One’s Most Intriguing Trip Ever — One’s First Trip in Life

Here is my story. Having lived in Armenia for over 20 years, I loved having a belief that my best trips, including the very long haul and most refreshing and life-changing, were my own routes in my home city, Yerevan, but just taken at weird times of the day. Simple as that. I did not even consider going out to countryside to be any an interesting trip per se, it was in fact less so for me, as I did not see a value of it simply because I could do that any time I wished.

Then, one day, I chose to travel. To travel. Outside Armenia. Strange things started happening from the very first moment I got on board the plane. The flight attendants. They were different. Not that I expected them to be of the same nationality as I was, but they were still strange. The moments after, I discovered, that being a flight attendant took to be different (on a foreign airline). That was intriguing but so normal.

Already during the flight I started to generate fairly grounded expectations, that quite likely the people I was going to encounter in the country of destination would be of the same kind as these guys. That assumption looked for me far more legitimate than the first insight. So I was half prepared for the upcoming discoveries. It felt cool to me.

We landed and I was disappointed to see these different people do the same customs and border checks and other but same formalities at the check-out. A moment I even felt mistreated. However I was happy now to see that it were me and my friends who were the only different there. I was having a feeling that they (the airport staff) would definitely prefer having a coffee with their friends instead of serving us at that moment or at least instead of meeting us be meeting their those coffee friends.

We got out to the city. On the way to the address of stay, in the car, I was fine to see streets, buildings and people on the streets that were interestingly different and nice. But when in the house of our host, I was feeling all that amazing difference richly packed and present in every corner of each room and it was taking my breath away. After having a short meal and rest after the travel by plane (3 hours) and in the car (10 minutes), we finally burst out to see the city and naturally made our way to downtown (the hosts were eager to show us the best of the city).

I liked the place. So white, everything. Not the snow, it was yet to fall in few days. The buildings. I mean the facades. People were so indifferent to my flow of feelings. No, they did care for what I was feeling but they were economical in doing that as were busy with their life and the feelings their life was bringing. They were not interacting with me too much at the beginning though were highly interested. They were fine with interacting with other busy people like themselves. That seemed illogical to me because I was free. Free and ready and even willing to embrace whatever comes along. But what was mainly coming along was my increasing willingness to embrace things coming along.

Good companions (versed into locale) are gold. They make you turn responsible. No, they do not mean to do that, but they are still precious. …

To be continued.

Hayk