Soviet Engineering

We arrived into a hot and balmy Kiev, late, following the delays fromaà L'viv. Our immediate task was to plan our departure back to Warsaw. With the sporadic information we found in Warsaw telling us there were no spaces left, we were becoming frantic to discover our returning fate. We duly received assistance from the gorgeous Maria, who helped us translate through our ticket booking. Not only were there tickets, but did we want the Ukrainian or Polish part of the train? The clear lack of cohesion between these countries is infuriating.

Once booked, we cruised towards our hostel, which conviniently overlooked the Olympic Stadium. Named The Olive Hostel, it was lovely and clean and well decorated. We showered then hit the sights of Kiev. We headed towards the Caves Monestries or Kiev Pechersk Lagrange. This 28 hecter site is a wonderful complex and is full of gold domes churches, mixed with beautiful gardens and walkways all the way down to the vast Dnipro River. I was amazed at how big the Dnipro was, larger than the Danube at its widest in Belgrade. Nikolay Gogol joked in his writting that it was so wide, that birds fall down before reaching the middle.

We were then drawn by a large silver statue, representing the finish of WWII and commemorating all who battled. The entire complex was serene and very Soviet. An eclectic clash.

We were keen to find a monument to commemorate those that died in the repercutions in what is known as The Death Match, a football game between some Kievite players that took on the Nazi  Wehrmacht. Details were sketchy on this monument, some said the "Start Stadium" but maybe the Dynamo Kiev stadium had this monument, to which we were nearby. Upon trying to get close we were told by the security guard it would be 50 Hyrivna's (£4) each. Clearly a bribe, we argued with him, before he said it wasn't really what we were looking for, there was something at Dynamo, but the one we wanted was at Start Stadium. Where was this? He could offer no further help, even with a map.

We headed towards the fan zone to capture the main square, then the football. Spain Vs Croatia was the game to watch, the Ireland vs Italy game almost a bye for the Italians...

A smart and intelligent Croatia played well against Spain, but a poor miss following some neat play by Modric was punished by a dubious offside goal from the Spaniards (Bollocks to this phase play nonesense. Nevas was offside). With the Italians cruising to a 2-0 victory with a remarkable goal from Ballotelli, the technically astute and tactically sound Croats were out.

We decided to have an early night, a big day lay ahead tomorrow, but we wanted to get a late snack in the largest city we've vistited by far. It was impossible, we ended up with a stodgy piece of Raspberry cake and a bottle of water, for a heavy eastern European price too!

We arose the next morning at 7:45, early for our standards. We prepped for our day ahead; long sleeves, trousers, no flipflops or open toed footwear, then departed to our collection point in the North of Kiev. As twenty of us waited for our bus to arrive we were nervously apprehensive. Yuri turned up and we headed north through a slowly building up rush hour traffic set. We eventually broke free of the busy city traffics grasp, and two hours later were at a checkpoint: The 30km exclusion zone for Chernobyl. After a brief check, our tour guide for the day, Nikolai borded the bus. We headed deeper into the depths of the exclusion zone, whilst Nikolai laid out the plans for the day, whilst also giving us information on the events and outcomes of that fateful day on 26th April 1986.

We approached the town of Chernobyl, where we stopped at a local store. Chernobyl has a population of workers still, there is on going work at the Nuclear Power Plant, research of the continuing effects and building of a new Sarcophigous to contain the Elephants Foot of nuclear meltdown material. Staff can only do 15 days on/15 days off or 4 days on/3 days off. We went to a shop to stock up on water, ice cream and a few souviners.

We departed to an old village school, which was evacuated a couple of days after the incident, but totally abandonded. We were allowed into the building, the only one due to changes to what can and can't be done with health and safety.

Next up was the ghost town Pripyat, with our first viewing of the infamous Reactor 4 and chimney stack. We also went over 'Death Bridge', where the towns people went upon hearing the explosion, as it looks onto the power plant. All who went to this bridge either died shortly after or suffered long lasting illness due to radiation posioning.

Prypriat was constructed to support the workers and families of the Power Plant. Following the incident, the 50,000 residents were evacuated within a tight 3 hours. They were told it was a temporary measure and would be back in a few days. To this day, no one has lived there since. The town is serene. We had a 45 minute walk around, visiting the famous Ferris wheel and deserted football stadium. We had lunch inside a building near the Power Plant, then took in more sights, before going as close as we would all day to the Monster that is Reactor 4.

We got to within a couple of hundred metres; we were warned we had a strict 15 minutes, we viewed the Geiger counter: more than 100 times the normal backgrounds radiation levels. At 36.7 micro sivets when a high 'normal' is 0.3! Nickolai was swift to get us in the time scales. We then drove slowly back through the two checkpoints, getting checked for radiation. Everyother day someone has too high a level, it is normally their shoes that have picked up too much radiation loving Leichen. They must leave their shoes behind if this is the case. I didn't ask what if it isn't their shoes...

Upon leaving I was thrilled. I am fanatical about the Soviets, and Chernobyl. The whole story is fascinating, the cover up, the discovery from a Swedish Nuclear Power Plant the only reason the Soviets owned up!

However, I was also solemn. The ghost town, the several monuments to the 28 Firemen that died as they went to tackle fires from the initial explosions without any radiation protection. The 600,000 people who helped in the clean up opperation...

Upon getting back, via our minibus breaking down just outside Kiev twice, with Yuri somehow fixing it, we had the evenings game. Another game we had tickets for, Sweden vs France in Kiev.

The Stadium was impressive, bang in the centre of the city, non of this Industrial Estate crap. The number of Swede's was impressive, given their exit. There must have been 15-20,000 in the stadium. Sweden attacked strongly, France were retaining the ball, but lacked anything in the final third. The first half finished goalless. I feared we might witness the first 0-0. I also heard England were 0-0. Zlatan Ibrahimovic had been creatively industrial all game. A lot came through him as he came deep looking for the ball, linking play well. Nasri was his usual petulant playboy self. Benzema might as well have not played. Ten minutes of the second half and the breakthrough came. A stunning scissor kick volleyed strike to put Sweden 1-0. Who scored? That man Zlatan.

France foraged, but were giving up, England were 1-0 up thanks to Rooney's hair piece and that result would seal France's passage to the last 8. As we approached injury time, Sweden kept on coming to the French, desperate to repay the hordes of travelling fans further.

After some pinball in the box, Sebastian Larsson took control of the situation, smashing the ball into the roof of the net for 2-0. Minutes later, the final whistle went, the Swedish players went to their corner of the ground, several players throwing boots and shirts into the sea of yellow. With England winning they topped the group, France limping over the line, with the Swedes and hosts Ukraine out.

We went out that evening, meeting up with some French guys and having a good laugh, drink and dance.

The next day we decided to hit the Chernobyl museum and to finally try and find the Death Match monument. I think I have found it. We dropped bags of at the station, before hitting a cab to the Chernobyl museum. We had a heated debate upon arrival; the first tosser of a taxi driver all trip, trying to rip us off. We argued intensley, before throwing what we felt was a fair fare at him and legging it.

The Chernobyl museum was amazing, more a homage to the aftermath and those that perished. I was able to help a tour guide and talked through some of the chronology of the accident to his American group, impressing the guide with my detailed knowledge of the incident, he asked for my E-mail so I could help him with future guides. I obliged.

Following our harrowing Taxi ride, we went via the Metro to our next destination: Death Match monument. We found the Start Stadium with relative ease, and with some help from a pretty local, located it. Excellent! Right, few snaps, then we have to leg it, we have 40 mins to get our Train to Warsaw. We were running, the plan go get a taxi in a taxiless district not good. We found one and negotiated a price prior to destination station. We arrived, and saw the lovely Maria again, before collecting our bags and finding our final sleeper train to Warsaw... We decided to get quite drunk on the train, tapping into the two litre bounty we acquired in L'viv. We were surprised for a 14 hour train that there was no restaurant car, however, the locals knew this, and our first stop with any time drew around 30 locals selling everything from beer, cigarettes and home made food. We stocked up and continued our party. The border was intense and took 3 hours, not only did we have the usual welcoming Eastern European border patrol, but the wheels had to be changed because of the variation from the Soviet guage to European. It was no F1 pit stop. Once done we settled for the remainder of the trip to Warsaw, slightly tanked from the session.

I enjoyed Kiev and the three days we had, although it wasn't long enough including the Chernobyl trip. I would like to come back and to see its beauty further. There were a couple of sights we wanted to get in, but time didn't allow.