What a journey! Over 9500 km, across 30 days and eight countries, our campervan carried us from Poland to the Caucasus and all the way back. We left after months of winter downtime and chose the long way: through Transalpina, Bulgarian beaches and the quiet small towns along the Black Sea coast of Turkey, where tea, narrow streets and unhurried days eased us into a different world.

Georgia was everything we hoped for and a bit more. Batumi was loud and chaotic, but warm. Svaneti greeted us with cows on every road and long climbs through the mountains. In Tbilisi we gave a big city a chance and were glad we did. The Georgian Military Road turned out to be easier and far more beautiful than we expected, and the highlands of Samtskhe–Javakheti added old fortresses and open skies.

The way home was a different journey: the eastern Black Sea coast and Cappadocia with its rock landscapes, a stop at (somewhat overrated) Troy, and then Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, and finally Hungary and Slovakia, where we did not resist lángos and thermal baths. The final leg was wet, but that did not matter. This was our longest trip so far, and every stage has its own story below.