Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa: I plead guilty to briefly thinking as we were coasting along the motorway through Georgia yesterday “maybe this trip is getting a little bit too easy” – think again! Remember I described border crossings as a great opportunity to revisit the Kafkaesque horrors of bureaucratic authoritarianism?

+: Enjoyed our stay at Tekla Palace, were smart enough to dress warmly (below 4C at the highest point of the day, with snow visible right next to the tunnels); very impressed by the Austrian Embassy’s swift and helpful response

-: While everybody else at the border was reasonably polite and not obstructive, a young officer at the customs office and his director decided we are to be denied entry into Türkiye. Apparently you are only allowed to enter the country with vehicles of a country you hold permanent residence of (? was this the problem for #YallaHabibi, too?)