Destination ahead!

Hitching to L'viv! A night of mostly restless sleep, waking up at 6AM, and after breakfast, SIM card swapping/purchasing, and organization, and we hit the road at 10AM! Reese and I paired off and immediately picked up a 25km ride with a metalwork artist. He had a portfolio of his work with him, and some of the stuff was absolutely amazing! We also picked up Misha (Mitch) on the way, a French cameraman whom we were friendly with from last year's 888 conference. We waited around as cars passed, some loaded with our other friends hitch-hiking past, some empty and giving us the short-distance sign. Occasionally a cow would wander into the road, and one of the local farmers would run into the road and herd the runaway back into the fields. After what seemed like hours, but was likely 45 minutes, a car pulled over headed directly to Kiev! Our luck seemed great, and we quickly hopped in. Just as quickly, we discovered that neither of our drivers spoke a word of English, and unfortunately were unfamiliar with both the road to Kiev, and the concept of long-distance driving (or highway driving, for that matter). The 525km lift took almost 9 hours, and we arrived in Kiev at 9:30PM. A short metro ride later, a few questions, and we were reunited with our friends at a cafeteria in Kiev. After eating a much-needed meal and a few beers, we collected the other wayward hitch-hikers and made our way to Anton's, our totally awesome and gracious host.
Seven hitch-hikers, one host, two dozen beers, and everyone having just hitched 550 km from L'viv to Kiev certainly made for an interesting evening.