dmitry_malikov

if anyone is interested, I also created a gallery of Chernobyl Cinemagraphs that you'll find interesting: http://imgur.com/a/X4xWB

lil' bit.

I saw three other tourists the day I was there.

There are actually elderly permanent residents who were given permission to live out the rest of their lives in their old home if they chose to do so and waived their rights. There are few of them, but they can be found.

There are also scientific staff who live there for months at a time and study the effects of radiation on wildlife. They are not near the highly radioactive areas and take all proper precautions when conducting research.

I was there with my wife who acts as my video host/subject and a former resident of the Soviet Union.

The evidence of contamination is obvious. One thing in particular is an area of the forest. When the wind blew radioactive rain cloud North East, it moved over a very particular section of forest. That forest has a very visible section of now blackened and sick trees.

There is a grim place in Chernobyl that you can google and watch a video about. I could be wrong with the tilte but I'm quite sure it's called the "room of the first 14". This room refers to a place deep in a forgotten basement within Pripyat where the first 14 firefighters were placed.

The first 14 fire fighters went into the reactor to try and cool it down with fire hoses. They were unprotected and died within the hour.

Their uniforms and supposably their remains were so terribly irradiated that they couldn't be handled nor removed from the premises. As such, they were taken to a basement and laid to rest.

Some private tour operators will take you there and some won't. I simply wanted to know which building it was and see the inscription on the door that leads down to them. My guide didn't feel safe going to that building for "supernatural" reasons. I can't really argue with that.

You should google that room or look for a reference to the first firefighters and their place of rest.

I'm trying to think of a good rationale for you because the answer is yes. Similar to Angkor Wat in Cambodia where the Jungle has taken the city back, the forest has taken back Chernobyl. You'd be mesmerized by the way roots and trees have popped up in old government offices, ripped through a downed helicopter and even pushed a building up into the air a couple feet.

It's an urban "coral reef". You'll see the unexpected mix of scrap metal decorated with flowers and concrete with leaves :)