Solonor's Ink Well
March 28, 2004
A Ride Through Ghost Town
A Russian motorcycle rider named Elena says she routinely takes her bike into Chernobyl. She's posted some incredible pictures of the GHOST TOWN.
Like many Americans, I suspect, to me Chernobyl was just another far off disaster. It didn't help that it was hidden behind the iron curtain of the Soviets. I never really "got it" that 210,000 people were removed from their city and its surrounding villages. They left it all behind after the worst nuclear disaster in world history, and it's still there...
People had to leave everything, from photos of their grandparents to cars. Their clothes, cash and passports has been changed by state authorities. This is incredible, people lived, had homes, country houses, garages, motorcyles, cars, money, friends and relatives, people had their life, each in own niche and then in a matter of hours this world fall in pieces and everything goes to dogs and after few hours trip with some army vehicle one stands under some shower, washing away radiation and then step in a new life, naked with no home, no friends, no money, no past and with very doubtful future.
[ via Slashdot ]
UPDATE: The motorcycle trips were a fantasy story she made up. The pictures are real. Though, you reportedly can take the same Chernobyl tour for $193.
Saw this one a few weeks ago; I'm surprised Slashdot just picked up on it.
It's really eerie stuff, isn't it?
She's added some new photos since the last time I looked. It is so hanutingly beautiful. Time is just frozen and then you find yourself right back on those days and recalling the newscasts from around the world and the terrifying news. The kindergarten gas mask pictures are new. That was kind of freaky. These tiny little baby gas masks.
Incredibly moving: thanks, Solly.
Spooky stuff.
One of the books my bookgroup is doing (you should check my list, Sol) is "The Sky Unwashed", which is a semi-fictional account of life for some of the villages arounc Chernobyl. And, the book was written by an author who lives in Apopka :>
Extremely eerie and beautiful at the same time.
Wow, I think the pictures get me the most. The thought of leaving everything behind like that. I can't imagine how hard that must have been for those people.
speechless. Thank you Solonor
Amazing web site. Reminds me of some of those old 70's sci-fi movies about life after nuclear distaster or plague, like “The Omega Man”. But this is real and very chilling. I like the examples of the old Soviet Art and architecture. The kindergarten pictures are hard to view, very disturbing. It's like watching a horror movie that's real.
Wow! I've got serious goosebumps now.
I was 18, and a freshman in college at the time, so I didn't have much perspective on it back then - it was far away, impersonal and sounded more like a sci-fi/horror movie than real life. Thanks for sharing that, Les!
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