Special: Chernobyl / Pripyat

I was 9 years old when the catastrophic events at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant evolved – and I lived only 10km (about 6 miles) away from a German nuclear power plant. Of course at that age I didn’t fully understand what happened, but back in the 1980s and 1990s many people were really scared of nuclear power in general, especially around the time when the Cold War was current events, not history. And for me the topic didn’t end once Chernobyl was old news: At school I read youth novels by Gudrun Pausewang, I joined a field trip to the nearby nuclear power plant and I watched “The Day After” during Social Studies classes – and of course there were safety drills and siren tests; the nuclear threat was present until the mid-90s when the Cold War actually finally was history for sure. In addition to that I always had a faible for dystopian / post-nuclear literature and movies. I grew up watching movies like The Time Machine and The Omega Man, reading books like 1984 and A Clockwork Orange.
So going to the Zone Of Alienation (also known as Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone, Chernobyl Zone or 30 Kilometer Zone) to finally see Pripyat, Chernobyl and their surroundings was a dream come true on many different levels, especially since I started urban exploration as a hobby just a couple of months earlier.
The tragic events in Chernobyl were summed up so often by people who are doing it for a living, so I will concentrate on how I experienced the Zone Of Alienation – and what the area looks now; if you would like to know where all the locations are exactly you can have a look at the map.
This page I created to make it easier to navigate between the different blog entries, similar to what I did with Nara Dreamland.

Without further ado here’s a chronological list of ZOA-related articles, one picture each will follow below:
Zone Of Alienation – Getting Started / Kiev
Zone Of Alienation – Entering The Zone / Chernobyl
Zone Of Alienation – The Red Forest / Pripyat In General
Zone Of Alienation – Pripyat: Palace Of Culture “Energetik”
Zone Of Alienation – Pripyat: Amusement Park
Zone Of Alienation – Pripyat: Propaganda Room
Zone Of Alienation – Pripyat: Supermarket
Zone Of Alienation – Pripyat: Apartment Building at Lesya Ukrainka Street 56
Zone Of Alienation – Pripyat: Swimming Pool “Lazúrnyj” (“Lazurny” – Azure)
Zone Of Alienation – Pripyat: Middle School #3
Zone Of Alienation – Pripyat: Police Station / Prison
Zone Of Alienation – Chernobyl: CNPP Cooling Towers 5 & 6
Zone Of Alienation – Chernobyl: CNPP Sarcophacus
Zone Of Alienation – Chernobyl: All The Pretty Przewalski’s Horses
Zone Of Alienation – Pripyat: Hospital No 126
Zone Of Alienation – Pripyat: Jupiter Factory
Zone Of Alienation – Pripyat: Kindergarten “Zolotoj Kluchik” (Golden Key)
Zone Of Alienation – Pripyat: Apartment Building at Lazarev Street 1/14

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(So all the search engines can find this article here is a list of terms: Prypiat, Pripyat, Pripet, Pripiat, Prypiat, Prypyat, Prypjat, При́п’ять, При́пять, Chernobyl, Chornobyl, Чорнобиль, Чернобыль, Tschernobyl, Tschornobyl, Zone of Alienation, Ukraine, Red Forest, Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone, Chernobyl Zone or 30 Kilometer Zone, Рудий ліс, Рыжий лес, Зона відчуження Чорнобильської АЕС, Чорнобильська зона, Четверта зона, チェルノブイリ, プリピャチ)