Guest

My son went to Kiev and Chernobyl this Autumn, and I asked him if he would share some of his photos and impressions on this blog. He said yes, and I am happy to have him here once again. Hope you will enjoy his work!

I’ve wanted to visit Chernobyl for a long time. The combination of two of my biggest interests; urban exploration and history, took me here.

The worst nuclear disaster in history took place in April 26th 1986. A disaster releasing an amount of radioactivity equal to 400 Hiroshima bombs.

Pripyat had 50 000 citizens who were evacuated by bus, roughly 1,5 days after the accident. They were given false promises of coming back – and so they left everything, even their beloved pets.

Every corridor in the buildings I visited felt endless. Seemingly reaching for the end of the world.

The Middle School was modern and well equipped with both music halls and sports facilities. They even had a large storage where they kept child-sized Soviet gas masks, in case of an emergency..

This was one of five secondary schools in this town. Hundreds of children once ran up and down these corridors. It almost felt like all of these notebooks, documents and files tried to chase after their owners when they left.

There are an endless amount of houses out in the Chernobyl woods. Some hide treasures, but most of them are just husks. Although they are just as beautiful.

The Duga Radar was a so called ”over-the-horizon” radar that was supposed to detect missiles and airstrikes. Soon, it got the nickname ”The Russian Woodpecker” because of the repetitive tapping noise it caused at 10Hz on shortwave radios.

The radar itself is enormous – towering 150 meters high and around 700 meters wide.

The Azure Swimmingpool built in the 70s

Outside the Kindergarten

Infant beds in Pripyat Hospital

Cooling Tower #5

We managed to sneak past security and get a peek at cooling tower #5. It was supposed to pump large amounts of water around the reactor for cooling, but the tower was never finished after reactor #4 exploded.

The ”Palace of Culture Energetik” was a large community center for the citizen of Pripyat. ”Energetik” is a wordplay – meaning both ”energetic” and ”power plant worker”. The purpose was to have a wide range of recreational activities including a library, gym, swimming pool, dancing halls and the very theater in the image above.

Outside the Kindergarten

The gymnastics hall

1st, 2nd and 3rd floor of the middle school

I am barely even scratching the surface of the stories and the history of Chernobyl. If you are interested in learning more, I recommend the TV Series called ”Chernobyl” on HBO. They portray the disaster in an incredibly powerful and emotional way, while staying close to the facts and real life stories. I also recommend the book which the show is based on: ”Voices from Chernobyl” by Svetlana Alexievich.

I would love to answer any questions that you might have.

Regards,

David P

Finally I have got the possibility of hosting a guest here – my husband. An avid traveller and seldom home, this is what I have been waiting for him to let me do…Back from a short trip to Spain, he brought back home some great architecture – in pictures and stories of course. I’m happy to show some of them here – hope you will enjoy them as much as I do!

The river Turia in Valencia used to flood often and sometimes at the cost of several lives. In 1957 the river was redirected to run south of the city. This created a more than 100 metres wide, dry river bed, which has been converted into parks, sports arenas and recreation areas, but also into CAC (City of Arts and Science), the futuristic science city.

The City of Arts and Science is a complex of culture and science exposed in the futuristic architecture of several buildings. The architect is Santiago Calatrava, the man behind Turning Torso in Malmoe. These buildings are very spectacular – and beautiful – the effect highlighted by different water pools. Calatrava was much criticized for overriding the budget though. And this was no less tough when CAC was completed, 1998-2005, during the recession followed by a financial collapse.

The first building I visited, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, was the last one completed – 2005. Size: 163 m long, 87 m wide and 70 m high, but it’s the spectacular architecture that catches the eye. It’s built in white concrete, and clearly resembling a baleen whale. The ”baleen plates” is a restaurant and above it a window with flowing water. Inside are four concert halls where two of them take 1400 people each. They are used for operas, concerts and ballets. The two smaller ones hosts 400 people each. Unfortunately there were no guided tours in this magnificent building – it wasn’t even open, except for the restaurant.

Please click on any picture to show off the gallery.

Palau Reina Sofia

The next work of art is called Hemisféric, finished in 1998. This piece looks almost like an eyeball resting in water. It’s about 100 m long and inside is an IMAX-cinema. On the curved screen (900 square metres…), you can project movies as well as the whole canopy of heaven. This screen is the biggest in Spain and both in definition and sound it is among the best ones known in the world. Unfortunately the Hemisféric wasn’t open either, other than for movies or guided tours. Had I known, I would have booked in advance.

Hemisféric

I then continued my walk past the spectacular Science Museum. Here I walked along an even more spectacular construction by the name of Umbracle. This is a botanical garden characterized by its white vaults running along the whole structure of 1,5 hectare. The plants are all from the Mediterranean area and the view from here over the whole complex is fantastic. The surrounding areas are sometimes used for outdoor expositions.

Umbracle

Passing a wide street I reached the Agora, another breathtaking piece of architecture used for congresses, conventions, fashion shows and concerts – and also for sport events as tennis and frisbee.