Chernobyl2008

Andrei and some guy.

Our food that we eventually got at the nice non-smoking bar-restaurant where no one could speak English nor take any orders correctly in general.

Peter and Tore.
Peter got that spoon to eat with...

Peter, Pontus and Tore waiting for the trip to Chernobyl outside our hotel.

Hedda, Pontus and Tore.

And the Polish gang... I need some help with names here, because I only remember Agata.

The entrance to the zone. See Zone of alienation for more info.

It says "Welcome! Get your mutations here!"

It's very green.

"Chornobil'" is the Ukrainian name, and "Chernobyl" the Russian name. Same mess with two names on most towns all over Ukraine.

The houses are covered in trees.

Yet another house abandoned for 20 years and looted.

Some houses are still used though. 5000 people work in the zone. Most of them will die very young because they smoke like chimneys.

A map over the zone.

We had to sign something that we promised to not touch anything or steal, leave the group or something like that.

The machine that checked our hands and feet for radiation.

The agreement. Unreadable.

A nice place to park some stuff...

A cemetery. Birds singing everywhere and beetles where mating all over the walkway.

A Chernobyl bird. Not that shy.

A Chernobyl cat.

The same cat.

Some old ships and some water that actually is clean. Well, at least when it comes to radiation.

The like to have pipes everywhere. They where built for heating after the disaster.

The monument for the firefighters who saved the world by putting out the fire on the roof and died because of it.

[hedda]

Agata and our guide.

The sarcophagus

Another monument and the sarcophagus in the background.

Pripyat'

Very Soviet style buildings from the 80s.

We were allowed to go inside one building.

This is the entrance hall of the hotel. The reception staff is unfortunately out for lunch...

The beds might need some paint, but a hotel without staff can't really do such things.

The view from the top floors is wonderful!

The rooms are light, green and you have running water right in the center of the room!

[hedda] and a tree that grows straight out of the concrete. 

How come my plants die of bad soil when all you apparently need is some stone and concrete to make trees grow?

That's a tree grown up with a great view.

Growing in tar seems to work just as fine as concrete.

That art was actually pained before the disaster to make people happy... (Update: No it wasn't. Some people did it afterward)

Yea, very similar!

Let's stand in high places and risk falling down!

A new tree.

[hedda] at top of the Pripyat Hotel.

Peter

Don't step on the moss! It's highly radioactive as it somehow collects the radioactivity.

An amusement park for mandatory Soviet fun.

That's real radio cars...

This sling is a few years late for a safety inspection.

This seems to be working quite fine though. There were birds living inside the baskets.

The dangerous moss. There is a very busy ant-hole right below the image, but the ants totally avoid the moss. I don't know if it was because of the radioactivity or because they had no reason to go there, but ant go everywhere so I think they avoided the moss because it is killing them.

That's one happy girl... Or is it a boy?

Buy your tickets here!

Back at the administration center in Chernobyl. A cat has taken a trip inside and poses for the camera a little before being led out.

We got a huge meal. They said that it wasn't local food... This is the first course.

Second and third course.

Kiev by night.

The Freedom Square in Kiev.

Peter at an Irish pub.

[hedda] and Andrei at the Irish Pub in Kiev.

Andrei, Peter, Tore, Pontus.

Back to the hotel we took one taxi. This is four big men squeezed into the back seat of the taxi. We had to breath on turns...

Back at the non-smoking bar.

The shooting range.

The weapon we're going to shoot.

Tore shooting.

Peter shooting.

Hedda shooting.

Hedda shooting.

Hedda shooting.

Andrei shooting.

Pontus shooting.

Christine and ...

We counting coins...

... to give to the hostel manager so that he can change a 200-bill.

Andrei's home-page: http://whynot.wackonet.net/ae-a/

A typical Kiev house.

There is way too much traffic in Kiev and people drive like car-thieves and they don't give a shit about security. We saw 4 car-crashes in our short stay in Kiev. 

Kiev Airport Terminal.

The squared forest in Latvia.

Riga and a big wing in the way.

Riga Airport.

North west of Riga.

The beach outside of Riga.

The Swedish landscape in Uppland with lakes everywhere.