Our driver turned up on the dot of 7:30, and within 90 minutes, we were at the Armenian border. Our driver told us we had to take our luggage through the Georgian emigration as well as the Armenian side. We were there early, so it took less than 5 minutes to clear Georgian customs but at least 10 minutes to walk the 500 metres between the border posts. Armenian immigration was a doddle, and we were outside looking for our driver in 5 minutes. The problem was he was still waiting for us to get back in the car in Georgia— a bit of a communication breakdown. Thankfully, Deryn had got roaming on her phone, so we were able to WhatsApp him. We ended up waiting about 20 minutes for him to clear Armenian customs as things had got busier. We used the time to grab some local currency— 1 AUD was about 260 Armenian Drams.
The roads in Armenia seemed pretty good compared to Georgia, and also what we had read in a blog. We stopped at the Haghart Monastery Complex. Like Georgia the day before, it was not a good idea to visit the famous monastery on the weekend at a location with 90 minutes of the capital. The place was packed. The complex was located in a beautiful mountainous forest and was built between the 10th and 13th centuries— it was beautiful, and it made sense it was so popular.
From there, it was about 90 minutes until we were dropped off at our hotel, Ithaca, right in the heart of Yerevan. The hotel clerk was lovely and, after showing us to our room— a tiny but clean double room— he made us each a cup of the dark, tasty Armenian coffee.
After that it was off to get some local ESIMs and check out the local area. Yerevan had a much more energetic and happy vibe to Tbilisi. It could have been because it was a beautiful sunny day – not an uncommon experience as apparently it happens 318 days of the year. We decided to do a ‘free’ walking tour at 5pm. We were a little bit phased when he told us it would take 3 hours – getting close to our bedtime it thankfully we had wisely (as in two wise nomads!) grabbed a dinner before joining the tour. The food was lovely – Deryn was impressed that the salads were as good as the Georgian ones. And as cheap, if not cheaper
The walk was good although the host was a little prickly. He was a ‘former’ artist who set up the free walking tour concept in Yerevan and now everyone was copying in, Lara’s are only driven by pheasants in the country and Azerbaijan deserves to be wiped off the map. While Armenians smile a lot more than Georgians they are certainly a race that have been bashed around by the superpowers – Otterman Empire, Russians and the Persians. Like Georgia they have experienced recent wars. Incredibly resilient people. The guide was telling us that the Americans are investing a lot into Armenia because of their quality education. He was also positive about Trump because of his trump highway – TRIPP. Trump Route for Peace and Prosperity – proposed 43-kilometer transport corridor in Armenia’s southern Syunik province intended to link mainland Azerbaijan with its Nakhchivan exclave. The elections are being held on the upcoming Sunday and once again it’s a battle between the pro-West party (the incumbent and favourite) and the pro-Russian party.
We had a local dog follow us for most of the tour – to the dismay of the tour guide who did not like dogs. The tour was 3 hours with no rest – would have been nice to stop somewhere for a drink. We tipped the guide 10,000 GEL (A$40) and had a well earned cup of tea before collapsing into bed after a long day.
The next morning we had the usual challenge of finding a place for breakfast – the Armenians are certainly not morning people with most places not opening before 9 or even 10. We walked through town to the Opera House. It’s an incredible building – it’s amazing a city smaller than Auckland sees it worthwhile to spend that sort of money on an opera house. From there it was through a park filled with incredible statues – including some springboks and a kiwi. It was then a climb of over 840 steps to the top of the Cascade Centre. The views of Mt Ararat and the incredibly conical volcano Mt Kucucagri towering over the city was amazing. It’s a tragedy that Mt Ararat which is such a symbol of Armenia was gifted to the Turks in 1921 by the Russians – post the Armenian Genocide.
We took the extra time to climb up to the brutalist Soviet monument built in 1967 as a memorial to the 50th Anniversary to the October Revolution. It was pretty average and the views hardly better than from the stairs below.
We then wandered through the numerous beautiful parks looking for the Cognac Factory. We eventually found it but unfortunately the tour wasn’t until 2 pm which made it a too hard. We meandered back to our hotel stopping at a nearby cafe for some lunch. I hung around to write the blog while Dits headed back to the hotel to do some more trip planning. I bought myself a tea shirt at the huge market near our hotel – I was getting a bit sick of the wearing the same 3 shirts. Dits wandered off to do a bit of market wondering; I joined her 45 minutes later. Dits bought some lovely silver earrings and me another tea shirt. We when checked out the Blue Mosque, an 18th century Iranian Shia mosque. It is an active mosque used by Iranians living in Yerevan.
We decided to try pick our rental car up earlier than the 10am we had booked. When we turned up the rental company we were dealt a blow. Aus and NZ drivers licences need a paper copy of an international drivers license as well – unlike virtually every other country on the planer where just the local drivers licences will do. We cajoled and pleased but to no avail. We went and sat in a cafe to try figure out wha the hell to do. Stay in Yerevan and do day trips; hire a driver on a multi -day basis …. I decided to reach out to Simon who had married Alina, an Armenian. He was on holiday in Moscow so Alina contacted her many cousins in Armenia to see if we could borrow a car. After several hours they finally tracked down a car. Brilliant!! We had to wait another couple of hours before we got an address and GG’s (local Uber) to the address. Our car was a new Mazda CR5 for a reasonable US$55 per day. We had a fair bit of USD and Euro left over from our Sri Lankan holiday from 2 years ago so it felt like it was free. 4.5 hours late but we were back on track
