Chernobyl Journal #1: From Basel to Kyiv

Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 | project wormwood, travel journal

Two weeks ago, I returned from my photo trip to Chernobyl and Pripyat. Since then, I have been working on initial versions of the photographs for publishing.

When I put my pictures online, I usually don’t add a lot of text and history to it. In the case of Chernobyl however, having the pictures speak for themselves wouldn’t do the trip nor location justice – there is too much to tell about the history and ambiance; for this reason, I will make the travel stories part of the publishing process.

Over the next couple of posts, I will illustrate the text from my “Chernobyl journal” with pictures, audio and video. So put on some sturdy travel shoes, fire up the Geiger counter, and follow me.

Riga

Our first stop on our way to Chernobyl was Riga in Latvia. It was an unusual stopover, as Riga is not on the way between Switzerland and Kyiv, but the flight connection was much cheaper. It also gave us the chance to meet with our fellow travelers, René and Laura, both living in Riga. After introducing us to the city’s spirit (i.e. “Riga Balzams“, a local spice liqueur, which according to the bottle is “aristocratic, mysterious and forever young”), we first famliarized ourselves with the local distance measurement system (“just around the corner” = “at least 2 kilometers away”; “not very far” = “30 minutes, while running”) and applied it to the Riga nightlife. We checked out two places:

First, an Russian underground karaoke bar. As big as a living room (the biggest objects were the beer glasses), decorated with bear furs on the walls and a lonely balloon on the ceiling, it catered to roughly 8 guests – one of them the most hoarse man in the world. He sang two songs.

The second place was a small, cave-like club which on Tuesday features a popular lesbian night. Decoration-wise René rightly described it as a mix between Russian disco, H.R. Giger painting, and children’s birthday party. There were also frescoes of mermaids and sea horses in the toilet, and Russian pop on the dancefloor. Great place – strange thing I don’t remember how I got home.

Kyiv

On the next day, we left Riga behind us and traveled to Kyiv (that’s Kiev in Ukrainian). Instead of checking into a hotel, we rented a spacious apartment – three bedrooms, kitchen and high-speed internet included. It was located on the ninth floor of an old Soviet-style high-rise. The elevator was tiny, and every time we used it, the hidden mechanisms creaked and screamed in different noises. At times, I had the impression that there was someone sitting on top of the cabin, scratching it with a huge metal screw. But from what I’ve learned, it was one of the better ones.

[Listen to the Soviet Elevator of Doom]

In the afternoon, we walked around the city, marvelled at the beautiful views from a hill, witnessed two death-defying mountain bikers racing down a steep slope, and ended up in an Ukranian pan-transportation themed restaurant – it was situated on a boat, but looked like the Orient express from the inside. The food was amazing – marinated vegetables, salo (slices of meat… well, fat, really), borscht (stew), and pilmeni (Ukranian ravioli) – the only drawback was that my stomach didn’t agree with it, and I didn’t get much sleep that night.

Impressions from Kyiv & Riga: