The times they are a-changin’.
This post seems to be older than 14 years—a long time on the internet. It might be outdated.
Now that I have my plans to Russia finalized, I’ve started to plan out other parts of my trip. It also sounds like Charlie and Quinn are both seriously considering coming along for at least part of my adventure. Quinn has a prior engagement that will tie him up until the first part of July, but he’s considering joining me then. Charlie has a bit more flexibility and I’m trying to convince him to join me for the second part of June.
In talking with Charlie, he encouraged me to do a little bit of route optimization. I’ve come up with Itinerary v0.3, which is essentially a reorganization of v0.2; I’ve also dropped France from the list…although I could put it back later. I’ve also, tentatively, added a stop in Greece.
Trip Path
As for Ukraine, I started looking and there are tours of Chernobyl! This is both incredibly exciting and scary1. There are a handful of companies that provide tours, each of them seem to have equal pricing and offerings, starting at $150/person or so. A bit more than I want to pay, but could be worth it I think, especially since it’s an all day adventure and includes lunch2. Pictures are also allowed, so I would definitely be a happy camper there.
TourKiev is the leading contender for the tour, they’re also recommended by The Lonely Planet and seem to be pretty professional.
Other travel companies include UkrainianWeb and SAM Travel Company.
In doing some research, I found this interesting slide show from the EPA, Chernobyl: An Inside Tour. I also found an obituary for Constantin Rudy, who’s mentioned extensively in the EPA slide show and who seemed like a pretty cool guy.
Interesting side note, part of Call of Duty 43 is set in Prypiat, Ukraine, which is just 2km from Chernobyl. When I was looking at the pictures from the tour companies, I immediately recognized them as from the game…creepy.
Itinerary v0.3:
- Day 1:
Seattle, Washington
Dulles, Washington, DC - Day 2: Moscow, Russia
- Day 8: St. Petersburg, Russia
- Day 14: Tallin, Estonia
- Day 16: Ukraine
- Kiev
- Chernobyl
- Day 18: Turkey
- Istanbul
- Antalya
- Ephesus
- Cappadocia
- Day 24: Greece
- Day 26: Italy:
- Rome
- Venice
- Agnone
- Day 36: Switzerland
- Arbon
- Interlaken
- Day 40: Austria
- Day 44: Budapest, Hungary
- Day 50: Prague, Czech Republic
- Day 53: Warsaw, Poland
- Day 57: Germany
- Day 62: Seattle
“According to our guide the radiation dose you get from a day at Chernobyl is less than from a transatlantic flight. In other words, it’s supposed to be safe.” ↩
brought in from outside the exclusion zone ↩
a video game I play on occasion ↩