№7 — Armenia and Georgia
Last week Silia and I went to Armenia and Georgia. Why Armenia you might ask? We were asked the same a lot of times so here we go: less touristy than Paris, flight time below five hours, and a place we have never been. That already narrows down the list quite a lot and since there is a direct flight from Vienna to Yerevan with Austrian, we decided to go for it.
Day 0 and 1 — Yerevan
While the direct flight is great, it only left at 10:30pm on Saturday and thus, we arrived in the very early morning in Yerevan. After catching up on sleep for a few hours in our hotel, we went out to explore the city. As Yerevan is small, we walked almost everywhere, only occasionally taking the subway or a taxi.
We started our tour at Gum Market, a large food and spice market, and then visited the first of many churches on this trip. Our stroll led us past a souvenir market with lots of chess boards in different sizes and shapes, the main square, the opera house and at last the Cascade monument. While it looks quite impressive from below, the top is a deserted construction site. As we were told, an Armenian-American man wanted to build two modern museums on top but the city didn’t like the design, so he stopped the construction.
We finished the day with a walking tour through the city. Our guide, Vako, gave us great insights. We recommend it!
Day 2 — The South
We are not the biggest fans of guided tours, so we decided to hire a car and drive around ourselves, despite warnings of a more “rustic” driving style.
The other drivers were not as bad as expected but the road conditions once you got outside of Yerevan were worse. Pot holes big enough to sink a car and road surface missing completely were the norm — perfect for our Nissan Micra. Also, cows and dogs were frequently crossing the main roads despite heavy traffic.
We used the day to visit Garni Temple and the symphony of stones, which is an interesting formation in a completely deserted canyon right next to the temple. Afterwards we went to Geghard Monastery, the remnants of Dvin, and then to Khor Virap. The latter is right at the border with Turkey and has the best view of Mount Ararat — the place where Noah supposedly ended his trip on the ark. Unfortunately, we could hardly see the mountain, but we witnessed an Armenian wedding taking place in the monastery.
Day 3 — The North
Day 3 took us to the north of Yerevan and into the mountains. October is not tourist season anymore, but we were still surprised that we were the only visitors at Hovhannavank right on the ledge of the Kasagh river gorge.
At our next stop, Sagmhosavank, we were at least joined by two local dogs. In both places, the views around those centuries-old monasteries where overwhelming. We continued northwards to visit the Armenian alphabet monument. Someone loved this very particular alphabet (it is only used in Armenian) so much, he put up all 39 letters somewhere in the countryside. Not the usual sight but quite interesting.
We turned right higher up Mount Aragats to reach Amberd castle, which, of course, had also a monastery. The castle lies at 2300 meters and while the area was barren, it is supposed to be covered in beautiful flowers during spring. The day ended with a visit to Etschmiadsin, the seat of the head of the Armenian-Anglican church (comparable to the Pope).
Day 4 — Lakes and Mountains
We drove out west to see Lake Sevan and Dilijan national park. On the way we encountered many abandoned water parks and holiday resorts, most likely remnants of the Soviet era.
The lake itself is nice to look at from the top of the local monastery, although it faces the same problems as the Aral Sea with overfishing, pollution and, dropping water levels.
We continued into the mountains through Dilijan to Haghartsin Monastery, which was completely redone by the ruler of Sharjah. On the way back, we visited another unusual sight — Levon’s divine underground. It is a surprisingly large tunnel system dug by one man using very basic tools only because his wife wanted somewhere to store potatoes.
Day 5 — Driving to Georgia
We took a matrushka, a minibus, from Yerevan to Tbilisi, which was only five hours away — six if you do not drive like a madman. We walked around through the city of Tbilisi, which seemed considerably more modern than Yerevan and you could see the Georgian attempts to knit closer ties with the European Union.
Our dinner in Tbilisi that day was probably one of the best during the whole trip. Even though the restaurant’s atmosphere was horrible — think Soviet metro station — the Adjarian Khachapuri was great. If you are not familiar with it, it is a bread shaped like a boat filled with cheese, topped with an egg and butter. What could be better?
Day 6 — Tbilisi
Even though our hostel was great, I remembered why I do not like beds with a footboard — I simply cannot fully stretch. Still, we spent the whole day walking around the city starting with a walking tour offered by the hostel.
It was very interesting to see that Georgia propagates the view of the Soviets as oppressors of the country, while Armenia has a more positive view, as the Soviets are seen as the ones that saved them from the Turks.
Day 7 — Return to Yerevan
On the way back to Yerevan, we decided against the fast route and rather chose a tour offered by our hostel in Tbilisi.
The tour led us to three interesting sights in northern Armenia, namely Akhtala, Haghbat, and Sanahin monasteries. It also included lunch at a local family, which was very delicious. We watched the stunning environment of the Debed canyon from our car and finally arrived in Yerevan after 12 hours in the bus tired but glad we chose this route.
Day 8 and 9 — Yerevan and Vienna
On our last day in Yerevan, we had a late breakfast and then visited Zizernakaberd, a memorial dedicated to the Armenian genocide, which was very interesting, yet not for the faint-hearted.
After visiting the memorial, we walked through a deep canyon right in the city, which eventually led us to presumably unused train tracks and a station called “children’s railway”. In combination with autumn weather, the seemingly abandoned train station had a rather creepy feeling. Subsequently, we walked through town and up the hill all the way to the Mother Armenia statue, finishing our trip to Armenia and Georgia.
We left Yerevan on Monday morning at 5:20am local time and flew directly back to Austria.
Even though Armenia was very interesting, I will not go back there anytime soon. For now, I have seen enough ancient monasteries. Nevertheless, Tbilisi was very exciting and the rest of Georgia is supposed to be even more exciting — it is even in Lonely Planet’s Top 10 countries to visit in 2018. Thus, I want to go back there soon and maybe combine it with a trip to Azerbaijan.
Click here to see my list of past experiences and ideas what to do next. If you have a suggestion for future new experiences, feel free to comment or drop me a message.
