Georgia

Old Tbilisi rewards walking and punishes anyone trying to plan. The hills don't go where the map says they do, the wine cellars open when they feel like it, and the best meal of the trip was at a place I couldn't find again if you paid me. That's the city.

Stayed near the Sulphur Baths and spent the first day just wandering up into the hills, eating khachapuri at every excuse, failing gracefully to not look like a tourist.

Two hours of switchbacks out of Tbilisi, a few stops for cows in the road, and then you're at altitude — the air thins and the mountains start doing that trick where they look fake. Bring a jacket even in summer; the wind up here doesn't care what month it is.

That arc of mosaics looking out over the Caucasus — the view that doesn't really shrink in your memory. It's a forty-five-minute stop on the way to somewhere else, and you should still go.

This is also where the video at the top of the homepage was shot. Same jacket, same beanie, same horizon.