels became small again, and the water became deeper. With the water came thick, white grey mud that sucked our shoes down and didn’t let them go without a fight. When he said we needed waterproof shoes, I think he meant more that we needed gumboots. The walls were wet and muddy, the mud was eating our shoes, and the tunnels looked the same as the first one we entered, I was struggling to see the benefit of this part of the adventure.

Another few hundreds meters of dirty punishment and we came to a more open tunnel again, only to see the water resembled more of a small river then a trickling stream.

So to wrap it up, we were wet, dirty and the water was too deep to go on, so we turned around, struggled to get back to where we started and surfaced back to the fresh night air. Dirty, sore and smelling magnificent, success!

Still dirty and smelly, we arrived back to the hostel and quickly showered the drainage tunnel funk from us, which made us feel human again, but also brought on another case of fatigue.

One of the missions of the trip was to get a ‘Chicken Kiev’ in Kiev, which I was hoping was going to be more successful then our quest to get Mongolian Lamb in Mongolia. We tried to find one earlier that day but all we could find was this chicken-mince roll with a very stingy side of 5 cold-peas. It definitely wasn’t the buttery-garlic-ozzing kiev we were hoping for.

So we ventured out to a couple of the local restaurants in search of the perfect Chicken-Kiev. We found a restaurant that served them, but sadly their kitchen was closed. Admitting defeat and headed to the pub we had visited the night before that sold a pretty mean kebab. We opened the menu and Seeds eyes lit up,  (I swear I saw a faint ray of light shine down from above) there looking up at us from those pages ‘Chicken-Kiev’!!

A moment later, three Kiev’s had been ordered. I won’t lie, I was nervous, this was our last chance, and I wanted a Kiev after all the talk about them, I was afraid of another disappointment like this morning. I can’t believe how much pressure we were all putting on this Kiev.

The wait wasn’t too long at all, and soon enough, three plates turned up with big, round, juicy chicken kievs sitting on them. Things were looking good, everything looked in place, just for the final test, the cutting of the kiev. Seed’s didn’t hesitate, straight in there knife into chicken and there it was, that golden goodness we had all been hoping for. A Chicken-Kiev in Kiev…success. It’s funny how excited we all got over a piece of chicken.

Very happy, and bellies full we returned to the hostel and pushed on drinking and playing some games around the hostel table, but 2am hit and there were only few still keen to hit the town. Due to the night before’s effort of trying to go out after midnight and being highly unsuccessful, Gem, Seeds and I decided to call it a night around 2.30am when the others ventured out, and within minutes of our heads hitting the pillows, we were out, and our time in Ukraine had come to an end.

Monument to all those that lost their lives and one of the robots used to clear rubble

Some of the reactors

Near where is all happened, just a few hundred meters from reactor 4

The old sarcophagus doesn't have many years left in it

The new sarcophagus in the making

Shipwrecks on the lake

Our first taste of Chernobyl

Inside a kindergarten

Inside a kindergarten

Outside the kindergarten

On our way to Lenin Sqaure, Pripyat

Pripyat, Chernobyl

Eating apples at the sign of a nuclear disaster

The dodgem cars that never got used

That reading on the left is four times higher then the reading 300m from the reactor

The amusement ground that never got used

The famous Chernobyl Ferris Wheel

The gang at the fairground

Inside one of the sporting gyms

Unused theatre

One of the many pools that never got used

Random rolls of film next to the pool

The boxing gym that never saw a fight

Inside the gym, another part of Pripyat that never got used

It really is a very pretty place

Old poster boxes

One of the many run down buildings

Around Lenin Square

Swimming pool

Swimming pool

Basketball court

Another basketball court, even with deflated basketballs laying around

Windows and door frames

Gas masks

Hundreds of children's gas masks

Abandoned class room

The skyline from 16 floor up

The old apartment block we scaled to get the view

Old books in one of the schools libraries

Abandoned classroom

An old paper from October 1984

They had some interesting choices for school sport

A high school class room, complete with old dynamite stick

Targets and teaching sheets, yep they taught kids how to shoot

How to get through barb wire and use rocket launchers, normal school subjects

Now kids this is how to put on a gas mask, poster inside school

The shipyard where lots of ships sit there to rust away

Rusty ships

Onboard one of the shipwrecks

Ben taking a picture of me taking a picture

Underground Kiev

Looks enticing 

Climbing around in the underground

Not the most comfortable of places to go

Someone lost kings

Extreme jenga with stupid glasses, harder then it looks

Kiev's football stadium

Dancing in the street

The streets of Kiev

They like their magnets and smokes in Kiev

The streets of Kiev

Sorry for the excessive amount of pictures but the place was just amazing to photograph, and also sorry about watermarking photos but interesting/popular pictures of mine have been used before without my knowledge/permission. If you want to use these for any purpose please contact me :)