Chernobyl and Pripyat, Ukraine - Apr 09

Well, what can I say! After so many years on being top of my list of places I MUST visit, it was surreal to finally get to visit this awesome place. You really can't appreciate the scale of both the place and what happened until you're stood in the middle of the abandoned city almost on your own. You could tell the overwhelming sense of pride with which the city was built, it was to be the model city everywhere else was to emulate, with it being shut down so abruptly I don't think the Ukraine ever fully recovered.

Even after spending 2 days exploring Pripyat, there is still so much left to see, a re-visit is definitely on the cards.

I know a lot of people hate HDR with a passion, but sod it i'm throwing a few shots in anyway

The reactor itself. I didn't realise we would be able to get quite so close:



Next it was onto Pripyat

View across the main square:


The supermarket:



View towards the cultural center:

Inside:



The funfair - originally due to open a week after the explosion:





The Pool, still in use until 1997:



The shool:







Vehicle scrapyard (behind the police station)



Hospital:








Kindergarten:









Apartments:





The Stadium:



And finally, the police station:





Parting shot of the funfair:


Lots, lots more up on Flickr


Visited with Wildpeaks, Dystopia and Ian, Josh and Jim (not members of the forum). Many thanks to all involved for such an incredible trip.

Brilliant, everytime someone comes back from there a new perspective is seen, nice work! Loving the room filled with the respirators.

they pics are amazing mate would love to go there one day

Absolutely outstanding

Great pics man!

Had a look at your flickr ones, amazing! been wanting to go to pripyat since i saw it on the TV a couple of years ago Maybe one day i will go! but iv heard people say that your not allowed to go into the buildings, butobviously got into them, is it different depending on what company you go with?

Really good pictures.I'm with ashless love the shot of the respirators.

What's the cool effect you've used in some of the pics?

Stunning place and stunning pics, randomnut.
Brilliant!

Absolute magic, this is the best set of photos I have seen of this place to date. Respirators shot excellent, I also love the old tin pedal car and plastic duck.

Sick man! seriously good job.

Dieter_Schmidt said:

What's the cool effect you've used in some of the pics?

Click to expand...

He's Used HDR, it is when you blend several exposures of the same shot to create one picture with loads of detail

Chernobyl-closest thing to my childhood fantasy and a beautiful place. Pripyat looked like it was a great place to live when it was still in use, as it appeared to have everything-amusement park, school, apartments and a swimming pool. Sad when you think it all had to be evacuated.

Nice film about before and after

http://files.pripyat.com/radiopfobia.wmv

Absolutley brillant ! Love the pics with upside down bus and the room with the debris and scrap,(pic 15)

Makes you see how much detail Call Of Duty 4:Modern Warfare went in with this part of the game. Great.

This place interests me so much. Its stuck in a soviet timetrap!

Awesome did you go on a tour or where you allowed to do your own thing? great pictures, esp like the fairground shots

That's simply stunning I don't know why but everytime I see pics like these from the former Soviet Union I think of "Planet of the Apes"

Lusker said:

Nice film about before and after

http://files.pripyat.com/radiopfobia.wmv

Click to expand...

Nice film Lusker, but unfortunately I don't speak Russian, and there aren't any subtitles, any idea where this came from?

Fantastic report. Luv the HDR shot of the pool dude!