The Disaster In Film

When you see photos of the Chernobyl reactor now, you really don't understand just how horrible and deadly the disaster really was. Wrapped up in its sarcophagus, it looks like any other industrial building - a cool private property surrounded by tall cement walls topped by razor wire and heavily guarded by security. The kind of place any urban explorer would love to get into. If you weren't aware of the history - and kids born in the 90s probably aren't - there's nothing here to really give you a sense of the mighty disaster that could have torn the world apart.

There's a short film on YouTube that was shot by filmmaker Vladimir Shevchenko, one of the first on the scene at the disaster in April 1986. His images are haunting - they show the panic as people try to deal with the explosion, working in extreme radiation conditions either without protective gear or with just paper masks to keep them safe. Shevchenko died several weeks after shooting the film from radiation exposure. His name never made it among the official casualties list.

Reflections on Ruin

It's been a long road, filtering through the hundreds of photos from Pripyat and the reactor, trying to whittle them down to those few perfect ones. The ones that capture the essence of our trip, truly convey the mood of that abandoned and silent city, and tell the story that we ourselves can only begin to fully comprehend.

On the overnight train ride from Odessa to Lviv, Photomat had shown me the documentary he had about the Chernobyl incident - I really have to get the name of it from him. It had footage of Pripyat, showing it as an active and lively city just before and after the explosion.

I was amazed at how well preserved the buildings were from what I could see in the footage. Other than windows being shattered, which can probably be chalked up to vandalism more than decay, the structures themselves were in amazing shape. The big difference was the vegetation and animal life.

When we had passed through the main checkpoint heading into the city proper, we were told by Evgeny (photo at right with me), our (amazing) guide that we were now driving on the main thoroughfare. Considering that the road was just wide enough for his car and the trees were canopied and just brushing the top, this seemed quite an impossibility. However, the documentary clearly showed that this main thoroughfare was quite an avenue - along the lines of Toronto's University Avenue - two grand roads with a garden-like divide. We just couldn't see it, nature had taken over completely and the road was one big pothole.

Another difference was in the overall layout of the city. We had made our way to the top of the hotel, sweating in our white alien-like anti-radiation suits, climbing 9 (or 10?) floors to get a wonderful view of the entire city from the long-gone wall-to-wall windows in what I assume had been a penthouse suite. Scanning the horizon, you felt like you were in some Green Party's Utopian cityscape - you could barely see below the 3rd floor of any building as everything was overgrown with trees, shrubs, vines, ferns, and other native forms of vegetation. It was quite beautiful - so green and lush and quiet. You could almost imagine that you were an explorer and had found a lost civilization - until your dosimeter would go off to remind you of all the radiation.

Looking at the documentary gave us a completely different view of the cityscape. Pripyat looked more like what you would expect to see in European locations like Kyiv, Prague, or Vienna. Most of the buildings had vast concrete plazas in front of them and the city had a larger metal/concrete to nature ratio. They were surrounded by forest and had some garden areas around the housing but schoolyards were concrete, and so were roads, and walkways. It's amazing just how easily plants were able to take hold in this concrete jungle and reclaim it.

The other night, we caught a bit of the series Life After People, which is supposed to chronicle in a timeline what will happen to cities once man is gone and nature and animals take over again. Sounded interesting and it's been recommended to me since I like to shoot abandoned spaces. The episode which looks at life after 20 years is supposed to focus entirely on Pripyat as they used it as the real-life example of the level of decay for this time span. I'm looking forward to finding some time to look at that episode and see how well it meshes with my own personal experience.

I was glad that we had watched the documentary after our trip as we could compare what we had seen and experienced to how the city looked and functioned when it was still vital.

The Pharmacy Museum

Lviv, Ukraine

Post Mortem

We're back, safe and sound and going through the process of picking our way through 1500+ photos. Until our exhibit about Chernobyl and Pripyat, we won't be posting any photos of those locations - don't want to give that away - but I'll be posting a photo daily from the other locations we visited on our adventure.

Soviet style architecture at the Ministry of Health - Kiev

A Shopaholic in Ukraine

What do you do when you've seen all the sights (or at least you think you have?) in the city of Ukrainian love? You go shopping.

It's easier said than done, though, when it turns out you're in a city that doesn't seem to recognize any of your credit cards (thank you MC and VISA) and spits out your bank card from the ATMs like a bad piece of meat. To top it off, most restaurants and shops only take cash - Ukrainian hryvnias and not US dollars either. It was definitely a challenge to get my shopping groove on.

We hit the artist's market for a second day, hoping to see something new or perhaps overlooked and finally get some souvenirs. The most interesting sight there was the row of embroidery with the ladies (and one or two men) sitting in front of their wares with needle and thread in hand working on new pieces. Some beautiful men's and women's shirts as well as cute little girl's costumes could be purchased at really reasonable prices. The more complicated patterns could be seen on the rushnyky (like table runners) and full table cloths. Everything from border patterns to full overall patterns in every colour with patterns from every region of the country were on display. It was really beautiful.

After the market we made our way towards the main park near the Opera House for some people watching. They have about a dozen small electric cars here that parents rent out for about 10 minutes for their children. Half of them allow for the children to drive themselves and the other half are remote controlled with the parents actually driving the car. It was really adorable watching the little girls in the remote control cars, completely oblivious to the wheel or direction they were going in, more intent on their dresses, hands, birds, really anything but the experience. I think the parents were having the most fun.

Near the park there was quite a commotion with police, ambulance, and secret service agents surrounding an outdoor cafe. When we stumbled upon it - being really oblivious to the whole scene until it was too late - we realized that the President of Ukraine was having lunch with a large group of people right on the patio and was engaged in some grand conversation. Lots of hand gesturing and glass raising was going on. You never know if this was a political luncheon or if he just wanted to get out and have a nice patio lunch. I would have taken a photo if I wasn't worried about being pounced upon by a dozen secret service agents.

We're sitting in the "luxurious internet lounge" at the Lviv train station (3 hryvnia/hour to sit + 7 hryvnia/hour to use the internet) waiting for our train to show up. Another night of back breaking travel back to Kyiv - I love the fact that I can close my eyes in one city and open them in another, but those "beds" are murder on the spine, and we're traveling in luxe. I'd hate to see how they travel in the regular cars.

One more day in Ukraine tomorrow and then it's a short hop to Frankfurt and back home. It will be nice to be home - the adventure has been grand!

Last morning in Lviv

View from the Citadel

Meet Me At The Cemetery Gates

Its been the day of the dead as we travelled from one end of the city to the other to explore two different cemeteries.

LYCHAKIV CEMETERY

Our first trek was to the famous historic necropolis created in 1787. Originally located on several hills in in the borough of Lychakiv outside the city limits, it was expanded in the mid-1850s in a design of alleys and round-abouts and quickly became the main cemetery for the city as most others closed. Denominations here include all Christian sects, Roman Catholics, Eastern Rite Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox. After WWII, Lviv was annexed by the Soviet Union and many of historical monuments were destroyed as well as many sculptures - and this devastation continued well into the 70s. However, in 1975 the cemetery was declared a national historic monument and this stopped the vandalism. Today is it one of the main tourist attractions in the city. Some of the famous Ukrainian people buried in the cemetery include:

• Ivan Franko - Ukrainian poet
• Oleksandr Tysowkyj - founder of Ukrainian scouting
• Jacques Hnizdovsky - painter, printmaker, sculptor, bookplate designer and illustrator of numerous books both in English and Ukrainian
• Veterans of WWI and WWII
• Victims of the NKVD

I knew I would love this cemetery the minute I walked into it. Like Pere Lachaise in Paris, the tombs are mostly above ground and there are many cobblestone rows of ancient crumbling tombs. The statuary in the old section is quite beautiful and mostly angels or busts of the people that have died. The most unique, and quite pretty monuments that I found were the ones that included cameos on ceramic in sepia for the 1920s monuments and in pastels for the 1960s.

Many parts of the cemetery seem to have been forgotten, with the plots overgrown with vines, moss and tall wild ferns. We were able to meander down the side aisles where it felt like you were in a jungle and some tombstone were completely covered over and could no longer be read or, sometimes, even be seen.

If not for the tour groups I could have been there all day.

JEWISH CEMETERY

Although they don't put a name to this cemetery on the complete other side of town in our guidebook - it was recommended as a place to go to see what was left of the Jewish cemetery which had been destroyed in the war and to see several soldier's memorials. Somewhere near there was also supposed to be a marker for a former concentration camp, which we were never able to find.

This cemetery was also quite beautiful, with the same above ground tombstones and old metal and stone statuary. Although many of the plots were also overgrown with moss and vines, you could tell that many more people were coming in here and taking care of the plots than in the other cemetery. Everything was a bit cleaner and well maintained.

We spent quite a long time just wandering around, looking for the resting places of the Soviet soldiers (kind of found), Ukrainian soldiers (found), German soldiers (really tried to find and couldn't), and victims of the NKVD (nope).

As we were winding our way out towards the back entrance we made it into the small Jewish section of the cemetery. It was an interesting sight. The tombstones, both old and new, were in both Ukrainian and Yiddish, and were quite beautiful. They were both old and new, spanning design styles from modern shiny marble to the old stone with inset cameos. What was different in this section, something that we had not seen anywhere else, were the cages. Many of the tombstones and memorials were in cages surrounding the entire plot - some as large as about 6' x 6'. The doors were locked and you could not get close. This seemed so odd to us and then we came upon a memorial that had been defaced - the name was missing and the engraved face looked like it had been gouged out. We think that perhaps it is from fear of this type of defacement and vandalism that this section has resorted to putting protective cages around their loved one's memorials. If so, it is sad that people have to do this in order to protect their memories.

It's been a long day, we walked from the middle of the city to one end, the back and to the other end, then back again. My dogs are barking big time.

Tomorrow is our last day in Lviv as we head back to Kyiv for a last hurrah before our flight back to Canada. I will miss this city of the Nouveau Art.

Potions, Lotions, and Sexual Deviants

I've fallen in love with Lviv.

It's like I've walked into a time warp and I'm back at the beginning of the 20th century - Art Nouveau architecture surrounds me at every turn. Beautiful iron balconies in smooth curves and repetitive plant patterns. Hyperbolas and parabolas abound in windows and doors, as well as gateways to the courtyards beyond. It's like walking into the land of Mucha. Considering this is my favourite art movement, I am completely in heaven.

It's been a real struggle to stop, then look up. I keep walking with my gaze upward, staring at all the unbelievable architecture and find myself stumbling over the cobblestone road, walking into people, or worse yet, into cars.

We spent a good part of the morning at a rather unusual but extremely interesting and photogenic location - the Apothecary Museum. Located right downtown across from City Hall, it contains three floors of potions, lotions, herbs, and apothecary paraphernalia from times gone by. For an extra 3 hryvnia (about 25 cents) we were allowed to photograph inside. We just couldn't get enough of all the old bottles, ampules, and jars. Some were labeled in English, some Ukrainian, and then languages of all sorts. It was intriguing - especially finding the bottles of Cocaine, Morphine, and Heroine. You forget that these were once used as legitimate medicines. The jars of dried herb - dozens and dozens of them - were quite beautiful to look at, especially with their cyrillic labels. The herb were so old in them, they looked like ancient potpourri in bell jars. For some reason, I started humming the Addams Family theme song....

We hit the local arts and crafts market for some shopping (finally). Once you got around the reproduction icons and the flea market Jesus "paintings" there were actually some nice pieces to look at, especially the row of hand-made embroidered shirts and rushnyky. Some real work went into these. I'm lucky enough that I have several table runners and small square pieces that were made by both my grandmothers and I cherish them dearly.

On the flip side, we stopped by the Masoch Cafe and the statue commemorating Leopold von-Sacher Masoch. Never heard of him? Neither had I until I read a small bit about him in my travel book. Born in Lviv on January 27, 1836 (an Aquarian like me), he was an Austrian writer and journalist who was seen by some as a successor to Goethe. A utopian thinker who espoused socialist and humanist ideals in his writings, his most successful novel was Venus in Furs, the only one you can obtain in English. So why does he have a monument?

Although he begain his carrer by writing non-fiction about Austrian history, Masoch's Venus in Furs expressed his fantasies and fetishes, especially for dominant women wearing fur. In addition to writing out his fantasies for the public, he also lived them out with his mistress and wives. He had signed a contract with his mistress making him her slave for 6 months with the stipulation that she wear fur as often as possible, especially when she was in a cruel mood. He spent his last years in deteriorating mental health in an asylum in Germany. In 1886 the Austrian psychiatrist Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing invented the term masochism based on Leopold's fantasies and experiences.

It seems the people of Lviv are quite proud of their past, wether deviant or devout, as witnessed by the bronze statue to Leopold, the Masoch Cafe, and the many Masoch souvenirs that you can purchase throughout the city. Nice to see this pretty little town has a kinky side.

Tomorrow it's off to the cemetery.

Masoch!

Getting Jiggy in Odessa

You hear about the whole "Russian Bride" thing and people going overseas or online to places like Thailand or Eastern Europe to get themselves some young, naive girl to bring back to North America as their life partner - but you picture it being some older (really older) bachelor with lots of money, a real Hugh Hefner type.

Not so.

Today was a real eye opener in the world of foreign brides. We stopped for lunch at an Odessa landmark that serves traditional Ukrainian food in a farm style setting where all the wait staff wears Ukrainian costume. Quite a unique place - in a Disney sort of surreal atmosphere. Somehow we managed to get a table right next to an American guy - a Stanford and Morton graduate - sitting with what we quickly realized were a marriage broker/translator and the petite blonde intended bride.

It was the weirdest conversation we've ever heard. The broker would ask Mr. Stanford Guy (SG) about himself, he would talk on and on about his education, background, work, etc., and then she would translate it into Russian for the extremely disinterested blonde. The whole time SG would order food and drink for them all and talk to about what they might like for him to buy as gifts, where they would like to go shopping, etc.

SG was not ugly, a regular geek sort of guy and obviously well off. He was fit, well kept, and dressed well. We couldn't understand why he would go to Eastern Europe to get a date or future life mate. Especially one he obviously couldn't communicate with. What would life be like back in the US? What kind of conversations would they have? How exactly is he introducing her to his family?

In the end who is using who? Is he getting himself a trophy wife from Eastern Europe - a nubile young girl who must depend on him for everything due to the language barrier? Or is she getting herself a meal ticket out of Eastern Europe in the form of a rich middle-aged guy who is going to take care of her and perhaps her whole family? The lines get a little blurry.

u-cranes

Descent Into Darkness

Today was a day for facing fears head on.

We met up with our guides at the train station bright and early. Both students, Egene is born and raised in Odessa, and his girlfriend Olena graciously provided the transportation for the day. If she could predict the future, she may have rethought that a bit.

We headed outside the city - although the catacombs run under the city as well, many of the entrances here are either very touristy or are used by homeless or thieves and can be very dangerous. As the catacombs run 2500 km through Odessa and the neighbouring countryside, it is safer to venture outside the city boundaries to the more remote entrances.

Eugene has been exploring the catacombs for about 5 years, both alone and with friends. He knows the passages by heart now and sometime goes in for two or three days, sleeping inside the maze of tunnels, trying to find new entrances and mapping out new routes for further exploration. If anyone was going to get us in there and back out safely it would be Eugene.

We parked down a dirt sideroad in a town called Linka (sp?) and started a long walk to the entrance we would use. A photo taken by Photomat is posted of what we entered through, nothing more than a hole in a hillside - something that most people would just walk by. Eugene and Olena had brought jumpers to wear inside - giving us an idea of the sort of exploration we were in for - but having shown up in Ukraine by plane, we could only bring so much with us so in we went in our own protective gear of jeans, jackets, hiking shoes, hats, and head lamps.

I can completely understand how someone can get lost in these tunnels. Without a lamp it is pitch black inside. The tunnels were initially carved by hand and were used as a stone quarry with the limestone used to build most of the original buildings in Odessa. In the 60s, machinery was brought in to carve out additional tunnels and cut out the limestone pieces. The mine closed down in the 70s as there was no more limestone to cut out and the catacomb maze was just too big.

Eugene took us through too many branches of the maze than I can count. I also stopped counting the amount of time that I hit my head on the limestone jutting down from the ceiling, which wasn't all smooth or the same height. Luckily I wore a hat or my head would have been bleeding a little, I think. In some places you could stand tall, in some you had to crouch a bit, and in some you were almost on your knees as you went through the main tunnels. My back aches just thinking about it now. The only animal we saw in there was the occasional fleeting bat and it was having a much easier time getting through than we were.

My moment of sheer fear came when we seemed to hit a complete dead end and Eugene motioned to the small hole in the bottom of the wall, just big enough for someone to crawl through on their knees or belly. Visions of the movie The Descent flashed through my mind - the spelunking movie where they also have to crawl through small holes in the rock just to wind up dying at the hands of some weird cave monster. I wasn't worried about the monster, just having to crawl through tiny holes. My claustrophobia bells were going off like a bad car alarm. But, I sucked it up and just did it. What choice did I have? I can wimp out and force the whole group to go back just because I can't overcome a simple, crippling fear of dying while stuck in a limestone rock hole, or I can use mind over matter and get over my fear of small enclosed spaces and go forward. I was amazingly proud of myself for going through that hole.

Throughout the rest of the journey through the maze of tunnels, Eugene showed us several interesting sites such as a room that was used as a stable for the horses that were in the mine, a well that no longer held water, and an opening in the ceiling that we climbed up and led into a farm's root cellar - complete with 2 jars of pickles. We couldn't leave the catacombs through that exit as the woman who lives there hates explorers because they steal her pickles so she'd be quite angry if she saw us come out of her root cellar.

My second moment of "what the hell am I doing?" came when we approached a pile of limestone rocks with a tiny opening in the top. When I was told that we would be not only climbing into that opening but then continuing along a tunnel that was just as small for a bit of time I thought that there was no way I was going to make it. How could I possibly scramble along on pointy, hard limestone rocks on my stomach, pushing my gear ahead of me, sandwiched with rock above and rock below, for 15 feet or more? Easy - everyone went ahead of me so I had no choice but follow or I'd be stuck by myself in a maze of tunnels not knowing where I am or how to get out. Fear can be crippling and it can be a great motivator too. And if Photomat can do it, then so can I. I was amazingly proud of myself for making it through without breaking down.

I wasn't so thrilled that we had to do it again at least 5 times.

When we finally got out of the catacombs, it was raining outside and I managed to get my jeans covered, front to back, top to bottom, in mud. Heavy, wet, thick mud. Photomat managed to not get a bit on himself. Unfortunately for him, Olena's car was now good and stuck in the mud on the path that we had taken down to the entrance of the catacombs. We managed to get turned around but that was about it. With Eugene and Photomat pushing the car, everyone managed to get it to the main road but it took quite a bit of effort and we had to go about 50+ feet in the puring rain and mud. Olena kept flooring it and not only was the car covered in mud from top to bottom but so were Photomat and Eugene. It was in their hair, on their clothes, and even inside Photomat's ear. We felt so bad for Olena - when she picked us up her car was pristine, by the time she dropped us off at the hotel it was covered in mud.

This is one adventure that we will never forget. Eugene and Olena were fantastic guides and I amazed myself at what I accomplished both physically and mentally within those limestone walls.

The entrance to the catacombs

It was a completely insane adventure! Olena will tell you all about it later.

Nuff said...

Bustiers and Brides in Odessa

It's been a surreal day in Odessa. We arrived at 6am on our overnight express train. This was my first time traveling in a sleeping car and although I managed to sleep through most of the night, trying to roll over on a bed that's narrower than me without falling off and banging my head on the little table was a gymnastic feat worthy of a gold medal.

After a brief nap, we headed out to explore the city. It's a complete 180 from Kyiv. Here there are very few majestic churches, much more decay evident in the ancient buildings, and the energy is more raw. I likened it to the Corleone of the Ukrainian cities - you can see it's beauty and softness but are always on alert for the wild animal simmering below the surface, ready to pounce at any minute. You're never quite sure of the intentions of those around you and it keeps you on your toes.

Wandering around the main streets and side streets is always a great way to really get a sense of how the city works. You get off the main track where the tourists go and can really see the dark underbelly where the working class lives. We wandered into two such areas today - once when we landed in the docks and once when we stumbled into the back lot of the local market.

We thought the docks would be interesting to explore - as they are in most cities. They looked great from above in the park walkway so we made our way down. Like in Toronto, this part of the city is a maze of tracks, highways, streets, overpasses, and industrial buildings. Quickly upon entering the dock area we realized that it is a government controlled zone (and they have dogs), so we made our way out of there. Luckily for me, the streets around there had many industrial buildings full of rusty crusty photographic goodies that I could capture.

The market zone was another strange anomaly. The market itself was just massive - rambling on and on and on - with stall after stall just full of junk from jeans to cell phones. We really thought we were never going to get out of the maze of garbage when we finally found a way through. We ended up in this strange and glorious back section that was part underground market, part slum. Ramshackle stalls lined one side and contained everything from pipes to housewares while the other side of the street was lined with derelict homes. Dividing the two were several tracks for the electric trams to run on, which competed with trucks and cars for the road. And all around were people - so many people walking back and forth in front of trams, through the market, and along the street. It was surreal. I felt like I was no longer in the world class city that I had arrived in just hours before.

To juxtapose the morning, we then ran into the weirdest sight I will ever see. As we left the market area we made our way to the Opera House were there were at least 40 brides, grooms, bridesmaids and best men, all with mothers and photographers in tow all throughout the garden and around the fountain. At one point, there were 4 different brides having their photos taken around the fountain with their husbands (to be?) - each in a different pose - competing for that perfect spot. You couldn't swing a cat without hitting a bride in that space. We just couldn't figure it out: Was it a special day for weddings in the city that happened every year? Did a cruise ship come in full of men wanting a Ukrainian bride and they were all lined up, dressed in gowns, waiting at the bottom of the gangplank and ready for the picking? Is it a mass wedding and should I be worried about them all drinking the cool-aid at the end of the day? It was surreal. I'm not even getting into some of those dresses - let's just say that Odessa is the land of plenty, and they're not afraid to show it.

We never did make it to the beach no matter how hard we tried to get there - always seemed to be some sort of obstacle in the way. Instead, we're going to go and try the Black Sea sushi tonight.

Journey by Train

Kiev-Odessa in 12 hours. This is what a "LUX" sleeper looks like for about $61 each (vodka not included)!

How did that get there?

Not the first overturned bus I have come across in my exploring career.

WWll Russian Tank

Mushroom Flavored Chips!

They were delicious!

Village People

(posted late due to no internet in Chernobyl)

On our second day in the Zone, we travelled to the village of Opichi (sp?), 25 km south of the main disaster area. All the local here had been evacuated after the disaster and were not allowed back as this was considered a "dirty" area. About 1300 people - mostly elderly - returned to their homes in the small villages that dot the countryside.

Today there are about 130 of these villagers remaining - mostly in their 80s - as the rest have dies. These last few settlers have been referred to by the media and the government as "squatters" although they have resettled their own land and gone back to their own homes.

They have become self-sufficientm growing vegetables and keeping livestock as they have no real support system other than a truck that comes by to refill gas tanks and a monthly bus that will take them to Chernobyl for supplies.

Those we spoke to would not want to leave. Even living alone as widows they kept pristing homes, built by their own hands, and had beautiful prosperous gardens full of sunflowers and vegetables such as potatoes, cabbage, beets, and corn. They even produced their own vodka - and it was potent! After three homes and 4 shots, I was definitely feeling the effects.

This immersion into the Ukrainian peasant life and meeting these wonderful strong women helped to to understand where the women in my family get their independent streak. As I listened to them recount the stories of living through the Holodomor - the famine of 1932-33 - the Russian and German occupations, the nuclear disaster, losing their homes and then returning against the rules of the government, I could see in their eyes and hear in the tone of their voices that these were women who would not be told what they could or could not do.

Valentyna - 74 years old
The first of our three visits was to Valentyna, a widow who lived in the home that she and her late husband had built. Her garden was beautiful, full of large blooming flowers of all colour and shape and vegetables of all sorts. She was self-sufficient mostly and she was very proud of what she had. Petite, at just about 5 feet tall, this powerhouse of a woman kept her farmhouse completely spotless even though she walked using a crutch under one arm. Even at her age, she distilled her own vodka using her own berries and lots of sugar. She invited us all to shots and white melon from her garden.

Maria - 87 years old
On the way to our second house, we spotted Maria walking down the road, chasing the local cats with a switch. She had her mud boots on, a skirt to the knee, white sweater, and bright yellow kerchief with red flowers. The image was how I had pictured a farm babushka would look like. She was very happy to have visitors and invited us into her home. Hand-built, like Valentyna's, this one was two rooms and also included a full stove that worked as an oven, food dryer, and house heater. We all sat in her living room and listened as my father asked her about her childhood growing up during the wars. She loved to share her stories and it was a highlight of our trip out to the country. She was also very proud to show off her 80th birthday gifts - a new TV and cellphone.

Olga - 82 years old
Our last stop was at the home of a very gracious hostess who had the most beautiful embroidery collection - all her own. Although she's now 82 years old, she still embroiders pillows, table runners, and pictures and these are all over her one room house - again hand-built. We tasted some tomatoes form her garden which were so delicious and of course had some vodka - this time bottled and really strong. Her garden has beautiful tall sunflowers and she had some rambunctious chickens in the coop out back. Of course, each of the ladies had cats - there's always cats.

We had come out to visit these women, bringing each a bag of supplies such as pasta, milk, cookies, and juice. A gift of thanks for their time with use, allowing us into their homes and to take photos of their lives, and also to help them out as they are so isolated. The road to this one village was quite a ways out and was one that I would never have thought of driving on. It looked as if it hadn't been used in years. This was an experience that I never forget.

Chernobyl - Day 1

(Posted 1 day late due to lack of wi-fi access in the Zone - Photolena)

After a long year of planning, we finally headed out of Kiev today and into the wilds of the Zone. Our guide Yevgeny was raring to go at 7:30am and we headed out into the countryside going northbound towards Belarus.

We hit our first checkpoint 30km outside of Pripyat. A very formal affair - we had to show our passports which were compared to the information that was sent over several weeks before when booking our trip. For a few seconds there I was worried that I had sent them my old passport number when I booked, as I only renewed it a month before the trip and we weren't going to be let in - but these are the kinds of anxiety moments I have. Once we got the all OK, we headed into the town of Chernobyl, where the people who still work at the reactor stay. As there are strict rules about how long you can stay within the Zone, workers either do 15 days in/15 days out or weekdays in/weekends out and have a home outside the perimiter where it's considered "clean". Many of them live in Kyiv and take the 1.5 hour commute in.

We met our guide form the Chernobylinterinform state agency who spent a half hour reading us the disclaimer and rules - which we then had to sign and was kept with us the entire two days and used as our official paperwork to get past the other 2 interior checkpoints:

• don't touch any plants with your bare hands
• keep with the guides at all tiimes as there are packs of wolves around that have begun to bite people during the day
• if you get your camera or video gear contaminated, they are not responsible for it
• this is all at your own risk and you are cool with that

We first got a tour of Chernobyl city - the only church left for all the people, some of the many abandoned homes, and the post office that has a digital display which updates the radiation counts around the zone every minute. We also saw the famous monument erected to commemorate the workers who dies responding to the disaster. It was paid for by the families of the workers and the locals for their "heroes" and reads "For those who saved the world".

We then headed off for the first of the big 2 ultimate photo locations on our lists - the Chernobyl reactor. We stopped on the highway to take some long shots of the sarcophagus, the half-finished cooling towers, and the equally half-finished reactor #4 which was in progress when the disaster happened. The cranes are still on the site and will remain there. We stopped at the bridge to feed the mutant catfish in the man-made cooling pond then proceeded around the reactor to the official "photographer spot" at the nuclear monument. It would have been nice to go and walk around a bit, but it was still awe-inspiring to be standing 300m from the biggest technological disaster of my time. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting a nuclear reactor sarcophagus to look like, but it kind of reminded me of Hearn Generating Station when it had seen better days. They are already beginning construction on the new one as this one is already old and will soon fail.

Our next stop was something I have been dreaming of for quite some time - the abandoned city of Pripyat. It's amazing just how close the city was to the reactor and now wonder that it had to be evacuated. I could have walked over there from the reactor site.

At the checkpoint - our last for the area - we started exploring. Let me just say how fantastic our guide was, We had emailed ahead and let the tour company know that we wanted our time tailored specifically towards photography and even sent a list of the buildings from Google Maps that I had tagged as interesting. I'll be damned if we didn't hit at least 14 of those locations today - which is why I can no longer feel my feet, calves, thighs, or spine. Well worth it. Let's see if I can remember some of the highlights so this blog post doesn't turn into a novel:

• a cafe that had mostly intact stained glass windows made in a way that I had never seen before
• a hospital with medical equipment
• a school filled with desks and a chalkboard full of the names and dates of people who had visited the city
• an orphanage with rooms full of children's bed frames
• the view of the city from the top floor of the main hotel
• the bumper cars in the amusement park
• an Olympic grade swimming pool with 2 levels of high dive boards
• a grade school full of children's gas masks

After a full day of exploration, we headed back to the INterinform building to see if we were irradiated, using a full-sized dosimeter that looked like it was from the 50s. We all passed. It's going to be sweet dreams and a deep sleep for me. We start the adventure all over again with an 8am breakfast tomorrow.

(Day 2 of Chernobyl to be posted tomorrow)

Jail

Eastern Euro-Industrial

Bad Reaction

Reactors were under construction when the disaster happened and are frozen in time.

Dosimeter

We had to stand on this at the end of the day. Green light meant no "silkwood" shower!

Having a gas!

Check Point

August 31st - Official Potato Pancake Day

Our first full day in Kyiv and we hit the streets hard. A great way to break in my new trail shoes. After a hearty breakfast of potato pancakes with sour cream and kompot, we headed out to explore the city. We had no real itinerary in mind - just walk around and see what happens. We have 3 days here so we knew we could hit the sights on another day.

We decided to try and head to Andryisky Uzviv - a curving cobblestone street covered in stalls selling everything from embroidered blouses to kitchy Soviet memorabilia. On the way there we hit at least 3 churches.

The first was St. Sophia, which has a tall bell tower entrance. This was the most expensive of the three - with a 2 hryvnia entrance to the grounds and 5 hryvnia fee to climb the tower. We didn't go into the church itself - 20 hryvnia and no photos. I'm so picky now - no photos and a fee deters me. The church was stunning, with 7 gold domes. The view of it from the tower - yep, I climbed - was perfect for photos. We made it all the way to the top and I have to say there was a little vertigo happening.

We next hit St. Michael's which is quite breathtaking as well - robin's egg blue with another 7(?) gold domes. The entrance through the walled exterior is covered in Byzantine style religious frescoes. Some fantastic photography here. Next to this church stands a smaller, traditional Ukrainian church with the dark wooden shingle roof and tower. Quite the contrast to the more baroque looking colourful one next door.

Then we climbed, and climbed, and climbed. As we hit the art street (kitsch street?) we hit St. Sophia of Kiev church which was even more extravagant - more Roccocco style this time. No photos inside again but the exterior was forest green with gold accents.

Our adventuring took us all over side streets that had what we thought were abandoned buildings, covered in graffiti, which we have now termed "buildings with character" as it seems that here nothing is really abandoned, no matter how decayed or decrepit. When walking along the Dnipro River, we came upon some industrial buildings that had some great colour and look to them, only to be encouraged away by a very unhappy dog and his owner.

Dogs - they're everywhere. They run in packs and they seem to stake a claim to a square or parkette and if you invade what they feel is their territory, the barking starts and they follow you until you get to the nearest crosswalk. We watched so many people get "escorted" to the crosswalks today only to be escorted ourselves in the afternoon by our angry barky guide. WE steered clear of any dog gangs the rest of the day.

An amazing, interesting, eye-opening first day. Getting picked up at 7:30am for Chernobyl tomorrow. Need to rest up.

Down, down, down...

About a 400 ft escalator ride down to the subway. Not for the faint of heart!

but we are from the Ministry of Taking the Pictures!

Surreal in the City

It's been a strange 24 (36?) hours since we left Toronto. I'm in Kyiv now and we headed straight into the city to try and keep awake long enough to get our sleep patterns to mesh with the new time change.

After a good solid dinner at a cafeteria-style diner that served all Ukrainian dishes (the goulash was nice and soft), Mat and I headed out for some walking and photo snapping with no real intentions of where to go. We just knew where the subway was and how to get back to the apartment.

Detours - they can be a lot of fun. You take a cobblestone path up a hill and you spot a pink decaying building behind a fence. We knew it was a hospital of some kind and that picqued our interest. Of course this is Eastern Europe - never assume something is not in use just because it looks worn out - that's just character. The main gate had an open doorway in it with a sign that roughly said "Clinic this way", so we went.

The buildings on the grounds were amazing. Mostly in shades of fading pink and moss green, with definite signs of decay and rot, evident from half missing cement balconies. I kept waiting for someone to ask us why we were there, who we were. It never happened - everyone was polite and just left us to do our thing. I finally read the sign on the way out - Ministry of Health.

On the way back to the Metro, we came upon a big crowd watching a group of breakdancers on the sidewalk near Indepence Square. Pretty talented bunch. What a great ending to a wonderful adventure and surprise-filled day.

Keeping it real...

Didn't take long to find break dancers in Eastern Europe.

Kiev!

Just driving through the city now. Looking forward to wandering around here with my camera (after I sleep)

All hail the Alliance

We're off on the road to Ukraine... to Ukraine... to Ukraine. Now
which one of us is supposed to be Bob Hope? (Roadie movie reference
for those under 35)

I must say that I feel spoiled this time around - I've never set foot
in an Alliance Elite Lounge before. I didn't know this aviation utopia
existed. Free snacks, drinks, wifi, magazines, newspapers (English and
French of course), big cushy leather chairs... And quiet blissful
solitude.

I don't know if I'll ever be able to travel with the masses again.
Best enjoy it while I can. Dusseldorf here we come -can't wait to see
what you have to offer two weary jetlagged travelers at 6 in the
morning.

(Sent from my iTouch)

Catacombing

We've booked another great tour that should be a lot of fun - the Odessa Catacombs. Although we had the option to do 2 days in the catacombs (staying overnight in sleeping bags), my lower back gave me a big NO! when I even contemplated this.

BACKGROUND
The Odessa Catacombs labyrinth approximately 2500 kilmetres under the city and surrounding neighbourhoods. They developed over the last two hundred years, beginning as natural formations and completing with the addition of man-made tunnels. The major part of them are made up of former limestone mines used to build the city's 19thC homes, with the remainder being natural caivities and sewage tunnels. The full extent of the catacombs has not been mapped and is a primary reason a subway system was never built in Odessa.

The first stone mines appeared in the second half of the 19thC with building growth in the city. They were used as a source of cheap construction materials. During World War II, the catacombs served as a hiding place for Soviet partisans and their struggles were detailed in the book The Waves of the Black Sea by Valentin Kataev. Armies were able to house enough food and weaponry to keep them underground for almost six months at a time. In 1961, the Poisk Club was created to explore the history of the partisan movement in the catacombs and it expanded the catographical boundaries of the area.

By the 21stC limestone mines were discontinued in Odessa. Today, the catacombs are a great attraction for "extreme" tourists but you must go in with a guide.

(Some information from Wikipedia - Odessa Catacombs)
(Photo from Wikimedia Commons - Polyschuk Dennis Anatolyevycz)

The Gear for the Going!

I have decided on the camera gear I am taking to the Ukraine. Much of my decision was based on weight and versatility.
From left to right, Gitzo carbon fibre tripod and ball head, canon lenses; 14mm, 70-300mm, 50mm, 24-105mm, Canon 5D MKll body, spare battery, 40Gigs of memory, rocket air blower, cable release, LED flashlight. My polarizing filter may also make the trip. With this reduced load, I will be able to pack it all into my new Lowepro Classified 160 AW bag. Ready, set....!

Update: I was able to squeeze my 580EX Speedlite into the bag so it's coming too!

Wheat Free in the Bread Basket

One of my biggest challenges during the trip will have nothing to do with transportation, language, local customs, or photography. For two weeks, I will be traveling through the bread basket of Europe and I am what intolerant. Luckily it's different from celiac disease or I would be really in trouble - I can't have wheat, but with celiac you have to avoid all gluten which can even be found in vitamins.

Growing up in a Ukrainian family I'm already familiar with some local foods - although the dishes we eat in Canada are just the tip of the iceberg of traditional cuisine. Having been diagnosed with a food allergy later in life, I've learned to adapt and modify the recipes so that I don't have to give up my favourites, but I doubt that they have pyrohy made of rice flour in Kyiv.

One amazing resource that I have found to help me eat at the local establishments is an iTunes App for my iTouch called the Gluten Free Restaurant Card. Although aimed more towards those that have Celiac Disease, this app created by www.celiactravel.com contains 43 language translations of text that basically says "I am allergic to foods containing flour or grains of wheat, rye, barley and oats. Does this food contain these ingredients?" You choose the language you need and then you can show the translated card to your waiter to read. They don't have Ukrainian, but they have Russian which is close enough since many people speak it in the cities. I can see myself using this app on many trips to countries where I am not fluent in the local language.

There are a lot of great foods that I can look forward to while I'm in Ukraine, and some that I love that I'm going to have to avoid:

FOODS I'M GOING TO MISS OUT ON

• vushka - little mushroom-filled dumplings you get in borscht.
• pyrohy - the fried version of "pierogies" and often filled with fruit or poppy seed filling for dessert.
• varenyky - the boiled version of "pierogies" normally filled with potatoes, cabbage, cheese and topped with butter, sour cream, bacon, and onions
• nalisnyky - crepes that you can fill with cottage cheese, meat, caviar or fruit
• kotlety - minced meat or fish fritters rolled in breadcrumbs
• kanapky - black or white bread-based canapes topped with mayo or butter, caviar, smoked herring, cucumber/tomato slices and dill
• pampushky - fried sweet dough similar to doughnut hole, filled with sweet fillings.
• pyvo - beer
• kasha hrechana zi shkvarkamy - buckwheat cereal with chopped, fried bacon and onion
  

FOODS I CAN INDULGE IN

• ohirky - sour pickles
• kapusta - sauerkraut
• borscht - beet soup (with a dollop of sour cream)
• hrybivka - mushroom soup
• kapusniak - sauerkraut soup
• yushka - fish soup, usually carp
• holubtsi - cabbage rolls with rice and meat (avoiding the ones with buckwheat)
• syrnyky - cottage cheese fritters (sometimes with raisins - blech!)
• pechenya - roast meat
• kartoplia - potato with sour cream, butter and dill
• huliash - stew
• kovbasa - various smoked or bolied pork, beef or chicken sausage
• shashlyk - shish kebab of lamb and vegetables marinated in vinegar and grilled on skewers with white wine
• pliatsky - potato pancakes with sour cream
• sichenyky - minced beef with omelette and fried onions
• torte - cakes, frequently made without flour using instead ground walnuts or almonds

YOU CAN'T PAY ME TO EAT THESE

• salo - salted (or occasionally raw) unrendered pork lard similar to bacon but with a higher ration of fat to meat. Eaten as a snack. Also available as "chocolate covered".
• studynets - jellied fish or meat
• kvas - a sweet and sour sparkling beverage made from yeast, sugar and dried rye bread

It's going to be challenging navigating my way through what I can and cannot eat. But I figure that if I made it through 2 weeks in Italy, with their love of breads and wheat, then I will have no problem with the Ukrainian diet. I'm always up for an adventure.

Some food name and descriptions from Wikipedia - Ukrainian Food. Images from Wikimedia Commons.

Let's Play It By Ear - Sort Of

Two weeks to go before we fly out so we decided to meet and firm up our itinerary for the trip. We realized we needed to do the math on the train schedules, bus information, and distances to see if our ambitious plan would work.

As much as we want to see everything the country has to offer, we're realistic about only having 2 weeks on the road. Our main objective was always to get to Chernobyl for photography - and with that booked and in place, being able to get around the rest of the country and photograph Soviet-era structures, onion domed churches, historic Ukrainian architecture, and many other of Ukraine's forgotten and decaying structures is a wonderful extra.

Since we don't know just how much we'll see in the different locations we visit, we've decided to keep it loose. It's usually the way I like to travel anyway. The flexibility allows you to spend as much or as little time as you need in one place without the worry of having to make it to a reservation. I've traveled with people who need every single hour of every day scheduled out for them - I'm not really like that, doesn't leave room for those great detours in life. Luckily we both seem to be more into the adventure and not the schedule so I think we're going to travel quite well together.

So if it's a loose itinerary, do we even know where we're going now, you might ask? Sure:

Kyiv > Chernobyl > Kyiv > Odesa > Lviv > Kyiv

Where we go in between and how long we stay in the main cities is the adventure right now. As long as we're back in Kyiv to fly home on time, I'm happy flittering around the country and exploring, meeting people, adding stories and images to our project.


View Larger Map

Get Into The Zone

For those who don't know about Chernobyl's Alienation Zone, here's the quick and dirty version of where we're aiming to go for our photography excursion:

ZONE OF ALIENATION
The Zone was established after the disaster in 1986 in order to evacuate the local population and prevent people from entering the contaminated area. It is made up of 4 concentric circular zones with the closest in, about 30km from the site, being the most contaminated. Within the zones are hot spots of radiation where equipment has been buried and many of these remain unmapped - some committed to memory and some unknown. Authorities try to protect these spots not only from tourists but scrap hunters as well.

The Zone operates within its own civil rules, with its own police (the MVS) and State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, all administered by the Administration of the Alienation Zone. These branches work together to police the shift workers who come in to the nuclear site, tourists, visiting officials and dignitaries, and interlopers.

Interesting Facts

• The cloud of heavily polluted radioactive dust produced the Red Forest - a strand of highly-irradiated pine near the plant.
• Many species of wildlife have flourished due to the significant reduction of human impact - wolves, wild boar, red deer, moose, and beaver.
• Przewalski's Horses - a rare and endangered subspecies of wild horse native to the steppes of Central Asia - which were released in the area after the disaster are flourishing.
• Brown bear, which has not been seen in the area for several decades, has been reported as well as wild lynx.
• There are 800 known burial grounds for irradiated vehicles, hundreds of abandoned military vehicles & helicopters, and river ships and barges lie in the abandoned ports.

(photo: Entrance to Alienation Zone, Slawojar, Wikimedia Commons)
(With information from Wikipedia page Zone of Alienation)

This message was brought to you by...

"The Agency of information, international co-operation and development "Agency ChornobylInterInform"

Here I am, and here we go! Almost a year ago, Olena and I had a chat at an art opening about Chernobyl and how we should go. A few meetings later, and a well written grant application, we are almost on our way! I have generally had a crazy year and have had very little time to prepare for this trip, but we do have a good framework for our itinerary and lots of room for spontaneity.

What has mostly been on my mind lately has been what to pack! Which lenses? How much clothes? Laptop? rolling luggage or backpack? Pepperettes?

I will probably try out a few different combinations and see what works best.

Right now though, I have a week at a cottage to pack for, and when I get back from that, we will be about 5 days from leaving!

First post, done!

Chernobylzone

After several weeks of back and forth emails with a contact in Ukraine, we've sent off our info to book a two day private tour of Chernobyl and Pripyat. The company is Chernobylzone - Journeys Into Chernobyl Alienation Area. It's been interesting communicating through email as their English is pretty good, but obviously not their mother tongue. Of course, I can always get additional information from their website - after I learn Russian. I speak/read Ukrainian so I can make out some of it, but it's not quite the same.

There's some additional items we could have for the tour (for a fee of course) and we thought it would be geeky/cool to have the dosimeters but I had to email them to explain the "IPE" gear. Turns out it's a slimming all-white one-piece outfit complete with hood for you to wear while exploring around the radiated area. The ultimate in geek chic. I wasn't going to go for it until I read the part about having to throw out the clothes you wear on the tour if you happen to get any soil/debris/etc. on them. IPE gear it is then.

Looking forward to seeing exactly what type of hotel we'll be staying at outside of the alienation zone overnight. Apparently it's nothing fancy but the only one in the area. For me, the chance to interact with the people who have lived in the area, within the shadow of the reactor and its effects, and to see how the area has changed in the 20+ years since the disaster more than makes up for a lumpy bed.

Fingers crossed that our dates get approved for the tour.

Welcome to the panic room

So we finally got around to putting together our blog - 3 weeks before we leave for Ukraine. I guess introductions are in order and an explanation of why we're embarking on this journey.

I'll let Photomat introduce himself - me, I'm a photographer with a graphic design background. The focus of my photography is forgotten spaces and I have been interested in shooting Chernobyl and Pripyat for quite a while. I've seen the books (Polidori), the exhibits (again Polidori comes to mind), and some great documentaries with exceptional photographs from organizations such as National Geographic. I'm not a documentary style photographer and have wanted to interpret this area in my own style.

Our project is called Volatile Particles - inspired by an article examining the effects of the Chernobyl disaster upon the local area and more widely across the world. It refers to the contaminants that were released into the air from the meltdown and the fact that half of these landed outside the immediate area, some affecting regions as far as the UK. The exhibit will explore the Chernobyl disaster through photography, documentary video, and personal stories of survivors and those who reside in the local area today. By examining the disaster through resident's voices, the aim is to personalize the photography and experience for the viewer. In the end, our exhibit will combine photography, documentary video, personal stories (hopefully), and be juxtaposed with our increasing dependence on the nuclear industry and how we are working to ensure that this type of disaster does not happen on Canadian soil. All thanks in part to the Ontario Arts Council.

And of course, we will have a wild (mis)adventure exploring Ukraine - from Kyiv in the North, to Odessa in the South, and Lviv in the West. So where are we now?

• plane tickets - check
• Chernobyl tour booked - check
• place to stay - check
• itinerary finalized - well, mostly
• have what I need - kinda

Stay tuned for posts of our journey - planning, travel, touring, and final exhibit. Dobranich!