Today was a little weird as all days here in Ukraine. The day rose early at 445 am to get a good jump on the day and to allow us some extra stops during the trip as Emmanuelle was getting tired from the trip. We had our usual coffee and left by 545 for our way. The hills of Rivne were placed every 3 km which made the morning long but we managed to put in 45 km before really stopping to eat.

Along the highway just balanced on the white line that separates the chopped shoulder and the highway were 2 kittens about a month or so old. They were definitely slower than the cars and we were worried that they would get hit, so we gathered them up and took them out to the nearest farm we could find where they would be safe. I don’t think that kittens should hitchhike until they are at least 3-4 months old.

We continued the route for a little ways and stopped for bite to eat in a small cafe along side of the road. We had the first solid meal during the day that didn’t consist of bread and chocolate since a week ago. It was nice to take a break.

We started on our way again at 10am and rode for about 10km when I had spotted a man who pulled what looked like a tripod out of his trunk and set it up along side of the car. There was 6 figures grouped around and I told Emmanuelle to speed up. Just within view of the car we saw that it was Tanya from Rivne and a media crew filming as we passed. We stopped and gave an interview and Tanya who was dragged 50 km out of Rivne served as our translator as we of course couldn’t get by with saying "cheers" and "thank you" which is the only things we can say in Ukrainian.

The interview was rushed but we were released in a hurry as if we were in a big race or something. I just laughed to myself because if people only knew that when we bike we break every couple km to take pictures or go for a nap along side of the road, they would look differently at the 100km we do per day. We are a little more laid back and we enjoy the day flow by at a slow pace.

Anyway we made it into our next town to find only one hotel room vacant for the night: no shower, no toilet, no warm water, 2 beds ... perfect.

Tomorrow another big day...

We woke early as usual to be able to bike before too much sun and traffic. Our roommate woke up too and told us that last night the local TV crew of Rivne had called. Apparently our friend Andrew we met the day before had told them about us. They wanted to talk to us but we were already asleep. They had asked when we were leaving for Novorahd but probably did not anticipate that we would leave Rivne by 6 am.

Anyway, chances were that they could catch us on the road. And they did!!

Concentrated on my biking I didn’t realize some guy was filming us and a TV crew of 3 people with microphone and all were ready to interview us while our roommate was becoming our translator for the day! Unbelievable!

With her help we communicated our aim for our trip and first impressions of Ukraine and its citizens. That was so much fun, yet somewhat surreal!

It took us at least 2 hours of biking to realize what had just happened!

Some hours later, we finally arrived to our destination. I thought we biked much faster than last time. It feels I am actually getting stronger. This feels so nice and so different from the first time I biked with bags and a broken hand. Yet I remain, cautious, it has only been 5 weeks since I broke my scaphoide. So with the help of our contact Dana a bus was organized to pick me up in Novorhad to take me to Korosten, the town where we were going to visit the first center. But for the time being, we had to find a place to stay. Apparently there were only 2 hotels in town, and the nice one was booked. So we were left with no choice but the old downtown hotel.

Booking a room was a hard task with the use of sign language. We were both given a questionnaire to fill out. We were surprise by the many questions asked. The lady actually called whoever to verify our passports!! That made me feel uneasy and curious to know what kind of clientele was actually staying in this hotel. They seemed to look normal but I was relieved to leave the place the following day.