Scout Centre – Lost at Border

Scout Centre – Lost at Border – Armenia

Hitchhiking here might be easier than taking a bus. Unless it's a night.

Last month I wrote about discovering Tbilisi and finding My places there. One of the places I specifically mentioned was coffee shops that offer specialty coffee. I found, for now, my top cafe in Tbilisi – a small but open space with large windows, a wide selection of locally roasted coffee as well as baristas that know their beans ;). Of course, it also helps that the place has received the European Coffee Trip prize of 2025. I guess I'm not the only coffee lover that enjoys what the place brews.

Now, back to the toppic of this post:

In addition to new discoveries in Tbilisi, during February I went to Armenia for the first time. The way to Yerevan was surprisingly beautiful. Probably I got that feeling because I got to see the sunset over the snowy mountains. During this trip I learned that although it is possible to enter Sakartvelo with an ID, you have to have the same document also when leaving the country and just a passport will not be enough. Otherwise you might be stranded on the border. That is why out of four people, only three of us arrived at our destination on the planned time.
Interestingly, the hostel that we had booked beforehand for four of us had beds available only for three people. Well, we have a place to sleep during night and everyone is tired — we decided to wait for the arrival of others the next day and get a nicer location.

Information available from the apps and services that we usually use, was quite limited in Armenia. That is why we often relied on sightseeing and book for tourists in Italian. Jaco’s courtesy. So was also the choice of bar for the first night. I understand why the bar would be included in the tourist guide. Western music that is definitely too loud for headaches, a fabric on the wall with Ganesha print, another fabric with Che Guevara on the ceiling and on a shelf, casually sitting, a wooden beer mug from Germany – you know, all those things that are expected to for a random tourist to see something that they recognise.

The next day was truly revealing — a lot of walking and sightseeing, surprises about the languages used in the city and remnants of alternative history that cannot be found elsewhere. After the long walk we got to meet other volunteers that had just arrived to the city. Not without challenges, but we found the new place that we had rented for the night. A nice, private flat with comfortable beds — a big difference if compared to the previous accommodation that we had.

The next day mostly spent outside of the capital, historical monuments, monastery and caves.

We tried to plan so we wouldn't have to rush to the last transportation and with the help of hitchhiking we got back to Yerevan quite quickly. I decided to join Mao and Inga for hitchhiking back to Rustavi – the spontaneous choice was a good one as it seems that the nights are not too safe for girls even if they are not alone. Hitchhiking turns out to be a good choice, because Jaco and Kathleen succeeded in finding only one seat in the latest marshrutkas.

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