Skip to main content

Exploring Armenia (part 1)


                    

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.


















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

MOVING TO GEORGIA: MY FIRST EXPERIENCES!

Moving to Georgia: my first experiences! At the start of September I moved to Georgia to volunteer at the International Scout Center in Rustavi for 6 months. In this blog I will tell you more about why I decided to volunteer in Georgia, about how I prepared myself to move abroad, about my expectations and about my experiences of the first weeks. Who am I and why did I decide to volunteer abroad? Why did I decide to move to Georgia? I am Renée and I am 25 years old. I am from the Netherlands and there I lived in a small city called Leiden. The few past years I was studying Education and Child studies there. In my bachelors I did an exchange semester and lived for 6 months in the city Tartu in Estonia. This was a really nice experience and after I came back to the Netherlands I decided that at some point I wanted to live abroad again. So when I graduated university last year I knew what I did not want: a stressful job in the Netherlands. I explored different possibilities, for exam...
Post a Comment
Read more

In the head of a volunteer - Arrival and first week

     I can’t believe that it’s been two months since I set foot in Georgia for the first time. And yet it seems like a lifetime of experiences. Here is an assortment of my very first moments, hope you enjoy :)  The arrival and discovery of Rustavi landscape           When I arrived at Tbilisi Airport I was surprised to see it was not as big as I expected a capital airport to be. I waited alone for a few moments for Aleks to pick me up. During my wait I went to exchange money (by the way, if you come to Georgia, don’t do it at the airport, the exchange rates are far better in the city) and I realised that I really was far from home, I couldn’t understand any of the words people were saying to each other.         When Aleks arrived I went in the car. I had a cold at the time, and I travelled at night, so I arrived in Georgia without any sleep. I felt really tired and I didn’t know where I was going. I didn’t talk m...
Post a Comment
Read more

In the head of a volunteer: 7th month update

  Since the beginning of the project we have been asked to fill reports every month. One of the questions is about personal development and milestones and this question is a good way to reflect about the experience. Today I wanted to use the blog to reflect on the last 7 months and figure out what I still want to experience before leaving.   A big reason for coming here was to experience living fully abroad, to discover an unknown country, to meet new and interesting people, to get out of my comfort zone. Did I manage that ? I think I mostly did.  First let’s talk about discovering Georgia and its people. We can’t say that I improved my Georgian that much. I know how to read the strange letters but I mostly don’t have any idea what the words mean. However, I find it way easier to understand basic sentences and context. This helps a lot with working with the kids at school or even exchanging a few words with locals at the shops.      I noticed the amoun...
Post a Comment
Read more

CHAPTER 1

Once upon a time there lived five gnomes. They each lived a different life in a different place for a different amount of time. However, the thing they had in common was an unexplainable urge to add a new plot to their autobiographies, to put their for-centuries-collected skills and knowledge to a good use and go to a land far far away. They packed their biggest tiny backpacks, said farewell to their gnome families and forest fairy friends, each jumped on the back of a seagull and flew into an unfamiliar direction. This is where their stories intertwine. Turns out all the seagulls were going the same way; they dropped all the gnomes at the same place – a magical castle surrounded by forests and hills. The castle was home for many, no matter big or small, young or old, beginner or advanced, from this planet or another. All the residents of the castle warmly welcomed the gnomes with open arms and open hearts. The castle was a place where a helpful hand was given first and questions ask...
Post a Comment
Read more

In the head of a volunteer : What volunteering means to me

     This article is more a train of thoughts about my volunteering experience and what it means to me than a story about reel experiences. I wanted to share it in the hope that other volunteers can relate.              Those reflections started when I took over the instagram page. I am now in charge of posting about our workshops, keeping you updated about our activities and making weekly and monthly recaps.         To give myself ideas, I went to see the archived posts and I got lost in what the previous teams of volunteers posted. I felt so strange. I realised that this place, where I work, eat and sleep everyday, was used by people in the same situation as me before. They walked in the same streets, shopped in the same grocery stores and discovered the same Rustavi as foreigners. Maybe the children I am meeting during my workshops knew those other volunteers, and it’s more than probable that they will me...
Post a Comment
Read more