Day 04. 23 july 2011

I get a bit of a late start as the hangover is wearing off. As i get down in the lobby, the girl from the reception is sleeping on a couch and the tables are filled with empty bottles. The cleaning lady is just shaking her head and washing the floor. I push the bike outside in perfect sunshine. Set the GPS to Kiev and im off. After a while i pass a monument with a tank on some concrete. I park the bike and walk around for a bit. I see an older man on a bicycle has stopped and is looking at my bike, he just waves that is ok, and i dont have to worry. When i get back to the bike he is waiting and we ”talk” for a bit, he in russian(i think) me in english. He has been to Denmark as crew on a boat, he is very kind and we shake hands and off he goes. The roads that are shown as highways on the map is just a two-lane undived road, and the pavement is in soo bad shape. Some of the potholes are as big as my front wheel.

I get to Kiev, but finding my Hostel becomes a problem. On the adress i have i see no sign of a hostel. I tries asking in a bakery, but they dont know. I drive around the block a couple of times. Back at the bakery i look very carefully at all the doors, and there is a small sign saying ”Kiev Hostel and Lodge”. I get in and is greated by a swedish guy who owns the place. Again there is a problem with my reservation, i booked a 2 person dorm room. But the only space he has is in a 12 person dorm room. We discuss a bit and he shows me his copy from booking.com that is written in russian with cyrellic alpabeth and states that its not what his copy is saying. I dont belive him, but its hard to prove when you dont read russian... So i get in the 12 person dorm, with a discount. But the price is still higher that what they say on their website. I dont like the way they conduct their buisness! But apart from that its a nice place to stay, and i have a couple of beers with some very nice people from Holland, France, Finland and Brasil.

Nice road

World war 2 monument

Quality of the highway