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Fantastic experience
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Author:  sj1987 [ 26 Jul 2012, 13:20 ]
Post subject:  Fantastic experience

We took the Chernobyl tour on July the 13th and we truly had a great experience which we'll never forget.

We met in Kiev in the early morning and were taken by bus to the zone's border. For us, the trip through the Ukrainian landscape was an experience on it self. It is SO much different than driving through the Dutch landcape. Things like old people sitting alongside the road selling fruit is something which you would never see in the Netherlands. Other things like passing through small Ukrainian villages already contributed to the whole Chernobyl atmosphere for us.

In the bus, we got to see some footage which was about what happened after the explosion of the reactor. It was mostly in Russian so we didn't really get most of it. Many thanks to our translator, a microbiologist, who could speak English fluently and was with us all the way during the tour, we had no trouble interpreting the footage's meaning.

Before we reached the zone's border, we stopped at several places which were historically linked to the Chernobyl accident. We visited a monument which had the names all the victims on it and some old abandoned villages. These villages actually weren't really villages anymore. It was more like a collection of derelict houses. We were truly amazed by the fact that all the stuff (like clothing and cookery) was still there and has been there for over 26 years. The radiation level on the ground was already massively high here and we hadn't even reached the 10 km zone yet.

When the entered the zone, one of the most impressive parts we got to see was of course the city of Pripyat. The whole Chernobyl atmosphere can really be felt here because of all the abandoned apartment blocks, houses and of course the infamous fair. We also got to enter some of these abandoned buildings (like a school, gym and a swimming pool) never feeling unsafe for one moment thanks to all of our guides.

The other highlight of the tour was of course the reactor itself and it's massive level of radiation near it. It was really bizarre that we were standing just like 300 meters away from the reactor where it all happened.

We also had lunch in the canteen near the reactor where we got scanned for levels of radiation. All of our group members were clear so the risk of getting too much radiation is probably really low.
The food we had in the canteen and even the canteen itself was again so much different than we know it in the Netherlands. Our translator said it still was in Soviet style (canteen and the food) which we had never seen and we though it was really great to have experienced such a thing.

Other things we did were the feeding of giant catfish, visiting some ship wrecks and visiting the city of Chernobyl itself and some monuments. We arrived back in Kiev on like 7:30 in the evening. When we got back to our hotel, we were already making plans for another trip with Chernobyl-tours because we were so amazed by what we had seen that day.

At first we thought it maybe was dangerous to be in such high radiation levels for too long. Fortunately our guides comforted us by saying you could easily be exposed to such a high level for a day without any health risks. One great thing about the this tour was that they the guides did everything to ALWAYS ensure that you never felt unsafe at any moment. Which is an important thing, especially in an infamous place like Chernobyl.

We really had a wonderful experience with Chernobyl-tours. Everything is perfectly organized and even though as a Dutchman you can't understand what the tour guides are saying, you know they are nice guys and are specialists in providing you with information of Chernobyl. Many special thanks goes out to our wonderful translator who was with us all the way!! Without her, we could not have understood anything. Thanks again for this wonderful day and you'll probably see us again in the not too distant future!!

Author:  mir [ 26 Jul 2012, 23:13 ]
Post subject:  Re: Fantastic experience

MANY THANKS!

Your warm feedback stimulates the team of "Chernobyl-TOUR" to introduce new thematic trips with new, not less interesting objects. Hopefully, the most fantastic experience is still ahead :)))

Good luck! - and stay in touch!
Sergii MIRNYI

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