"Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"

It's awfully cliched, I'm sure, but Shelley's verse kept running through my head today as I clambered my way through the ruins of Pripyat, the largest town that was evacuated following the Chernobyl disaster. Vladimir and I got word early in the morning that we would have access today and, after a few more problems with the van, made our way out to the Exclusion Zone. (For some background reading on the Exlcusion Zone, what it is, and how it functions, I reccomend, as always, Wikipedia's article, available here.)

Stops today included an old Kindergarten outside of Chernobyl, which used to be for the children of the village of Kopachi, one of the towns inside the zone. Stop number two was Reactor 4 itself, though you can only get within about 100 meters or so. Our guide helpfully informed us that the electrified fence around it actually carries enough current to kill a person.

(Below: An industrial garage located directly beside the reactor.)


(Below: Reactor 4. I got much closer than this, but liked the radiation warning sign in the foreground with this shot.)

Later stops included the tallest building in Pripyat, a 16-story apartment complex that's been heavily looted. The view from the top is amazing though, and was well worth the climb. I also spent some time in the Pripyat Kindergarten and the "Palace of Culture" in the town square, which included a movie theatre, stage theatre (complete with lights still hung on the pipes at stage-level) a library (I snagged a copy of "Reminiscences about Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov Lenin".) and a gymnasium with a tree growing through the floor.

(Below: One of the classrooms in Pripyat Kindergarten.)


(Below: Detail of a bear on the ground at the Pripyat Kindergarten.)

(Below: The gymnasium at the Palace of Culture.)

I've got a bit of a headache and a dry throat, as does Vladimir. Our guide had one too, and helpfully informed us that it was "quite normal" after 6 hours inside the 10km Zone... A brief Wikipedia search seems to indicate that I probably received a radiation dose somewhere between 0.5 and 1.0 Sieverts (or 50 - 100 REM). I should feel fine by morning, and am somewhat comforted in the knowledge that most of the plant workers receive this level of radiation on a daily basis while at work.

I expect to be making at least another two trips into the zone, but likely not in nearly as heavily contaminated areas.

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Nic's Current Location:
Yaroslavna Hotel, Vasilkiv, Kyiv, Ukraine
+50° 10' 43.11", +30° 18' 49.24"

Digging in for some work...

I’m writing this blog entry from the passenger seat of a Ford Transit diesel-powered delivery van with a leaky windshield, leaky brake—line (we have to top up the brake fluid every few days when it starts to run low), a leaky front tire (also topped up every 48 hours or so) and a second-hand alternator that was installed two days ago after the first one literally fell off it’s mount. Vladimir, my fixer, is driving south towards Kyiv on the M01 E95 highway, going 120 k/h in an 80 zone; we’ve already bribed our way out of one speeding ticket earlier in the day.

There are no seatbelts.

I love my job.

(Below: Vladimir and a mechanic at a garage in Ivankiv, 120km outside of Kiev, debate the best course of action after the van's alternator decided to stop ... um... alternating.)


I spent almost all of today in Slavutych, the small town built to house all of the Chernobyl workers once the town of Chernobyl became contaminated following the 1986 disaster. Today it’s almost entirely inhabited by current plant workers, people who work other jobs inside The Zone, and the few people who provide support services (shops, restaurants, etc.) to them. Today was probably the most successful 12 hours I’ve spent in Ukraine. We decided to head to Slavutych today after an abysmal day yesterday wandering around the outskirts of The Zone on the west side of the Dnieper river. We had originally planned to spend the whole day inside the exclusion zone, but the cops who were supposed to be “arranging” for our access all got dragged into a big raid on some scrap-metal salvagers that had just been caught. Instead, we ended up driving through villages, shooting abandoned farms and houses, and chatting with a few people along the way. It wasn’t nearly as productive as I’d hoped, but it was good in it’s own way, and allowed me to work through a few things in my head that I really needed to sort out.

Today was different. Vladimir and I both slept in by accident and woke up at 9:30 instead of the planned 7:30, then managed to get stuck in traffic on the way out of Kyiv. We arrived in Slavutych after nearly 2 ½ hours of driving (As I write this, V informs me that we’ve driven 1730 km together since I got here last Saturday.) After a quick lunch in Slavutych we took a brief wander around the town to the memorial for fallen firefighters located in the town square; from there we decided to start wandering and interviewing random people in the hopes of finding someone with a good story to tell.

(Below: Two images showing different sides of the memorial to the firefighters who were at Chernobyl the day of the disaster and later died.)

It didn’t take long to persuade a couple of women sitting on a park bench enjoying the warm, breezy afternoon to start telling us their experiences. One old woman named, Mira, started crying as she remembered what life used to be like in Pripyat. “The best place in the world to live” seems to be the best way paraphrase how most people here remember the old town. Later in the day, when we saw her for a second time, she presented me with a book she was given several years ago: “The Chernobyl Atomic Power Plant at the end of the Millenium” … She inscribed “To the memory of future generations. May this never happen again in any place.” in Russian on the front page for me…

(Below: An electronic sign at the Slavutych train station helpfully informs passers-by that they are receiving 14.4 micro-Roentgens of radiation per hour.)

Following our chats with her, we spent a few hours hanging out at the train station in Slavutych grabbing random people as they walked off the train and asking them to tell their stories. Two particularly interesting ones agreed, including an engineer who’s 15 year-old daughter is heading to the US for surgery to repair cataracts in about a month.

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Nic's Current Location:
Yaroslavna Hotel, Vasilkiv, Kyiv, Ukraine
+50° 10' 43.11", +30° 18' 49.24"

Interesting times in Ukraine.

I’m writing this blog entry on my way back from my second day in Ivankiv, the largest settlement just outside the Exclusion Zone ( EZ ) around Chernobyl. My fixer, Vladimir, is an amazing asset. I doubt I’d even be able to function at all without him

(Below: Vladimir smoking on the 12th floor of an abandoned factory we climbed earlier today.)

Day 1 was spent largely getting my bearings and trying to understand how things work in Ukraine. Most people around here seem to think that traffic laws are for sissies. The driving here makes MY driving, even on deadline, seem slow and restrained. Those of you who have been in a car with me while on assignment will understand the true meaning of this statement. We did get the time to check out some interesting abandoned farm houses and barns near the EZ that were absolutely gorgeous:

(Below: A two-image stitched panorama of an abandoned farm house.)

Day 2 here was largely a bust. Some major vehicle problems this morning caused a 5-hour setback that didn’t get fully resolved until about 3PM. To make a very, very long story short, the alternator on the delivery-van Vladimir and I are driving around in blew out on us while were in Ivankiv. I can now say I’ve been stranded in a radiation-contaminated town where you don’t speak the language.

The hotel (I use the term very loosely) Vladimir and I are staying in is locaed about 30 minutes south of Kyiv. It’s a bit of a drive, and a slight pain to be so far out of town, but for about nine Canadian dollars a night, you can’t really beat the price. It’s what’s known in most Canadian cities as a “condemned building” … It’s absolutely ancient, lacks any sort of amenities at all (Hot water? Toilet paper? Shower curtain? Who needs em?!) and is generally quite disgusting. They do, however, provide lovely clean bedsheets every night, and the place is, from what I can tell, 100% bug and rodent-free.

(Below: My “hotel room” at the Yaroslavna Hotel. Note the illumination provided by the single, bare, 60W bulb.)

(Below: My bathroom at the Yaroslavna Hotel. Attention should be paid to the lack of, well, anything, really. I don’t think this bathroom has been cleaned since … well… Ever…)

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Nic's Current Location:
Yaroslavna Hotel, Vasilkiv, Kyiv, Ukraine
+50° 10' 43.11", +30° 18' 49.24"
(**NOTE** CLICK ON SATELLITE VIEW. ROAD MAPS IN GOOGLE EARTH NOT AVAILABLE FOR THIS AREA.)

I've arrived.

Have arrived in Kyiv. This post will be short as internet access is... spotty... Updates shortly.

(Below: Sign on the fence of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone checkpoint.)

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Nic's Current Location:
Yaroslavna Hotel, Vasilkiv, Kyiv, Ukraine
+50° 10' 43.11", +30° 18' 49.24"
(**NOTE** CLICK ON SATELLITE VIEW. ROAD MAPS IN GOOGLE EARTH NOT AVAILABLE FOR THIS AREA.)

Leaving Hungary...

As of 6:15 PM this Friday, June 15, I'll be leaving Budapest and heading in to Kyiv to start shooting Chernobyl. I haven't a clue what my internet access there will be like, but I suspect it won't be nearly as convenient as what I have right now (Wifi in-house at my nephew Tristan's place, where I'm staying) so those of you who have been in regular contact with me, please don't expect me to be too prompt with my email replies.

Budapest has been AMAZING, and I'm really quite sad that I have to leave tomorrow. There's been no shortage of interesting things to keep me occupied during my stay. I've climbed Gellert Hill (Among other things, an old WWII fortress, but with evidence of use dating back to 1200BC and the Celts.), wandered through St. Stephen's Basilica (Szent István-bazilika in Hungarian) seen his mummified hand in a shrine. (The church keeps it in a reliquary at the back of the basilica. The hand is kept in the dark unless you put 100 Forints ($0.75 CDN or so) into a small machine to one side. Once you've paid up, a light comes on illuminating the hand for 60 seconds or so. If you want more time to pray to it, you need to pay more.) The rest of the Basilica is absolutely GORGEOUS, and quite honestly blows St. Paul's in London clear out of the water. Even Notre Dame in Paris couldn't hold a candle up to what they've got here in Budapest.

(Below: St. Stephen's Basilica, as seen from the apse, looking down the nave towards the altar.)

I've tried, twice, to visit the Hungarian Parliament and take a guided tour of the place, but haven't been able to swing it unfortunately. I'll have to do it next time I'm in town.

Other highlights here have included Statue Park, or Szoborpark, is a park just outside of Budapest proper where a large number of old Soviet-era statues have been "retired" ... Personally I think it was a true stroke of genius, saving all of them and making a park out of them. It's an AMAZING place, and well worth a visit if any of you reading this ever happen to make your way to Budapest. This is definitely on my list of places to come back to. I'd love to spend a few days working on a photo essay here. Sadly, I only had an hour before I had to hop back on my bus and head back in to town.

(Below: "Liberation Monument" which used to stand at the top of Gellert Hill.)

Last but not least on my itinerary for the week was a visit to the Children's Railroad, a small-gauge rail-line operated almost entirely by children. Apparently these things were quite common during the soviet days, and a quick google search reveals that there are several still in operation, though the Budapest one is still, from what I can find, the largest and most successful of the ones that remain. It took me an hour or so to find my way to Széchenyi-hegy (I believe, but am not sure, that "hegy" means "station" or "stop"). From there I took the train to János-hegy, then got off, walked for a while, and took a chair-lift back down to the city before busing home. The railway is another thing I'd love to come back and spend a week or two shooting as a documentary project. The kids are AMAZING, they literally do everything except drive the train itself (a job reserved for adults only), though, as the picture below illustrates, boredom does strike at times.

(Below: A young ticket-inspector takes a break from his duties to admire the scenery on the trip from Széchenyi-hegy to János-hegy.)

That's all for now. I'll do what I can to post an update or two once I've arrived in Kyiv, but I make no promises. I'm flying solo from Budapest on (That is, I've had wonderful friends and family putting me up until now) so things should get a bit more ... interesting... as I progress east.

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Nic's Current Location:
Tristan and Krisztina Hume's Apartment, Budapest, Hungary
+47° 29' 25.43", +19° 4' 6.08"

A week of Cryptographers, Crepes, and Trains.

It's been the better part of a week since my last "real" update. My apologies...

Before leaving London I got to take a day-trip out to Milton Keynes, where Bletchley Park is located. Those of you not familiar with the Park's history really should be. Wikipedia article is here. I had an AMAZING time out there, and even got to see a full-size, *FUNCTIONING* replica of Colossus, the world's first electronic computer. (It's existence has only been recently declassified, and ENIAC, in the US, was incorrectly regarded as the first until recently. Colussus pre-dated ENIAC by two or so years.) I had a WONDERFUL chat with one of the engineers who have been rebuilding Colossus, and managed to get myself some paper-tape from a bona-fide Lorenz 40/42 Cipher being cracked by the machine. Interestingly enough, due to the parallel architecture used by Colossus, it still breaks codes as fast, and sometimes faster, as modern-day computers running software to crack the same 1943 ciphers. Astounding. I'll spare you all the technical details, but suffice it to say this is one of the few computers I've seen in my life that I've ever truly been in awe of.

(Below: Nic with Colossus)

Other treats before I departed London included going to see Othello as a groundling at Shakespeare's globe, which I now count as one of the highlights of my theatre-going career. Met up with my friends dan and Laura for what was supposed to be *A* pint, but turned into several, at the Founders Arms, on the Thames, following the performance. I also managed to cram in a quick visit to King's Cross, platform 9 3/4. Those of you who get the reference will, I hope, be pleasantly amused.

(Below: Platform 9 3/4.)

Packed up and snuck out of Robyn and Jamie's place early on Friday morning and hopped the train in to Waterloo. Went through the most thorough security search of my life when I was told my backpack was "packed too densely" for the security x-ray to scan it properly. Spent 45 minutes standing beside a nice security who was was emptying everything (and I do mean EVERYTHING) out onto a steel table. I did get a good laugh when he sniffed the two jars of Veggemite I was taking to my nephew Tristan in Budapest. The stuff is concentrated yeast extract, and smells about as pleasant as you'd expect.

Wrote a small snippet of this blog while I was on the train... I managed to snag GPS coordinates here, at +51° 5' 43.86", +1° 2' 11.20", shortly before entering the Chunnel, and another set of coords here, +50° 39' 35.21", +3° 1' 27.78", shortly after popping out on the other side, in France.

Spent the afternoon in Paris, with visits to Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower both on the to-do list, as well as a brief detour into some obscure back alleys in le Quatier Latin, to get away from all the touristy crap and kitsch. Walked about 10 minutes and did everything I could to get myself lost in back alleys. Ended up having an awesome lunch at a tiny little crepes restaurant (for lack of a better word) about the size of my bathroom back home in Victoria. The place was so small that I actually couldn't turn around inside with my backpack on. Had to back out once I'd bought my food. The woman who worked there was absolutely THRILLED to have someone as "exotique" as a Canadian in her store. Had two ham and cheese crepes for lunch, with a Nutella crepe for desert. Spent an hour or so reading on the banks of the Seine, then went off to the Eiffel Tower. Was rather annoyed to find multiple-hour-long lineups to get up the thing, AND was told that even if I waited, I wouldn't be allowed up with my backpack due to security concerns. Went across the Seine to la Place de Varsovie, only to find an "Experience Rugby" event going on. Seems someone had the bright idea of bringing in artificial turf, inflatable bumpers, and several tents, and holding a rugby tournament in the middle of Paris. What can I say? It seemed like a pretty cool idea, really, and it looked like everyone was having a blast, to say the least.

(Below: Rugby in la Place de Varsovie. It is, indeed, a strange world.)

Just chilled out for the evening in Paris, then caught the night train to Munich at 10:45 from Gare de l'Est. For the sake of brevity (i.e. I'm tired right now) suffice it to say the transfer through Munich was uneventful, and I made it all the way in to Budapest without too many hassles. Got to see some gorgeous scenery along the way as well, which was great. Snagged one more set of GPS coordinates here, at +48° 11' 32.15", +16° 18' 47.17", on the way into Wien, en-route to Budapest. Was met by my nephew Tristan at the train station, showered at his place (where I'm staying for the week) then went out and was ... errr... warmly introduced... to the city. Having a wonderful time here thus far, but will have more updates once I've explored a bit tomorrow.

(Below: One last picture. Heroes Square, +47° 30' 52.80", +19° 4' 39.02", (Wikipedia link here) in Budapest.)


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Nic's Current Location:
Tristan and Krisztina Hume's Apartment, Budapest, Hungary
+47° 29' 25.43", +19° 4' 6.08"

New post? Not quite...

Have safely arrived in Budapest.

I had many grand plans to write a nice long new post detailing my last days in London and my 48 hour (quite interesting) journey to Budapest via Paris, as well as my adventures with Chunnel security and what it's like to watch a rugby tournament taking place in the middle of a Paris street.

Sadly (well, not really) my plans have been delayed as my most wonderful nephew Tristan has gotten me quite drunk on Hungarian beer and German Jagermeister as a welcome to the country. I promise I'll update tomorrow. (Depending on how bad the hangover is.)

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Nic's Current Location:
Tristan and Krisztina Hume's Apartment, Budapest, Hungary
+47° 29' 25.43", +19° 4' 6.08"

A bit of history, and a good view...

Spent most of the daytime today in the Imperial War Museum. It's awfully similar to the way I remember it being when I was here last (1998 or so) but it's still an incredible place to simply wander through. The Secret War exhibit, which deals with everything from codebreaking to special forces black ops, was particularly interesting; The twin 15" canons mounted in the park directly in front of the museum were quite a bit more intimidating than I had recalled. Awe-inspiring might be a better word.

Took a walk up to The Canada Store (Yes, that's it's name, though it plays triple-duty as "The Australian Store" and "The South African store") to pick up some Vegemite for my nephew Tristan in Budapest, which is where I'm off to on Friday. (Note: Who knew that you could buy Vegemite in 1kg bulk containers?)

From there I walked down towards the River and met up with a friend of Robyn's named Michelle and hung out with her for a bit (Why do I always meet beautiful, intelligent women when I'm about to LEAVE a city?) before meeting up with Robyn and Jamie and heading up the London Eye. There's a GORGEOUS view (as you'd expect) from the top; the whole thing's a bit pricey, but a damn neat experience, and not like anything else I've ever done.

(Below: View of the Houses of Parliament, and Big Ben, from the top of the London Eye.)

Am off to bed now, but will endeavour to post here more regularly when I can.

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Nic's Current Location:
Robyn Goodman's House, Sevenoaks, Kent, England.
N+51° 16' 42.16", W+0° 10' 44.09"

A late update...

So a number of you, most notably my dad, have been harassing me for a blog update. It's late here, and I'm exhausted, but here you go. Things have been exceedingly busy for the last week. Most of my time in Vancouver was spent doing last-minute odds-and-ends work on packing, lightening my pack (I ditched most of my cold-weather gear, contact lens solution, and DVD's, but cut down almost 20 pounds) and the like. Got on the plane with no problem at all, even though my checked baggage was STILL overweight at 23kg, and my carry-on must have been 20 lbs at least, well over the 5lb maximum... Regardless, I got on OK. Had all my gear serial numbers recorded by Canada Customs so I can get back into the country without being charged tax on my own gear. When I offered to unpack my bag and let the customs officer check the numbers she just told me it "looked like it was all old" and not to worry about it... Go figure. (Above: St. Paul's Cathedral at Sunset, as seen from Shakespeare's Globe, across the river Thames.)

Arrived in London with relatively few complications, was treated to a WONDERFUL dinner by Robyn's new in-laws who are, quite possibly, the nicest people I've ever met. Have spent my first few days in London exploring the Fleet Street area of town, in particular a "small" church called St. Bride's, (There's a half-decent Wikipedia article here as well.) which calls itself "...the spiritual home of printing & the media." It's a wonderful place that was designed by Christopher Wren, in the late 1600's, though parts of the crypt and foundations date back to the first century and earlier. They've actually created a small chapel in the crypt, so that services can be held in the same place they were 2000 years ago. Pretty neat if you ask me.

I'm PRETTY sure this is the place Matt Lambert told me about several months ago, with a spiral stair-case up the spire and a great view of St. Paul's, but they wouldn't let me go up it without having arranged something well before-hand. Perhaps next time I visit...

(Below: St. Bride's is the tall steeple on the left. Fleet street can be seen on the right-hand side.)

Other highlights while I've been here have included climbing the great fire Monument, and getting all the way to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral (600-and-something steps... Yeesh...), having beer in a pub called Seven Stars that's been around since 1602, and seeing The Merchant of Venice at Shakespeare's Globe...

(Below: Seven Stars. Note the "A.D. 1602" at the top of the sign.)

Plan on heading to the War Museum and the London Eye tomorrow, have also booked my tickets to Bletchley Park on Wednesday, my Othello groundling ticket for Thursday, and my train tickets to Budapest (with a half-day in Paris, and a transfer in Munich) as well.

That's all for now, It's 1:30 here and I need to be up in 6 hours. My apologies if I'm slightly less than coherent in this post, it's been a long, long week...

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Nic's Current Location: Robyn Goodman's House; Sevenoaks, Kent. UK.
+51° 16' 42.64", +0° 10' 43.69"