The bus — 11 passengers plus driver — pulled out of Yerevan at 8:22 AM. It’s a 4 hour 45 minute drive from Armenia’s capital back to Tbilisi, plus whatever time immigration decides to add. The driver flicked on the radio and “Shaba Daba Dash” filled the cabin — the kind of unexpected soundtrack that makes long bus rides feel like a film you didn’t know you were in.

It was a long drive through the Caucasus Mountains, and the views are spectacular — green peaks, deep valleys, the road winding through landscapes that have been contested by empires for millennia. This is the same route we took two days ago, but in reverse, and the light is different going north. The mountains face you differently. You notice things you missed the first time.

🛂 No Drama at the Border

No issues at border control today. Breezed right through — a stark contrast to the 30-kilogram passport-photo interrogation on the way in. Stamps acquired, bags unchecked, onward. Sometimes the border is an event. Sometimes it’s just a formality. Today was the good kind.

🏠 Home

I got back to my Tbilisi apartment — the one I’d left three days earlier — and it still felt like home. The coffee cup was where I’d left it. The fridge welcomed me back. I cooked dinner from whatever was still good, ate it at the same table where seventeen Tbilisi days had unfolded before the Armenian weekend, and felt a quiet satisfaction that’s hard to name.

There’s a particular pleasure in coming back to a place that was supposed to be temporary and finding that it feels like returning, not arriving. Tbilisi has become that for me. The apartment I rented for a few weeks has become a base. The city I was visiting has become a city I live in. The weekend trip to Armenia confirmed it: I have a home in the Caucasus now, and it’s here.

Tomorrow will be a rest day. Laundry. Groceries. The domestic rhythms that keep long-term travel from becoming chaos. Armenia was two days of ancient monasteries, basalt symphonies, and lavash baked from scratch. Now it’s time to be still for a moment and let it all settle.

By the Numbers

Item	GEL	EUR (≈)
Bus Yerevan→Tbilisi	—	—
Dinner (cooked at home)	Pantry

Bus cost to come.