21st August 2017

Today I am taking my time, having breakfast around 9:00am and not planning to leave until around noon. I will be taking the P69 country road to Kiev, about 140 km. Viktoriia is expecting me at her house around 7:00pm.

My hotel in Chernihiv (Hotel Reikartz) is absolutely recommendable, brand new, very clean, friendly and helpful staff, great breakfast. The best so far!

The metropolitan region of Kiev (by the way, the mayor is Vitali Klitschko) has about 4 million inhabitants. The traffic is accordingly heavy, especially during peak hours. In addition, there is the horrendous condition of the partially 6-8 lane roads, mostly lacking road markings, and a certain recklessness of other road users. That's why I plan to bypass Kiev in the north, maybe take a break at Kiev Sea and enter the city from the west via the M07 ring road.

After a tiring drive at 34°C on not-so-optimal country roads ;-) I arrived around 6:00pm. But the absolute highlight was the rush hour traffic in Kiev. Four lanes in each direction without any road markings... oh boy 🙈!