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Sunday 24 March 2013

Chernobyl - part 5, Tiptoe Thru The Dust of Disaster

As I slowly wade thru the photographs of our recent trip to Chernobyl and Pripyay it started to dawn on me that we need to go back, this place seems to have some kind of weird draw on me, given we only saw a small part of the zone over our two days - we or I need to go back.
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So much to see, so much to take in, so much more photos, I could, should and didn't take, places we didn't get to see, buildings missed, or photographs I just cocked up.

Hopefully I snatched a few photos that others haven't taken before me or perhaps I have a new take on what can be seen in Chernobyl and Pripyat, perhaps someone will see my pictures and it will inspire them or perhaps you to make the trip ??

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Winter was hard work, maybe a summer trip next time or perhaps Autumn ?
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Given that even the deserted class rooms of Pripyat had icy floors, summer would be nice.
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I need to tiptoe through the dust again and not struggle thru the snow.

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One things for sure, a trip to Chernobyl and Pripyat will stay with you forever....

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- More to follow.....












Thursday 21 March 2013

Newsome Mills - March 2013

Yorkshire, damp, cold, miserable.

We came, we saw, we bogged off !

We turned up and to be honest it had a big spikey fence and just couldn't be bothered, I think we have been a little spoilt of late with easy walk-ins and tours of Chernobyl.

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So a fail, due to lack of interest, old age and sheer unenthusiastic sunday hangover.

Bradley Garrett was recently quoted in GQ as saying that very few people keep exploring after age 40, this weekend I can understand why many forty-somethings sit at home watching the football.

Friday 15 March 2013

Chernobyl part 4 - Beds, Books, Bits

Walking round the city of Pripyat with so many buildings standing abandoned, the buildings of the city should be in theory a treasure trove of left artifacts from a previous era, sadly this is not the case.

The fall of the Iron Curtain opened a window of opportunity for looters to storm the city and remove anything sellable, Pripyat was a wealthy city, Pripyat city was very unusual in that the occupants did not have to wait in line at the supermarket for hours, the Soviet Union food shortages did not affect the people of Pripyat, Pripyat was the model city with relative wealth compared to the rest of the Soviet Union.

The Iron Curtain fell and no one guarded the city, it was a free for all and the looters stripped the city, building by building, room by room.

- The looting of the buildings had the knock on effect of spreading the misery of the radioactive contamination far and wide outside the effected area.

A few buildings do however do contain remains of personal effects and furniture

The dolls of Pripyat Nursery are a little lost without their owners...

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In the centre of Pripyat, the local high school does however hold some treasures from before the distaster

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The language lab, had some interesting books in English, with the usual comment on the shit British weather.

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Friday 8 March 2013

Chernobyl - part 3, Posters, Pictures, Propaganda, Graffiti

Walking the streets of Pripyat, Chernobyl and someone else has obviously been before you.

After the looters that crept in during and after the fall of the Iron Curtain came the explorers and the graffiti artists.

Some is just scrawl, such as is found the Azure swimming pool.

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Some are shadowy figures on buildings, that can be seen through the trees

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Some figures playfully poke fun or tease the person who dares explore the city.

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Aside from the peeling paint of the usual city signs are the motivational and propaganda signs and artwork one would, as a Westerner, rightly or wrongly expect to find in a city in a Soviet Union time bubble.

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                                                     "unauthorised entry is prohibited"


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Thankfully the graffiti is minimal, just enough to catch your eye, the Soviet era art a gentle reminder of the fact the your standing in previous empire of the Soviet Union, as well as the nuclear disaster zone that is Pripyat, Chernobyl