Prypyat: The Chernobyl ghost town, Ukraine

Before April 26th, 1986, Prypyat was a model Soviet town. It was the place where dignitaries were taken to see how well the system was working, and was full of young families and high-tech workers.
And then came the Chernobyl disaster. Everything changed.
Prypyat was the town built to service the massive Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine, and when the world’s worst nuclear disaster occurred, it was rapidly evacuated.
The town’s 35,000 – 50,000 residents (as with everything about Chernobyl, numbers are disputed) were rushed out of the city within two days.
Their belongings remained behind, as it was thought they would return.
They never did – the radiation levels from the Chernobyl reactor just 2km away still remain too high. And now the model city is overgrowing with plants, weeds and radioactive moss.
On a tour of the Chernobyl nuclear exclusion zone, one of the ‘highlights’ is visiting Prypyat.
The visit takes in a fairground that was scheduled to open shortly after the Chernobyl explosion – the iconic big wheel and rusting dodgems are still there.
It also takes in a derelict hotel and swimming pool.
But most heart-wrenching of all is walking around the school. Like the other buildings it is overgrown, crumbling and vandalised. But some clear remnants remain.
Library books are spilled over the floor, other books with rudimentary drawings in remain on tables, while the sports hall is still full of rotting basketballs and footballs.
It’s an altogether eerie experience, and the over-riding impression is that humans will never return to Prypyat on a full time basis.

Getting to Prypyat

Nearest international airport: Kiev Borispol
Using public transport: It’s not going to happen. Special permission is needed to enter the 30km-radius exclusion zone around Chernobyl, and the only way to get it is joining a tour group. Solo East Travel is the best bet. The zone is approximately two to two-and-a-half hours north of Kiev.

World's smallest book in Kiev's Micro Miniatures Museum

If there was any justice in this world, Mykola Syadistry would be regarded as one of the greatest artists in history. Granted, the Ukrainian-born genius is hardly the best painter or sculptor the world has ever seen, but his achievements are huge.
Or, rather, they’re small. Very small. And that’s what makes them so unique.
In Kiev’s World Heritage-listed caves monastery (Kiev-Pechersk Lavra), there is a room given over to an exhibition of Syadistry’s ‘micro-miniature’ art. It’s essentially a museum packed with powerful microscopes and some very tiny (and very odd) masterpieces.
‘Long Live Peace’ (in Ukrainian), is engraved on a human hair. There are miniscule portraits of Ernest Hemingway and Yuri Gagarin, and Kobzar – claimed to be the world’s smallest book.
The latter has twelve pages, including some of Syadistry’s verse and a portrait of himself. It comes in at just 0.6 square millimetres.
Most impressive, however, are the golden chess set on a pin head and the picture of Russian composer V V Andreev. He is etched onto glass and fitted into one half of a poppy seed, while his balalaika fills the other half. For a sense of scale, information plaques tell the visitor that the strings of the balalaika in this picture are 40 times thinner than a man’s hair.

Getting to the Micro Miniature Museum in Kiev, Ukraine
Nearest international airport: Kiev Borispol.
Using public transport: Get the Metro to Dnipro or Pecherska – it’s about a fifteen minute walk from both.
More information: Go to the Kiev caves monastery website.

Tour Chernobyl from Kiev, Ukraine

Holiday destinations don’t get any more unusual than the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. But it is possible to go on a deeply disturbing day trip to the scene of the world’s worst ever nuclear disaster.
The day trip starts from the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, and takes visitors within 100m of Reactor Number Four. This was the one that exploded in the early hours of April 26th 1986, spreading a cloud of radiation as far as Scandinavia.
There are many disturbing things about the tour. Sights on the way to the world’s most notorious nuclear power plant include trees turned red by the radiation, giant catfish swimming in the cooling ponds and houses buried underground in order to contain the contamination.
At all times, the tour guide has a Geiger counter to monitor the levels of radiation the group is being exposed to, while safety precautions include not standing on the moss and not picking up stones or debris.
Reactor Four at Chernobyl is a truly frightening sight. No-one really knows what is going on underneath the cement ‘sarcophagus’, and – most alarmingly – it is clearly crumbling.
It was originally a makeshift containment solution, and a new multi-billion dollar shelter is planned, but for now it’s quite clear that the prospect of a second Chernobyl disaster is not exactly in the realms of fantasy.

Getting to Chernobyl, Ukraine

Nearest international airport: Kiev Borispol
Using public transport: It’s not going to happen. Special permission is needed to enter the 30km-radius exclusion zone around Chernobyl, and the only way to get it is joining a tour group. Solo East Travel is the best bet. The zone is approximately two to two-and-a-half hours drive north of Kiev.