Armenia
Trip Start
Sep 11, 2008
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2
4
Trip End
Oct 03, 2008
Yerevan,
Armenia
Saturday, September 20, 2008
I get up really early: I want to take marshrutka to the borders of Armenia, take a taxi to explore Debed Canyon right behind them and end up at Vanadzor. However, there are cats&dogs pouring behind the windows and I really don't like the idea of hiking to the borders (marshrutka would go just as far as the last Georgian town) or finding a taxi. So let's take Yerevan-bound marshrutka and get off at Vanadzor... The 8am one should go from Ortachala bus station which is hidden somewhere in the south of Tbilisi. I swim to Marjanishvili where a marshrutka is supposed to go there. After 10 minutes of unsuccessful hiding from the falling water I'm pissed off at Tbilisi unsingposted transport and decide to go to main train station. Here there should be also a 8am Yerevan marshrutka but eventhough I do elaborate jogging I can't find any. Some people say it's gone, some say it goes at 9 and some are taxi drivers saying there weren't any marshrutkas here;).
But at least LonelyPlanet claims there is a marshrutka #94 to Orchatala *starting* at nearby Borjomi train station. However it's a bit unclear where exactly and so before it comes I'm totally wet. Right after I get in, the downpour changes to just a rain. And so I undress and happily get into my secondary dry clothes. On the way the cars sometimes literally flows through the streets, surrounding buildings are being splashed two meters high. My ship lands at Orchatala...and it rains as hell again, before I find Yerevan marshrutka I'm all wet again! [Note: international departures are in the underpass under the building behind Alaverdi-bound marshrutkas and one has to cross the small bridge first if there is high water downstairs;)].
Tatev 2
I pay the whole 30gel to Yerevan since there is always just one price in marshrutkas, grr. Well, maybe I am wet but I'm happy for not being outside. At many places one can't see the wheels of the cars and there are rivers of mud coming down from the hills. Seeing one direction of highway is flooded, people don't hesitate to drive in the opposite one. Btw, I've heard the flooding made it to the top news;) [even international ones - Georgian ones deal with local stuff all the day: if you wanna know that a cow died, it's there].
At the Sadakhlo borders it doesn't rain anymore and I'm getting optimistic. Although there are just a couple of cars, it takes a while. Armenian visa is 15000AMD~37e. Unfortunately one has to pay in AMD so I need to find an exchange office. The clerk looks busy...I just wait. In a minute the annoyed driver comes saying we have to go. Since I'm the only foreigner around, I try to explain in Russian. He takes 50e from me as a deposit, pays the 15000AMD for me in the office and then violently yells at the clerk to change him the 50e;). And he even pays me back, good business. When I get back there are new people in the bus and I need to squeeze on one seat together with my backpack, ooh.
I'm really happy to get off at Vanadzor. New language, new alphabet, new exchange rate computations. Around the train station looks like from the 50th, appearances are deceptive and the city is actually not so bad and is quite lively. Since I'm a bit late there, I try Gugarg hotel in the huge Soviet-style main square.
Hangpat Monastery
However the price got from LP's 3000AMD to 9000AMD [it's empty and they don't bargain, chm] and thus I walk for another kilometer to the second nearest accommodation - Maghay B&B which I bargain to 7000AMD for B¬B [find the restaurant in LP and then go to the end of the left lane...and just don't be afraid to enter the gate, the house has no number or any other sign]. The owners seem to be quite rich for Armenian standards, the woman had a B&B course in the US. Their daughter (pretty;)) is a lawyer, speaks perfect English and I sleep in her sister's bedroom.But no time to lose, I run to take a taxi since it's already half past two. Here, taxi drivers are paid 100AMD per kilometer and don't want to agree on any price beforehand. I guess a LP's 8000AMD whole day trip is a dream. But then I find a jolly grandpa called Sako (tel. 093208168) agreeing on 7000AMD for Sanahin&Hangpat UNESCO monasteries (a very remarkable Odzun church has to be left out because of time - I recommend planning a *whole* day for this valley). Despite my limited Russian responses he's very talkative, shows me things and calls me by my first name. When he stops to buy himself kebab (but it's a turkish word, not popular here, one should use Shawarma) he buys me one as well, niiice. And at the sights he goes to see them as well instead of getting bored in the car (he wanted to be a guide but I don't like being shadowed;)).
So we set off north from Vanadzor back towards Georgian borders through Debed canyon.
Khor Virap: Sauron's eye
An old railroad runs inside and there is some collection of closed down Soviet-time industry dominated by a huge rusty copper mine in Alaverdi. I found the mine/ironworks really exciting and beautiful in it's ugliness [ok, I love these things;)]. Most of the villages are actually build on the plateaus above the canyon and some have cable cars built for the people to commute down to the factories.The first stop is Sanahin Monastery lying on the edge of the respective village. And it's really so atmospheric!! It's half-hidden in trees and quite sexy covered with grass. The overall shape is similar to Georgian churches, but one can find many distinct details. There are no frescoes or icons, just stone: many khatchkars [beautifully decorated (funeral) stone panels, also in the floor] and many other ornaments on the walls/columns. There is usually a hole in the central dome. The crosses are different...actually Armenia was the first country in the world to adopt Christianity. And there are no ray of lights inside so typical for Georgia ones.
Behind the monastery there is a graveyard, presenting typical Arm/Geo style: ghost-like drawings of the dead people. Some even tell the whole stories, for example a grave of a family whose car fell down the cliff.
It gets quite cloudy so let's move. On the way Sako proudly shows me a monument of MiG contructor and some high politburo politician and insists on taking photos;).
Next stop is Hangpat Monastery situated on a hill with some views of the canyon.
exodus...movement of jah people...
There are tourists, a thing unseen in Georgia. It is also very very very nice and I just keep admiring. Btw, in Armenia I got accidentally obsessed by wooden doors having really original ornaments. There is also an extra bell tower worth seeing. At the end I meet a sweet old lady who shows me around and explains (in Russian:|) what she used to do here for 20 years and what is what. Interesting is sacrifice place for sheep and wine cellar (=huge vessel buried in ground, with just the mouth free) combined with a library. There's also a refectory (dining room) with grinding stones and a central place for it.At the way back Sako asks for 14000AMD since he thought 7000AMD just for one way. Hmm. I put forward that I could take a 6pm train, which would be in half an hour. But unfortunately it's already 6.30pm since in Armenia it's one hour later due to daylight saving time...ooh. Then we somehow agree on 10000AMD. In Alaverdi we stop by a unremarkable church with the mine in the near background (which looks funny). And what a chance, a black car full of priests stop by and as the main attraction I have to speak with the bishop (?)...aand he speaks English, is from Lebanon and studied in USA.
On the way back we take two computer engineering students (such a bad English) and take some gas (nearly no petrol here). And then I pay him 10000AMD which I'll regret till the end of my life since he was the best taxi driver and I should have given him more.
While going back to the homestay I can't believe my eyes, there are so many beautiful girls out there in the city;).
armenian landscape
After some watching I'm really tired (but not "of it";)), have a quick dinner in my B&B and turn in.21.9.2008: Around Yerevan
I get up early and on my way to Yerevan marshrutka I take photos of people, some of them even comming to pose and chat;). Later I meet a Slovenian backpackers couple on honeymoon, also going to Yerevan. They are quite talkative, one drives faster than in Georgia here and we're soon in Yerevan.
Yerevan is much more "european" than Tbilisi! The city is clean and without trash, green, traffic is organized, there are zebras & traffic lights, bus stops (even with passing marshrutkas' numbers!), cheep jazz cafés around Opera - altogether it has definitely a Spanish city look, only there are no motorbikes at all. There are no real sights, but still it's a pleasant city to be in, especially in evenings. I was looking forward to see Mt. Ararat but never managed because of the haze.
I start by looking at modern Surp Grigor Lusavorich Catherdral near the marshrutka terminus, where a service was just going on, even TV-broadcast. Chanting priests are accompanied by a choir - btw, each Eastern Orthodox priest must be able to sing well. But otherwise the church is uniteresting.
I take a marshrutka to near Opera House where I find very recommendable Envoy Hostel (6400AMD w/internet&breakfast). Since I have incredible amount of time, I take the advice of the Slovenians and visit Lake Sevan. In less than one hour a marshrutka to Sevan (actually it was heading to Dilijan) takes the highway and leaves me at the Sevan peninsula.
Debed Canyon 1
Lake Sevan lies in 1900m above see level and is the biggest "seaside resort" in Armenia (since they can't go to Turkey, eh), but now at the end of September all of the facilities are completely deserted. In 15 minutes I'm standing next to touristy black-stone Sevanavank Monastery situated on the top of the peninsula. The monastery is not so special but together with the location it's picturesque: blue water and dark brown mountain ranges behind. I recommend walking to the end of the peninsula, there are nice views. In the church there is also some ceremony and who do I bump into: the bishop from yesterday;).I'm quickly done and thus I take a taxi (500AMD) to Sevan City some 5km away and there a marschrutka back to Yerevan (there are no marshrutkas from the peninsula). Sidenote: here people are crazy about Prague. Even the taxi driver had some relatives there and he's moving there this winter. There is also a hotel called Prague and by the lake there is a Bohemian resort, whatever it is.
Back in Yerevan I am surprised how fast one can travel in Armenia (in comparison to Georgia) and so I decide to visit Garni Temple & Geghard Monastery in addition. So I take marshrutka #51 from SW corner of Opera and get to "GAI Poghots" where I take another marshrutka to Garni temple. This time it's the classical old country bus from the 50th, used mainly by schoolchildren and old people who somehow manage to bring many boxes, sacks or buckets from nearby market and stack the whole bus with it. The ride to Garni takes really a loong while.
Garni temple is a classical example of a neat Roman temple (restored) and is about 400m from the main road.
Sanahin Monastery indoors
However, as always in these countries, the main attraction is the setting. The temple sits on a cliff over a really beautifully jagged canyon. It's really nice but I want to see also Geghard Monastery nearby before the last 6pm marshrutka. But I can't find any taxi for some time and when I finally flag him (1800AMD), he's driving terribly slow and I have just 15 minutes left to enjoy the monastery. It's situated down at the end of a steep craggy valley. It's two large chapels are carved into the rock from the most part and are nicely decorated with stone carvings. The light & darkness, candles, grey stone, strange symbols... cool Indiana Jones atmosphere again.The driver than takes me back and throws me out on some street with "wait here for the bus"...yeah...but it just doesn't come. I'm sure he made it deliberately. Anyway, I walk to the main road and even before I raise the thumb a car stops. Inside there are a really totaly sweet happy young family and their English speaking cousin. Really nice but I can't help saying two quotations: "I hate my birthday because that day Che guevara died" & "The first places I want to travel to are Venezuala and Cuba". Armenian people just love Russia and dislike US, that's the story.
They drop me somewhere in Yerevan and give me a hint: today's National independence day festival at the main square. And why not! The Republic square (former Lenin one) is really big and is circumscribed by many important buildings nicely lit in the night. In the middle is a stage for local musicians (from classical to metal) and very decorative colorful fountains lit with national colors.
Sanahin Monastery: khatchkar
I sit on the curb for a while watching the people dancing, riding some small cars in the crowds (!?). I have a conversation with some local people: one eldery man is really interesting: he brought some baking technologies from Germany, now he guards some ministry or what and wants to go for some secret project to Libya.However I'm dead tired and go to the hostel quite early. There is a Belgian couple who trekked through barren parts of Armenia and quite liked it so they want to officially propose some walking paths.
22.9.2008: To the south
In the morning I want to see the Ararat and so I climb the huge Cascade (monument to 50 years of Soviet Armenia) being guarded and cleaned by tens of people. But no luck again, just mist.
This day I plan to see Khor Virap and Noravank, two monasteries south of Yerevan. It's a bit uncomfortable to get there by public transport and I decide to take an organized trip by Hyur Tours (8000AMD) [yes...]. There are just old people and fortunately two fine Holland guys who I find the only people to talk with;). Actually many of the old people are Armenians, but living in Iran,US,France,Syria,etc. Like the Jews, Armenian people are living in diaspora nowadays, since they had a row of national tragedies in their history. They've got closed border to Turkey since the Ottomans massacred hundred of thousands of them and even nowadays the Turks don't admit it (!). On the other side, there are closed borders to Azerbaijan because of the war to get mostly Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh area.
typical gravestones
All the transport goes via Iran or by rail via Georgia [which has however closed borders with Russia] (actually, it was the Armenians who repaired the railway when it was bombed by Russians). Anyways, the people on the bus have come here to see their origins and two people even found a common relative. I normally strongly hate organized tourism and I have reasons for it. When we come to Khor Virap, it's a nightmare full of eldery tourists. We take a sheep-like walk and when we are about to miss climbing down to a prison I have to revolt and go on my own.
Khor Virap is a not-so-special monastery located on a small hill inside the vast planarity of fertile fields. However, snow-capped Mt Ararat (5137m, nowadays in Turkey) rises up from this planarity and it's a real unique view. I have no idea if one can see an altitude difference of about 4km anywhere else in the world (maybe Kilimanjaro?). However because of the mist it was like a ghost, but still visible. For the postcards photos one has to be quite lucky I guess. Since the organised part is late, I explore nearby graveyards a bit.
Then we move even more south and the landscape changes from fields back to mountainous semi-desert wasteland. I just start thinking how unentertaining this ride is and a tire explodes;). The driver takes enormous time to change it and thus we have lot of time to explore the surroundings and chat with each other. What elderey people do is they like to give advice which makes the crew nervous;). Anyway, it's done and off we go to the brownish see dotted by rare green spots of vegetation.
Debed Canyon 2
We even stop for some wine tasting and couple of minutes later also at some restaurant to order lunch (not inclusive). And then the bus starts to climb an unearthly beautiful canyon towards Noravank. And even more fun, the new tire explodes again;). Now the organised tour starts to disorganize. Some people go furious and the guide wants to return down to the restaurant (which is quite a way for the old people however), while the two Holland guys and me want to go up to the church. But they are talked into sticking to the group and so I'm the only one to go up, hearing their threads I will die;).It's a real delight to walk the road up through the beauty of shapes and colors and soon I'm there. I was there for 90 mins and it wasn't enough, it's a highlight of every trip to Armenia. There are actually two churches of Noravank. The famous one has two floors and two entries on top of each other with mirrored narrow steps outside. Fascinatingly beautiful decoration on the walls. People are also fine. There is a Australian architect getting inspired for a newly built church and his son, an astronomer, being frenzy about taking pictures of everything. He has also set of paired synchronized cameras to make stereogram photos! Then there's a lonely traveller trekking over wastelands. Surprised at the beauty around, I'm contemplating how to explore this region a bit more... ...and I meet a Czech couple, Mirek & Blanka. They've been backpacking around Armenia for some time and for their last two days they rent a car to explore some southern attractions (since with public transport it's quite lengthy).
khatchkar
They're really nice and somehow offer to take me as a baggage;). The only dark spot is that I have left my backpack in Yerevan but that's only a detail [I already found out in Georgia that nobody steals & I called to the hostel to extend my stay anyway] and moreover they are willing to borrow me some things. Quoting the Godfather: "They made me an offer one can't refuse". Let's roll. On the way down we meet the replacement bus and I find out that my original group is still in that restaurant, oh boy. Their program sounds fine I'm not in the position to interfere anyway;). Under Mirek's control the car zooms along various types of desert landscape heading as far as Goris. Mirek is a master in Czech-style sayings, Blanka has also some comments to tell and I just keep on taking pictures from the backseat. The road goes through a pass, a reservoir and a region where people make huge haystacks, larger than houses next to it (strategic reserves). Although this road is the only way to Iran, it's quite empty (besides some snail-speed trucks).
Near Goris it's getting darker and cloudy. We pull up at some restaurant before the final descent to Goris and order some soups. Blanka is a vegetarian but the people don't seem to know the word. She get's some meat in her soup and they try to make up for it by bringing some new one. As a compensation Mirek gives the waiter a Czech beer. At first he gives us glasses (remarkably, people in Armenia are somehow ready for bringing one's own food) but then he understands us and suddenly gets really helpful;).
Sanahin Monastery oudoors
Funnily, Mirek spoke plain Czech and with Blanka's help it was understandable to them.My hosts want to drive to Tatev to sleep there for the night, ignoring waiter's "there's nowhere to sleep". But he's optimistic about the travel time and so we try it. However the road is much worse than the main one and near a cliff-hanging village of Halidzor it gets totally dark. The last thing we see is a huuuge deep canyon and this bad road winding somewhere to the top on the other side...OK, let's sleep somewhere around here. I'm not really allowed to write here the whole story but Mirek's charisma managed to negotiate quite a unique accommodation. Some moths, half-out-of-order toilet, drinking 65% wool-made vodka with local people and having a maneuvered world view discussion made it legendary;).
23.9.2008: Back to Yerevan
I'm happy, it wasn't cold in the night! I unblock my door and we can fetch some water and have fruit breakfast. Pleasured by no bad effects of yesterday's vodka we order 3 litres of it. We accept some more advices, say goodbye and start moving to Tatev. Tatev is a fortress/monastery perched on a small rocky cliff overlooking vast Vorotan canyon. There is a large main church with a considerable entry, a smaller one and massive fortification with halls, libraries and passageways inside. There is nearly no-one in the morning. The atmosphere in the church is quiet and filled with incense. Throughout the area there are many nicely carved stone panels (khatchkar), one being on a top of a column and said to predict earthquake by moving itself.
door in Hangpat
It's really a fascinating place. To extend the feeling, I recommend driving the road leading above the monastery a bit to get perfect picturesque views of it.On the way back we halt at Satan's bridge down in the canyon. There's an old collapsed cave offering us to see outdoor stalactites. There are two lukewarm pools and Tibet-style trees with textiles as well. Next we drop back to Halidzor to pick up our ordered ethanol and get back through some sheep roadblocks to the main road. We originally planned to see some caves east of Goris but there is no time and so we head back west.
After many overtaken trucks and some loops of the only tape in the car we stop by Sisian where one of the many Stonehenge-like astrolabe places in Armenia can be found: Zorats Karer. Again, a very interesting place in a very nice landscape. Teeth-like stones are stuck in a circle and a couple of lines leading from it. Some of the stones have holes inside (supposedly for watching star alignments).
We have a lunch in a restaurant by the Sisian-Shaki road; there are arbours for the guests to sit in and good prices. Our last stop is Jermuk, a famous mineral water & spa town. This place had its best times in the Soviet union but they are trying to keep the pride even nowadays. There is a hot-water colonnade, some soviet hotels overviewing a gorge and couple of lakes surrounded with autumn-colored hills and higher mountains in the background...though definitely not the best spot in Armenia. We are willing to take a massage in one of the centers [again ussr-times style, they put the most unpleasant looking woman to the desk;)]. But after they stop wondering why we aren't staying in the town for a week we find out that the massages aren't available until late afternoon...bad luck. Byebye to Jermuk.
As we approach Yerevan the weather gets worse and windy (oh yes, I finally can confirm the existence of bush-balls running over the road). Near Yerevan the highway suddenly ends with a "give way" sign (brakes;)) and GPS-brained Blanka manages to smoothly navigate without any map directly to the rental company. There's recommendable Jazzve café across the street, serving very cheap&tasty jazzve (among other things). I meet there by chance the two Holland guys from yesterday and B&M meet their Hospitality Club friend Antonio who gave them some place to sleep and showed them around earlier.
I jump to my hotel to check my baggage (all OK, the people are so nice), do some shopping, buy a Shawarma and I'm ready to meet my new friends again at a 5th floor café overlooking the Republic square. It's was a good time up there.
