The 26 of April 1986 the world was shaken by the catastrophe, the consequences of which 49 countries were likvidating. Chornobyl…. What was there and what have left? Serhiy Trokhumyshyn decided to see it by his own eyes and went to the excursion to the city-ghost,city-legend…His Impressions and thoughts are here for the readers of Zhytomyr.Travel

The journey has started from the gathering at tge the Zhytomyr railway station. The destination-checkpoint «Dutjatki». Even at a common everyday life there are the buses which stand in a long queue: those who are willing to see the mystical Chornobyl zone are numbered at least 200 people,and at the weekends the number increases to 900.
It was an opening for me, that the thousands of tourists are interested in what has happened here long time ago and what is going there now. By the calculations of the guides, who tell the tourists different live stories about Chornobyl, in 2017 the town was visited by 40000,and in 2018-already 80000. In 2019 due to the serial about Chornobyl, the 100000 are waited to come.
If someone thinks that Chornobyl is a dead town, they are mistaken, there are almost 3000 who live and work here. But you also can not consider this town a common one. It is patronized by a state company, but there is no administration and City Council. Among those 3000 population are the people who work at the companies and those who came back despite any prohibitions.
The locals from the administration do not «see» them and even help them. There is quite a well developed infrastructure: here work shops, cafés, and a bus station which receives three trips from Kyiv a day. There are hotels for the tourists- even three of them, and two more arw planned to be built. When there would be opened all the checkpoints, the quantity of the hotels and cafés will increase even more, but nothing comes so easily.
Chornobyl is not a common town- after 19.00 you can’t walk here and drink alcohol, and after 20.00 you can’t drive a car. Even smoking here can be done at special places. And though this prohibition is just for security, but you can not agree that it isn’t a nonsense at all.
At the first sight you can think that it is just a common town, where people work, drive cars, the shops are open…The only thing that is mentioned from the start- but surely embarasses you- that there are no children here. There can’t be children here now, as the person under 18 is strictly prohibited to be in Chornobyl.
Rumors and fabrications which were told after the catastrophe didn’t come true: we didn’t see any mutants. And stalkers which are searching some new emotions are seen here now and then. Why not? Fines for the visiting a closed territory is just 340 UAH. Chornobyl gives you strange impressions: it like a small provincial town, where there almost no pedestrians, and so it seems quiet and calm. And the surroundings do not tell you that this is a town with a high radiation hazard. Especially there, where «Chornobyl-2» is situated: a secret town, the road to which started from a station «Children’s sanatorium».
Here is situated one of the most popular places among the tourists- the Dyga. This monumental building, as the guide says,can stand here another thirty years. There are lots of legends about this place and it is more often visited by the stalkers. During walking around this strange building we have heard a gnash several times. As guides say,this sound comes when the metal is widening at the sun. But as for me, the version that stalkers throw some rubbish just to laugh at the tourists is more likely to be. But the most interesting was the reactor itself.
It is said, that after the crash it was surrounded by the red forest. During the crash these tree were the first which came under the influence of the radiation and had died the first. The tree died and the radiation stayed: the dosimetres immediately informed us of the danger.
Despite that the red forest was cut down and the upper layer of the ground was taken off: the level of the radiation is still very high. And remembers about that time a notice with strange words: «The Red Forest».
Prupjat is a town that is «absorbing» by the nature: the firmer stadium is overgrowing with trees.
The only thing that still exists is a huge signboard- « Prupjat-1970». At one moment I thought that it is Zhytomyr somewhere near the railway station: the five-storey houses were built by the absolutely identical project, like in any other post soviet republics.
After visiting Chornobyl zone you get to understand lots of things, especially that the worst is a lie, which should be better called « A Lie-86». If there was no lie, lots of things could be avoided and even saved. Thousands of people could live better lives, hundreds of children could be born without any problems with health, and the number of desases could be decreased enormously.
Now the Zone lives its own life…People work, do their personal businesses, grow the vegetables…For some people here is life, for others-amusement, and only for some people it is a bitter memory which will stay forever…