Chernobyl, Ukraine
We took a tour of Chernobyl. It took all day and was fascinating. Educational, really a well-run trip! On the bus ride up, they showed us a movie about the explosion. It was sad to hear how much they tried to cover it up, not admit to the radiation, then sent in these poor soldiers to shovel the radioactive stuff off the roof. Originally they tried to use robots to get the radioactive stuff off the roof, but the radiation destroyed the robots too fast. Anyway, good movie. We saw reactor #4 that is covered in a “sarcophagus” went to the town of Prybyit (?) What a cute town it used to be with 48,000 people. They had two hours to pack and leave. The place is in bad shape, mostly due to looters. The kindergarten building was amazing. So many cute toys and dolls and shoes and playground. It must have been a wonderful school. There was a new amusement park there that would have opened in just a day or two before the evacuation. It was cute and the kids would have had so much fun.
We came back to Kiev to a huge party in Independence Square! Gorgeous evening, music, crowds of people out walking, dancing, roller-blading! The beautiful lighted street was closed to traffic so everybody could roam around and congregate.
We went to a great restaurant in an arcade area. We had fabulous duck. Not only good food, but also they had free internet! The food in Ukraine is out of this world.