Ukraine in the fall is impossibly beautiful. Kyiv itself is lovely, but the further into the countryside (and the closer to the Zone) you travel the vast forests and farm land burst with color. It is autumn at its most intense. The natural contours and the expressive clouds creature a wondrous texture to the landscape.
There’s also an unearthly magic to the light. Somehow “golden hour,” the roughly 45 minutes of soft, romantic light around dawn and dusk lasts for two hours at the beginning and end of each day.
You are always conscious that something terrible happened here, but what survives seems to have leapt out from the movie screen.
