Ukraine

Jul 26 UA872 YYZ-FRA, Jul 27 LH1490 FRA-KBP, Jul 30 LH1491 KBP-FRA, AC877 FRA-YYZ

As I was looking for new countries to visit in 2019 on my quest for 100 countries, Ukraine was high on my list. Unfortunately Tom wasn’t really interested in visiting Kiev; however, when I through in the opportunity to visit Chernobyl, Tom’s interest was piqued. Thankfully, there were some very reasonable business class fares from Toronto to Kiev, so we enjoyed more time in the Air Canada Signature Suite in Toronto for a wonderful early dinner before our flight.

Jul 27

After showering in Frankfurt after our overnight flight, we connected to our Kiev flight, arriving in the early afternoon to make our way to our hotel in the city centre. Coming into the city, we noticed a number of road closures that we later learned were related to the 1031 anniversary of the Christianization of Kiev at the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. After checking in to the hotel, we got out to explore the city.

Ceremony at St Michael’s Monastery

Part of the procession carrying a holy book into St Michael’s Monestary

St Michael’s Golden-Domed Monestary

More of the long procession

Making their way into the building

Even the monks were capturing the spectacle

Brand new glass bridge connecting Volodymyrska Hill and Marinnsky Park

Looking up the Dnieper River and the lower city

Friendship of Nations Monument celebrating 1654 unification between Russia and Ukraine in better times

Imposing statues of Independence Square

Another of the many fountains in Independence Square

Presidential Administration of Ukraine (Office of the President) supports the Ukrainian President

House with Chimaeras or Horodecki House, an Art Nouveau building in the Lypky neighbourhood

One of many neo-gothic residences as we continued our walking tour

Verkhovna Rada is the Ukraine Parliament

Mariyinsky Palace, ceremonial residence of the Ukrainian President

Some cotton candy theatrics in Mariinsky Park

The sunny weather had many out exploring the new glass bridge

Looking down on many of the bridges that connect Kiev

Statue of Volodymyr the Great overlooking the Dnipro River and surrounding parks

We ended a long day of travel and exploration with some drinks and snacks in the hotel lounge before a well earned rest.

Jul 28

We normally make it a point to not visit countries that are actively at war, but have visited a few. Since the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 there has been ongoing tension in eastern Ukraine with disputes over lands and sovereignty. Although the conflict peaked in 2014 and 2015, nothing is completely resolved and there are forces within Ukraine that still favour stronger ties to Russia. A few weeks before we arrived, there was a grenade attack on a local TV station in Kiev so the tensions were real and still-present. This tension also impacted the churches with the formal separation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from the Russian Orthodox church in 2019. With the church-anniversary events of the weekend, this meant heavy military fortification around the cities main Cathedral and surrounding area that included our hotel. Although we appreciated the protections, it didn’t make us feel any safer knowing that there was real risk.

We didn’t let it ruin our day and continued to enjoy the summer weather and exploring the beautiful city and its inhabitants living their normal lives.

Zoloti Vorota - Gate Church and the Old City gates in the 11th century fortifications

Statue of Yaroslav the Wise (Grand Prince) holding St. Sofia Cathedral beside the gate

Karaite Kenesa building, now the House of Actors, another stop on our architectural tour

National Opera of Ukraine

Massive Bessarabsky Rynok indoor market

“Middle Way” hand sculpture meant to symbolize friendship and cooperation sits next to the base of the Lenin statue destroyed by protesters in 2013, now topped by the Ukraine coat of arms

Interior of Bessarabsky Rynok fresh market, reminds me a lot of Toronto’s St. Lawrence market

Imposing building tower above large fountain on the Khreshchatyk, the main street of Kiev named for a river now running beneath it

Street art adorns the massive independence square

Lyadsky Gate in independence square

Climbing the bell tower outside St. Sophia’s cathedral

Looking from the cathedral to the Monastery, a regular procession route, earlier fortified with soldiers. Our hotel was next to the tower on the route

Stunning St Sophia’s cathedral dating back to 1017-31

The Virgin Orans above the main alter c. 1000

Closeup on the golden alter

Broad perspective of cathedral interior

St Andrew’s Church, built in 1754, as we make our on our way down Andriyivskyy Descent to the commercial port area of Podil

Nativity of the Christ Church in the crowded Podil area

Church of Mikoli Miracle Worker on the riverbank

Due to the high river bank, Ukraine’s subway is one of the deepest. We took one stop from Podil back to our hotel in the upper bank

The fountains of Independence Square greet us when we finally surface from the subway

After having covered the city from top to bottom we decompressed at the hotel and turned in early to be ready for our early morning journey to Chernobyl.

Jul 29

Although we’d planned well before, with all of the increased interest in Chernobyl driven by the HBO mini-series, there were a large number of tours leaving every morning for the nuclear plant tour. We met our minibus in Independence square after breakfast and started our drive to the exclusion zones. On the way, we were oriented to the procedures and given the Geiger counters we had rented as part of our tour. To go in, we needed to have closed-toed shoes, long pants and long sleeves, and had to wear a dosimeter that tracked our exposure during the visit. We were guided the entire way and our guide’s position was tracked. We were also scanned on the way out to determine if we had brought back anything radioactive (including ourselves). The procedures gave a small feeling of safety, but there were certainly dangerous areas in the exclusion zone that we needed to respect.

Original welcome to Chernobyl sign in the outer exclusion zone

Our mini-van for the day

Some of the many derelict houses in the old town of Chernobyl for which the plant was named, but 15km South of the plant

Although many statues of Lenin have been removed from Ukraine, this one still stands in Chernobyl

Memorial to the losses from Chernobyl

Signs for each of the 91 villages and towns that no longer exist in the exclusion zone

After lunch and now inside the inner exclusion zone. First look at the Chernobyl reactors. The fourth reactor on the far left exploded on April 16, 1986 and has a new EU-financed, 100-year enclosure to enclose and allow the safe disassembly of the original, hastily-constructed Sarcophagus, now crumbling due to exposure and radiation.

Memorial and up close to Reactor #4. As close as we were, this was some of the lower readings on the Geiger counter as it was centre of remediation

Pripyat welcome sign, built at a happier time. The town was built to house the workers when construction began in 1970, with the first reactor online in 1977.

We stopped at the side of the road to test out our Geiger counters on a local hotspot

Our tour group had ranges of comfort and respect for the rules. We started seeing localized elevated levels here

The overgrown town square, with abandoned apartment behind

Remains of the Entertainment complex

An abandoned restaurant at the overgrown town centre

Ferris wheel in the amusement park that had been set up for the May day celebrations of 1986

Vegetation has mostly recovered in the less impacted areas

Bumper cars returning to nature

Some how this is still mostly standing after all these years without maintenance

Stadium seating with a lighting tower behind

Because of the lack of maintenance, we weren’t supposed to be inside any buildings, but our guide felt that he should take us into the more stable buildings, like the school

Lessons and notices still in the school

No one knows why, but this room in the school is full of gas masks, now disintegrating

The pool building was quite derelict; soft spots on the floor were a little disconcerting

The still very radioactive claw (>100 microsieverts/hr) was used in the clean up.

Driving through the still very radioactive red forest, we weren’t allowed to stop, but inside the van our Geiger counter still peaked at 10x base

Top secret over-the-horizon radar system, still standing in the exclusion zone designed to detect American missiles, was shutdown after the accident — it was a major consumer of Chernobyl’s electric power.

Apartments in top secret Chernobyl 2 military establishment supporting the radar. Was abandoned after the accident but not officially acknowledged for many years.

Model of the military establishment

Some of the vehicles used in the cleanup also still radioactive.

Another of the cleanup vehicles. Our last stop before heading to the exit

Before we could leave the exclusion zone we were scanned for excess radiation. Since we were safe and followed the rules there were no issues.

Now back in Kiev, we returned to exploring the old city in the evening, finding St Andrew’s Church.

Replica of Yaroslac the Wise monument at the observation platform

View of Podil below from the platform

Recapturing an evening view of the Statue of Volodymyr the Great overlooking the Dnipro River that we saw during the day on our first day in Kiev.

Having survived a wonderful tour of Chernobyl and a chance to explore Kiev at night we had completed most of our sightseeing goals for the trip.

Jul 30

With one last morning in Kiev, although we’d covered most of the main attractions, we had just a few remaining main things to check out before our afternoon flight home.

WWII memorial and eternal flame 

More of the eternal glory park

Egg statue in the Upper Lavra complex

The 62m high Motherland Monument opened in 1982 is part of the 2nd World War national museum, standing tall on the hillside

Dormition Catherdral is a key fixutre in the Upper Lavra before we make our way to the dark caves of the lower Lavra

Heading back to the hotel we caught a picture of the Mariyinsky Palace with a little better lighting than our first visit

Having made the most of our long weekend, we checked out of the hotel and headed for the airport for our early afternoon flight home. Although Chernobyl was the main reason for our visit, Kiev turned out to be a beautiful city and was happy that we made Ukraine country #97 on our journey to #100.