A Journey through Turkey, Georgia and Bulgaria.

Hello ! My name’s Andreas, and this is my 3 month journey through Turkey, Georgia and Bulgaria in my motorhome.

I grew up in a small village in the countryside between Zurich and Winterthur (Switzerland), where I now live again. In between, I lived in the city of Zurich for about 15 years. Everything is orderly and regulated here, which causes me a lot of trouble from time to time. For example offending the neighbors, just with the way I tend my garden.
I work a regular job as a business solution designer for an insurance company 80% of the time.  The rest I enjoy being a father and husband.

Here, the smallest things are a huge problem, covered by the media and eagerly discussed by people. However the people I met during this trip made me feel at home in every country. The experience broadened my vision of the world’s diversity and magnificence, bringing me greater serenity at home.

I have always wanted to know everything in detail and see with my own eyes how people live in other countries. As a young man, I travelled around Southeast Asia as a backpacker from 1995 and got to know countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Burma. Another highlight was the Hemis Trek in Ladakh in 2000. Later, as a family man, we traveled across Europe in our self-built motorhome, visiting places like Romania and the Baltic States.

Traveling showed me that leading a simple life can bring complete satisfaction, far more than many people experience in my home country.

Another highlight was a family kitchen dinner in Tiblisi. This was the most authentic cuisine experience that I had in Georgia. Situated in the basement of an unimpressive local house the older lady cooked in the corner of the tiny room another elderly woman helped serving the food. Local wine was poured from a 10 liter plastic canister. The walls are painted with banknotes from all over the world. Food was extremely tasty, the portions far too big and the prices ridiculously low. All other guest where locals, so I really felt like dining with a big Georgian family.

Georgia had some challenges too, as we drove our 4×2 motorhome near the Vashlovani National Park to the mud volcanoes near the Azerbaijani border. All the other vehicles we saw were genuine 4x4s and the road was so bad that the locals had to find alternative routes themselves. Every few kilometers there were places where I expected to get stuck, but in the end everything went well without me having to dig the vehicle out.

My practical tips for travelling here are;

– Get to the well-known sights very early in the morning to avoid the crowds. Its also much better for taking photos this way.

– We used eSIMs from Airalo across all the countries.

– After each border crossing, I withdrew some cash with my Visa and paid the remaining expenses with Visa wherever possible.

– Prepare a little less and leave a lot more open to be able to decide more spontaneously on the spot. It was difficult to find the right pace, we were often too fast and then had to take abrupt breaks. I would prefer to take it a little slower next time.

– One of the hidden gems is Blaundus Antik Kenti in Turkey.

– Another are the market halls in Konya in Turkey and in Sestaponi in Georgia.

You can check out my instagram, website and Polar Steps Log for more of my truck and the places I found !

Travel Truck site
Instagram
Polar Steps