travel

Chernobyl Journal #2: The road to Chernobyl

Sunday, April 19th, 2009 | project wormwood, travel journal, video | No Comments

This is part two of my travel photo journal to the Chernobyl zone of exclusion. Check out the Chernobyl Journal page for the full story, all pictures, videos and sounds.

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Our tour to Chernobyl was scheduled for Thursday and Friday.

Entry into the zone of exclusion is only allowed with proper authorizations and a tour guide. I was in contact with our guide Yuriy from the Chernobyl InterInform agency – that’s the official state authority – a couple of weeks before the trip and had arranged a 7:30 pickup from a street close to our apartment. I apparently woke him by a phone call at 7:15. “Yes, I will be there in 20 minutes”, he said, which our Riga colleagues translated as: “I will get out of bed now.” › Continue reading

Tags: Chernobyl, roadtrip, travel

Chernobyl Journal #1: From Basel to Kyiv

Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 | project wormwood, travel journal | 2 Comments

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. › Continue reading

Tags: Chernobyl, journal, Kiev, Kyiv, photographs, photography, Pripyat, Riga, travel, Ukraine, urban

Destinations around Chernobyl

Friday, March 20th, 2009 | project wormwood | 3 Comments

Finally, my vacation has started! I will spend the next few days making the last preparations for the trip, which starts on Tuesday with a stop-over in Riga, Latvia. From there we will travel to Kyiv on Wednesday, and spend Thursday to Friday in the zone of exclusion.

But what can you actually see around Chernobyl? Well, check out our Google map of the area (the resolution is amazing!):

Link

The zone contains 5 main areas to visit:

Prypiat, the ghost city (west of the danger symbol): Once a city of 10 000 people which was abandoned over night; contains a lot of buildings and interesting sights, including a school, a hospital, a public swimming pool and a ferris wheel.
The power plant area (east of the danger symbol): Includes the Chernobyl sarcophagus, the other reactors 1-3, a large power grid, as well as an island with the unfinished reactors 5 and 6.
Chernobyl city (southeast of Prypiat): Once abandoned, now home to the research station and about 500 citizens, mostly nuclear scientists
The radar station “Chernobyl 2″ (west of Chernobyl city): Once a Soviet military secret, now a rusty installation
The abandoned vehicle yard (southwest of Chernobyl city): A huge graveyard for vehicles deemed too contaminated to leave the zone – zoom close, it’s worth it!

We haven’t decided which areas we will be visiting, but we will likely spend a whole day in Prypiat because it’s such a big area, and use the other day for specific sites such as the reactors or the shipyard. The weather will have a big influence as well.

Any postcard wishes? What areas would interest you most?

Tags: Chernobyl, map, Prypiat, sights, travel

New Photo Set: Hawaii 2002

Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 | gallery, non-decay | No Comments

After having scanned 2600 35mm negatives, I thought it might be nice to share some of them. Here are 36 pictures from my 2002 trip to the Hawaiian islands. They are decidedly non-decay, mind you.