Chernobyl and Pripyat

Day Two - Part Two

I emerged from the hospital, hours later, dumbfounded by my experience. I stumbled through the snow back to the Land Rover, jaw still dragging behind me. As I babbled on to Arek about how awesome this whole site was, he pointed me in the direction of another large building - a school.

School #1 - Middle School?

I'm not sure, but if I had to guess I'd say it was a middle school. I broke in through an open window to a classroom with books open on the desks. After the explosion, this school was also used as a staging area for workers, so at some places there were particle masks littering the floor.

I made my way through and up the three floors, poking my head in to each room, once again astounded at what I was seeing. At one point, the floor nearly collapsed under me and I jumped away just in time to hear a part of the floor crashing on to the concrete below. I pressed on.

In some places, the floor had collapsed completely through all three stories, making just a pile of rubble on the ground below.

May Day Fair

Perhaps the most iconic images of Pripyat after the disaster ever distributed are of the ferris wheel. The way the story is told is that the town was in preparation of the annual May Day parade and fair when the explosion happened on April 26th. The town of Pripyat was abandoned 36 hours later, and residents were only allowed to return months later to collect personal belongings. The rest of the town lies almost exactly how it was that fateful day, celebrations included.

There was no passable road in the snow to approach the ferris wheel, so we approached on foot. It loomed in the distance as we hiked closer and closer, passing through blocks of soviet era concrete apartment buildings.

There are bumper cars next to the ferris wheel, stuck forever in the same positions as their drivers left them.

We finally arrived at the base of the attractions and, naturally, my first response was, "I have to climb that". And given that our government escort was off wandering around and chatting on his cell phone, there was no problem. I went right up the ladder.

I'm most excited exploring when I'm in a new location - somewhere that's never been photographed or maybe even visited in many years. Having seen so many photographs of the ferris wheel before my arrival, I was somewhat jaded and not as interested as I maybe should have been. I was much more intrigued by the things I hadn't seen before in photographs on the Internet. That said, it's still an amazing location, looking up at the bleak Ukrainian sky behind the fading yellow of the once-joyous attractions at the center of town.

As I got ready to climb down from the top of the wheel, Arek had managed to bring the car to us saving us a hike back!

Downtown - Rec Center/Power Plant Offices

Close by we visited a recreational center complete with boxing ring and basketball courts. And a climbing rope, which I naturally had to climb. (Seeing a trend yet?)

We continued walking downtown and passed a supermarket piled up with rubble and an ominous sign marking the power plant offices. The radiation symbol, in true Soviet style, was the only marking on the otherwise nondescript building. In retrospect, it's a very eerie sight to see crowded among the other bland concrete buildings.

In its time, Pripyat was the beacon of Soviet excellence, a model city to be emulated. It has a very strange vibe, like they were all trying very hard but failing at having any sort of culture of their own.