The way to Armenia
One of my best friends from the Netherlands, Ilse, came to visit me and celebrate New Years together with me and with the other volunteers. We celebrated New Years in Batumi, where we explored the city, ate Georgian food and drank Georgian wine and watched the fireworks at Europe Square. After New Years, we used the last week of my Christmas holidays to explore Armenia. Me and Ilse had to take the train on the 1st of January at 08:00. You read that well, on the 1st of January at 08:00. I also don’t know why we made this decision, but without sleep and still a bit hungover from the night we went to the train station. After a five hour train ride to Tbilisi and a five hour Marschrutka ride we finally arrived in Yerevan.
The arrival in Yerevan did not go so smoothly. Firstly, it was a struggle to find out which bus we had to take, because we did not have internet. So in the end we ended up in a random bus (and did not pay for it). When we finally found the hostel, there was another problem: a drunk man in our dorm room. Because of this drunk man, we could not check in yet. The vibe of the hostel was in general really strange, so we decided to go to another hostel. In the second hostel, the vibe was also strange, but it was not as bad as the other hostel and at least there was a female dorm. Because it was already quite late we decided to go for this option.
Yerevan
Our first stop was the capital city of Armenia: Yerevan. In two days we explored most of the city. We visited the most important sights of the city: the blue mosque, the cascade, the mother of Armenia monument, the opera building, the moscow cinema, de st. Astvatsatsin church and Republic Square. More alternative places we visited were Kond (the oldest neighbourhood from Yerevan) and the Yerevan children’s railway (abandoned train station and train tracks).
So far my first impression of Yerevan is quite good, I like the general vibe of the city. The place I liked the most about was the cascade, especially the views you have from the top. Before visiting Yerevan I did not have many expectations. However, I expected the city to be quite chaotic. In the end this turned out to not be true. For example the traffic was quite calm, and the city was not so crowded.
Goris & Tatev Monastery
After exploring Yerevan we decided to explore more of the south of Armenia. We traveled by Marshrutka from Yerevan to Goris. This was quite an experience. The views on the Armenian hilly landscape were beautiful! It was so nice to see more of the country this way. What was a bit less nice, was that the marshrutka drove really wild. This was so bad that three passengers had to throw up. So this was quite intense. What was interesting to see, was that everyone was (fortunately) prepared for this, they all had a plastic bag with them.
After arriving in Goris, we first visited the Tatev Monastery. The cool thing was that you could visit the monastery by cable car. This cable car is actually the longest reversed cable car in the world. The views from the cable car were really beautiful. The Tatev monastery itself is nice, but especially the surroundings of the monastery makes the place worth visiting.
When we were done, we went back to Goris by hitchhiking, which is actually considered as quite easy and safe in Armenia. This is also what we experienced, because the first car that passed us brought us back to Goris. Goris is only a small town, so there was not much to see. However, our highlights of Goris were: the Eiffel tower, teddy bear decorations and the view onto the caves.
Geghard Monastery, Garni Temple & Symphony of the stones
After exploring Goris we decided to visit one of the most important sights in Armenia, the Garni temple. Because the Gehard Monastery and Symphony of the stones were quite close to this temple, we decided that we could as well visit those sights.
First we traveled to the Geghard Monastery. I have to say that this monastery was quite disappointing, mostly because they were renovating the monastery and it was mostly hidden by scaffolding. Also the weather was quite bad, so that was not helping. After that, we travelled to Garni. First we visited the Garni temple, which is an old Greek temple. It was funny to see, but not super special.
Our last stop of the day was the symphony of the stones. This is a gorge with a lot of hexagonal stones hanging down on one side. Although I didn't expect much from this, it surprised me positively. I would definitely recommend visiting this if you are ever in Armenia.
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