Rivne and to Kiev and more unpleasantness with the authorities

Rivne (Rovno) is awesome. The Ukrainian roads are all paved by Michael J. Fox (a politically incorrect reference to Parkinson's) and it was raining all day but it's the people who make the place. Wanting to make sure we get the most out of Ukraine, calling their friends and arranging things for us. Even taking care of reminding us of our bedtime, so that we are in good riding spirits and conditions in the morning.

What is curious is that in the most downscale watering hole, 80% of the patrons were lawyers and then there was us. They assured me that Ukraine really does need that many lawyers because of the shitty laws.
Speaking of which, the Ukrainian police force is once again a bit better off, courtesy of MC Murskeat Lokit. This time there was a bigger show, threats of long time prisonment, a real judge, a court and a trial, but eventually things were taken care of with same kind of money than the last time. This made us lose 5-8 hrs and most of our faith in humanity.

Nevertheless, we're in Kiev now. The sun has shined on us all day, temperature around 30C, it's been almost unbearable to be dressed in thick black leather, and ride (slowly) these black potato fields that have road paintings on them.
The wifes and girlfriends of 3 of us flew into Kiev on Sunday. So now we have attractive women with us who also speak the language. That can never be bad.
Kiev shows promise, too. After arriving here, it took all of 25 seconds for a biker guy to come and offer his help in finding whatever we need. His help will come in handy, because one of the bikes need some fixing. And that is what these ppl are good at. Fixing things.
Some of the necessary parts will be shipped from by bus from another town, some parts will be sourced from a local stunts-riding team.
Today we went to a private tour on Obolon beer factory. It took around 15 calls to bypass the General Managers secretary (thid brewery doesnt do tourist tours) and then we were invited.
And impressive factory it was, huge amounts of hops, barley, water and yeast go in at the other end (and little solid bits of plastic and glass; they'll turn into bottles) and all kinds of great beverages come out from the other. In the meanwhile, the hundred or so 400000 - 600000 liter tanks store the golden stuff at 1C.
There has been around billion liters of Obolon made. Calculate the cubic root of that and you will learn that it amounts to a cube where each side is one kilometer long.
But remembering that every liter of beer will make you urinate at least the same amount, it is no wonder the river Dnepr runs so wide.

Sorry this blog entry took a while to air, internet connectivity has been scarce.

And greetings to all the great ppl we've met, including Alexander, Neko, Genie, Dimitri, and the 6-weeks(?) old kitten named Eric.