Ukraine Kiev/Odesa

[not-bono-ever]

Hmmm

Forgot that I am going to be out here for a week or so in a couple of days but this time with the family, so different rules come into play. As this trip will not include power drinking, arrest and urban exploration, I could do with any last minute family friendly travel tips.

thanks

 

[not-bono-ever]

Fuckin hell.odesa is one of the best cities I have been to in a decade.an-awful lot has changed since I was here last.

 

[Pickman's model]

How was the food?

 

[not-bono-ever]

On the train - A bag of Beer, black bread , white cheese and market pickles for me. Mrs nbe took the kids for a burger at a fake McDonald's at Kiev station and explained that daddy has his own train rituals that we must not question.....

Odessa itself - best food i have had in years. Seriously. Everything is local the vegetables spooked the kids as they had taste and were not greenhouse standardised size. Borscht for lunch today was a quid. A meal for a quid and a beer for 50p!

 

[Riklet]

Odessa sounds amazing! Youre definitely making me consider it for next year.

How was it with the language? I got by in Balkans and Bulgaria... Is some Russian essential for Ukraine?

Cheers!

 

[not-bono-ever]

Odessa is pretty fantastic. Lots of museums and stuff- some of the partizan caves are visitable. A proper grand middle European port city with a big Jewish heritige.

We got by but some language skills are useful if you want to get the best out of it - when lost or in a restaurant puzzling over the menu, people assisted us and made food recommendations. We paid about 35 quid a night for a huge slab of room at the 200 year old Londonskaya, overlooking the Potempkin stairs.




for an extra 20 a night, I could have had the Mayakovsky suite, where he stayed for a while.or up from that, Einsenstein room. ditto

 

[not-bono-ever]

anyway, i am off today, watching this morning( as you do ) - Simon calder horrified the brace of numpties hosting the show when he advised everyone to go to Odessa for their summer holidays as its the best place he has beeen in years

 

[not-bono-ever]

BTW, spurred on by the resurgent Georgia thread- in the grounds of Odessa airport, there is a gloriously twee wooden chalet that is a Georgian resturant - if you are travelling from Odessa, look out for this gem of a place.

 

[not-bono-ever]

erk. have to be back in kyiv in a month. Tis is getting to be a habit. Am shoehorning Chernobyl and DUGA air defence outpost trip into it this time

 

[smmudge]

I've always wanted to go to Kiev to do the Chernobyl/Pripyat tour but deferred the idea for a bit, what is the situation like there now?

I understand the irony of asking about safety when looking to visit an area that is highly radioactive lol.

 

[not-bono-ever]

there have been people working on the plant itself for a decade building the shield , so not as bad as it made out to be . Also Dynamo are playing at home that weekend, so could be interesting

 

[Riklet]

What's Kiev like at the moment?

Ive heard its fun alternative and even.... quite hip. But this is from the usual suspects. History and stuff to do seems incredible tho. Main issue I reckon for is flights tbh.

 

[not-bono-ever]

Sub 200 quid return on UIA scheduled most of the time

 

[2hats]

I visited CNPP about a year ago, shortly before they put the new enclosure in place. No problems wandering around - I walked up to within a couple of hundred metres of the reactor (the highest background levels you'll experience unless you go looking for fragments of the core, which we did find). Providing you don't lick the surfaces there's little issue radiation-wise though it would be smart to take a personal dosemeter with you to be aware of hot spots if you go walkabout (virtually anyone offering to take you into the zone will rent you one). I did choose to go during a wet season though to help keep the dust down (construction lorries kick up a disturbing amount of material from the road). Great electrical storm whilst we were there - one day one of those will ignite the red forest and then we will all be in trouble again.

If you keep out of places like the hospital basement then the biggest risk in Pripyat is falling bits of building, floors giving way, broken glass, trip hazards and asbestos (also in the opinion of my guide who was evacuated from there the night of the disaster, aged 6, never saw her father again). Officially no one is supposed to enter any of the buildings anymore but this was clearly being ignored last year.

Also climbed the duga. Guards there were being a little awkward but let us on site eventually. Guide was worried that someone might take a pot shot at one of us once up there. My tip is to not follow someone else up the ladders so you don't have to ingest whatever detritus is showering down on you from their boots.

 

[not-bono-ever]

Good man- the Duga does look interesting - I think I will just join a scheduled tour that specifically includes duga complex to make it as seamless as possible. I will likely take some nasty old clothes and shoes to dump afterwards. that will not be difficult for me as all of my clothes are nasty and old.

 

[2hats]

I took a FFP3 rated dust mask (just in case, didn’t feel the need to wear it in the end), likewise wore some old boots that I binned afterwards (my Glastonbury approach to footwear). Now the new enclosure is in place I would imagine the background count in the immediate vicinity NW of the reactor hall has dropped a little bit.

The Duga is an entertaining climb. Has the feel of something that might collapse one day soon. I guess it’s the armed guards loitering nearby that have prevented it from being compromised by scrap collectors (one wonders where all the vehicles from the cleanup scrapyard have disappeared to ). Have always wanted to see it since (trying to avoid) listening to it on SW as a kid.

As regards Kiev - that didn’t feel any more dangerous or tense than any other random large city in Europe. I didn’t experience anything untoward/have problems though various people were killed by explosive devices in odd attacks a few weeks before and after my visit.

 

[not-bono-ever]

Kiev has been Ok for me - apart from being given anti semtic abuse in the early 90s- and it was a hamker trying to sell me a german copy of Mein Kampf in a railway station - but been back a few times since and its good- am older with kids and stuff the last time, so maybe not fully representative. I think the hipster movement in Kiev in the past few years has tempered feelings( seriously).

It is still a grand city to walk about and tons of things to do and see- you can clamber on captured tanks ontop of the motherland hill. Food is top notch. its is a decent place to go

 

[not-bono-ever]

I visited CNPP about a year ago, shortly before they put the new enclosure in place. No problems wandering around - I walked up to within a couple of hundred metres of the reactor (the highest background levels you'll experience unless you go looking for fragments of the core, which we did find). Providing you don't lick the surfaces there's little issue radiation-wise though it would be smart to take a personal dosemeter with you to be aware of hot spots if you go walkabout (virtually anyone offering to take you into the zone will rent you one). I did choose to go during a wet season though to help keep the dust down (construction lorries kick up a disturbing amount of material from the road). Great electrical storm whilst we were there - one day one of those will ignite the red forest and then we will all be in trouble again.

If you keep out of places like the hospital basement then the biggest risk in Pripyat is falling bits of building, floors giving way, broken glass, trip hazards and asbestos (also in the opinion of my guide who was evacuated from there the night of the disaster, aged 6, never saw her father again). Officially no one is supposed to enter any of the buildings anymore but this was clearly being ignored last year.

Also climbed the duga. Guards there were being a little awkward but let us on site eventually. Guide was worried that someone might take a pot shot at one of us once up there. My tip is to not follow someone else up the ladders so you don't have to ingest whatever detritus is showering down on you from their boots.

bump. will be doing this trip next week.weather is looking good/ dust. Will be going to DUGA but am unlikely to want to climb up

 

[2hats]

bump. will be doing this trip next week.weather is looking good/ dust. Will be going to DUGA but am unlikely to want to climb up

Could always just do the first few levels. Fascinating dipole array construction.

 

[not-bono-ever]

Fucking hell. I am sitting in a bar next to a fascist meeting between Ukraine and Bulgarian nazis.seriously. Planning shit in English. Italian fascist discussing gypsies now. Shit.

 

[Teaboy]

Fucking hell. I am sitting in a bar next to a fascist meeting between Ukraine and Bulgarian nazis.seriously. Planning shit in English. Italian fascist discussing gypsies now. Shit.

Was this in Kiev?

I'm going to Kiev for New Year party shenanigans. I'd rather not end up in that bar.

 

[not-bono-ever]

PM'd you Teaboy

 

[Riklet]

Fucking hell. I am sitting in a bar next to a fascist meeting between Ukraine and Bulgarian nazis.seriously. Planning shit in English. Italian fascist discussing gypsies now. Shit.

Not got any left-wing contacts there you can keep informed? Sounds pretty serious. I remember seeing some pretty bad neo-nazi fash stuff in Bulgaria, they have a party called Ataka I do believe....

I dont know much about anti-facist activities and organising in Ukraine. Probs a bit delicate currently. Are there established groups and stuff like in Russia etc?

 

[not-bono-ever]

No contacts out there but I was aware of a big rightist bloc anyway - just a bit shocked to find myself at a cross border fascist management summit in the back room of a pub. the Ukrainians at the meet had a tooled up driver waiting outside in the usual black merc and the bulgars had a couple of lumpy fuckers with SS badges on their jackets as protection meat.just be careful if you wear any antifa stuff if you are out there - its a long way from home

 

[Riklet]

Jesus. No i dont wear any political symbols or that kind of malarky anyway. Ive got a mate in Kyiv (he loves it though and can speak Russian/Ukrainian) who I was on the verge of visiting, but Ive been ill all week and sorting out The List of things i havent done this month.

Not working next week though which is why I checked out flights to Kiev. 220 quid return from here.... My figer was itching so badly, but it may have to wait until next year. Cant imagine with free accomm sorted I'll spend too much once there so it's def possible!

 

[not-bono-ever]

UIA are Ok if basic ( no food)- I have flown them 9 times in the past 10 months for business and leisure- dont book too early - they are volatile- what i booked for a sinple Kivev return the other week was £180 - down to 129 a few days later

you will spend virtually nothing, even if you eat out every meal and drink like a sturgeon