Chernobyl

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We had an unusual day today visiting the exclusion zone of Chernobyl, the first nuclear power plant disaster. It was an educational and disturbing day. We are glad we went. We are glad we booked a private tour as we had a shorter and easier day than the bus loads had. It continues to be hotter than forecast so that was good for us. It was about a 1.5 hour drive each way from Kiev. We were advised to pack bug repellent and did but were not bothered by mosquitoes and didn't need it. We booked Chernobyl Tour through Viator. They did a good job. They gave us certificates that showed our dosimeters recorded we'd received a radiation dose of 0.002mSv. We were told that is the equivalent radiation exposure to an hour long airplane flight. So, no worries.

Traffic was horrific when we arrived yesterday around 3pm and it was even worse today when we got back around 5pm on a Friday. During the ride back to Kiev, Clay got an email on his phone. It was from Viator notifying us that the tour operator in Chisinau, Moldova for Sept. 12-13 had cancelled our tour. The specious reason given was that they couldn't book a hotel during high season, but they have had our money for months and confirmed the name of the hotel they HAD booked a month or so ago. Obviously if they had intended to provide the tour, the room would have been reserved more than a month ago. Viator apologized and said they'd provide a full refund. Now we have to figure out where we'll sleep that night and make new plans. Stay tuned.

We thought we could do online check-in for our next flight today but it turns out we booked a Windrose flight through UIA and we can't get seats until 2 hours before the flight. That was never spelled out anywhere or we'd have booked a different flight or directly. We had to ask the B&B receptionist for assistance to call to figure it out. She and we had assumed there was a website problem since the message never gave the actual reason we couldn't check in on line.

So all in all, a problematic day. Fingers crossed it is the worst of what can go wrong.

We get a later start tomorrow, but it may be a harder walking day touring the city.

Photos