I was stuck in traffic for about five days and finally reached the Russian checkpoint. I walked up to the officer — it was a woman, a bit strict. She started asking the usual questions: how old I am, where I’m going, where I work. I said I’m a developer.
She asked what exactly I do. I told her I work in web development. She went silent for about 30 seconds, then called someone and asked, “Are we letting this person go?” I overheard the answer: “Yes, let him through.” That was unexpected; I thought I wouldn’t be able to pass. But everything went smoothly. After the Russian border, I got stuck in traffic for another eight hours but eventually made it to the Georgian checkpoint. That process only took 10 minutes. I bought a Georgian SIM card for 1,000 rubles and headed towards Tbilisi.
Tbilisi welcomed me with a hot, sunny day. I had booked a hotel in advance and reached it in five hours. I spent the night in Tbilisi and the next morning drove to the Georgian-Turkish border at Aktaş. The Turkish side was smooth too. I bought insurance for 300 lira. The Turkish border guards were very friendly and smiling, always ready to help.
So I crossed the border and headed towards Erzurum. I didn’t have internet in Turkey since I didn’t buy a SIM card. I arrived in Erzurum without a hotel reservation, so I stayed at the first place I found. It was already dark, around 8 p.m. The hotel wasn’t bad, but it smelled a bit like cigarettes. The night cost 250 lira. There were two beds in the room and a private bathroom — decent for one night. The day ended peacefully; nothing special happened except for seeing amazing landscapes along the way.
The next day, I got up at 8 a.m. and drove to Mersin. Along the way, I passed cities like Bingöl, Diyarbakir, Şanlıurfa, Gaziantep, Osmaniye, Adana, and Tarsus. Each city was beautiful in its own way. People often stared at my car with foreign plates, curious about where I was from, especially around Bingöl and Diyarbakir. I also passed many military checkpoints where they checked passports, but seeing a Russian one, they usually let me through quickly.
I saw a lot of military equipment — tanks, armored vehicles moving slowly and causing long lines of cars behind them. Despite that, I safely made it to Mersin around 7 p.m. I barely stopped except to get water or snacks. This was my first big road trip, which gave me valuable experience and showed me how to handle such journeys.
