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Visiting Chernobyl, Part II, Ukraine
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You can certainly learn a lot from secondary sources, but nothing compares to seeing a place like Chernobyl first-hand.
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Visiting Chernobyl, Part I, Ukraine
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‘Dark Tourism’ has become more than a catchphrase; it’s now a bona fide part of the broader tourism industry. There is no shortage of people who want to see first-hand the places where significant historic tragedies, crimes and disasters occurred. I am one of them.
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Chicken Kiev, Ukraine
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A few of my mates asked if I had eaten a Chicken Kyiv in Kyiv. Turns out there is less Kyiv in Chicken Kyiv than I thought. I have a table for two – join me, won’t you?
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Climbing Mt Hoverla, Ukraine
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I might not have got to see Mt Hoverla and the greater Carpathians in all their spectacular beauty, but I certainly did have an experience of Ukraine’s alpine country.
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Museum of Strategic Missile Forces, Part II, Ukraine
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In the midst of paddocks in south-central Ukraine, a tour guide and I were cramped inside an elevator descending 30 metres into the earth to visit an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile command centre.
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Museum of Strategic Missile Forces, Part I, Ukraine
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The brinksmanship, mistrust and misunderstanding between the east and west during the Cold War had created weapons so monstrous that offensive, defensive or erroneous launch would had spelled the end of everything.
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Sleeping Bag, Bulgaria
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It was time to replace my sleeping bag. Out of the corner of my eye I saw it sitting on the lounge, bound up tight in its red stuff sack. I looked away. I felt like I was betraying a friend.
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The Red Flat, Bulgaria
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Close to the centre of Sofia, in an ordinary, non-descript housing block, is a unique time capsule. The Red Flat is an apartment that has been set up to replicate a family residence typical of 1980s urban Bulgaria.
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The Chess Players of City Garden, Bulgaria
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I like to walk, so I booked accommodation in central Sofia, Bulgaria, so I could explore on foot. If I hadn’t, I may never have discovered the chess players of City Garden.
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Second Covid-19 Vaccination, Bulgaria
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Having to figure out where to get a PCR test done in a non-English speaking country, within the stipulated time window before travelling to a new place, and then sometimes having to have another test upon arrival, was a real bastard.