As well as exploring Chernobyl and Pripyat, I was keen to meet up with some fellow urban explorers in Kiev and see some local sights through their eyes. To this end Zak and I headed out with Sasha and Nastya to get an alternative view of Kiev. After buying 8 bottles of local beer we headed off to explore the town. We'd had a number of discussions about places to visit in Kiev and Sasha's area of expertise is underground tunnels and rivers. Neither Zak and I were equipped for this or to be honest inclined to head below the streets, so instead we headed for an abandoned bridge. The bridge we visited crossed, or half crossed the main river that runs through Kiev, who's name I can't remember. As we walked over the bridge, Sasha revealed that it was the oldest suspension bridge in the Russian region... or at least, what remained of it was. Nearing the first of two towers, Sasha veered towards the 30 metre column on the left and I can remember distinctly thinking that this boded badly ..... drinking Ukrainian beer, at night on the remains of the oldest suspension bridge in Russia and heading towards a potentially scary climb. Sure enough, Sasha's plan was to jump the hand rail, head down a short ladder, onto an improvised wooden ladder which lead to a platform which ran around the stantion and lead to a caged ladder running up 30 metres to the top of the bridge.
Zak declined, I declined. We sat on the bridge deck drinking beer instead. Yes I wimped out, yes, I'm glad I did.
No comments:
Post a Comment