At the border it took so long to get our visas and passports stamped that our lift drove off leaving our bags outside, fortunately for us an old Armenian guy, who absolutely reeked of spirits, offered to help us and waited around while our paperwork was completed. When we realised that there was a good chance he was still very drunk we tried to politely decline his generous offer of a lift, when he realised why we were trying to say no he assured us that his brother was driving, not him, so we jumped in his red minivan next to his daughter and her daughter and began the spine jarring, bottom numbing long drive to Yerevan.
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| From Yerevan, Armenia |
We had planned to stop in Gyumri for the night but when he told us about celebrations for Yerevan's 2792nd birthday we decided to go with them to the capital. He invited us to stay with his family, and after collecting his son from the airport we drove to the edge of town to his house where we were fed an excellent dinner with stuff cabbage leaves, peppers and tomatoes and fried aubergine. They then took us out to the centre of town, about 5km away, just in time to catch the end of the party. We stayed in Republic Square for a short while watching the party people leave and then got a taxi back home where we slept in very comfortable beds.
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| From Yerevan, Armenia |
The next day, after a good filling breakfast and plenty of chocolates (they gave us a bowls of chocolates when we went to bed) Sauren the old guy who wanted to help us, took us out with Juliette, his young teenage granddaughter, and her friend, to the site of the old town where Yerevan grew from. From the top of the ruins we could see his house and the whole of the city, it was gorgeous. There was also a class outing and lots of the kids were jumping about on the ruins as well, it was a lovely start to the day. We got a taxi into town to meet Mohammad, an Iranian student who hosted us for the next two nights. We kicked back at his place with an Australian/Ukrainian guy, Vardik and his Czech friend, I managed to get through to my wife, Gabby and we spoke on the phone until the reception got so bad we said goodbye. Mohammad cooked a delicious Iranian dish with tomatoes, aubergine, onions and garlic which we ate with the paper thin bread common here, yoghurt and a thin sauce that tasted a lot like clue cheese. It was gorgeous.
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| From Yerevan, Armenia |
The next day we headed out into town and followed the beginning of the recommended walking tour, passing through Lovers Park, very pretty, lots of embassies to the Cascades. The Cascades are a beautiful set of steps with lots of fountains, small monuments and mini gardens leading up to Yerevan's 50th anniversary of Soviet Armenia, which after the surrounding gardens and flowers is quite ugly. The view from the top is stunning and the view of Mt Ararat in Turkey floating above a ring of clouds was beautiful.
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| From Yerevan, Armenia |
We walked from there to the Opera house where loads of café's and restaurants are centred around and met Navid, also Iranian and his Italian chatterbox girlfriend, Claudia. Both of them were lovely and they took us round parts of the city, to an old market where they gave us lots of dried fruit thing to taste, it was amazing. We bought a platter of nut stuffed red and yellow cherries for my Mum after tasting most of what the guy had on his stall; Armenian snickers, walnut stuffed dried aubergines and courgettes, soft pickled walnut shells (delicious), strips from sheets of dried fruits some of it so tangy that my face screwed up before I could swallow and loads of other delicious things I can't remember, even Djalma who isn't a big fan of dried fruits loved it.
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| From Yerevan, Armenia |
We walked through town to Kavkas, a Caucasian restaurant, where we had a late lunch/early dinner, talking but mainly listening to Claudia. She was so funny, very animated and described 90% of things as being fucked up. We walked back though town and said goodbye at the Metro, collecting the keys to Muhammad's flat along the way. After a film we went to sleep, interrupted only by another couch-surfer's snoring.
The next morning after not much sleep, we said goodbye, stopped at a café for litres of tea and a surprisingly good canteen lunch and then headed to Lake Sevan in a cramped mashrutka.
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