When we arrived in Yerevan, the driver warned me about crossing the street in the city as the drivers in Armenia are a bit careless. I looked at the straight line of silent cars, waiting for their turn to start moving and thought that after three months in Iran, I can handle this type of traffic.
Yerevan itself feels like a fusion between East and West Berlin and Barcelona, making me immediately like the city.
It is pretty small and easily explored within a day or two. I went to the Republic Square, the place that was the main point for demonstrations against the government not too long ago. There was nothing that reminded on the trouble a few weeks earlier. The square was empty apart from the tourists lining up to take a picture with the “I love Yerevan” statue. From there, I went to “Mother Armenia”, a female warrior and the personification of Armenia, who stands on top of Yerevan. According to Wikipedia, she symbolises “peace through strength”. It’s quite an impressive statue and you can see her from almost any point in Yeravan. On my way up I passed by the cascades, the stairs which lead up to the park of Mother Armenia. It’s a beautiful complex surrounded by art.
I also went to the Armenian Genocide museum and memorial. It might not have been the best choice on a hot and dusty day when I was already a little tired. Nevertheless, it is a very defining period in Armenian culture and history and should not be ignored on a trip to Yerevan.
I was looking forward to the next day however, when it was time to get myself surrounded by a little nature again. I wanted to see the Geghard monastery (definitely worth it) and the peasant temple in Garni (not so much worth it after all).
Geghard monastery
Since there is no direct connection by public transport to Geghard, you have to get a mashrutka to Gay station and from there to Gokht. I decided to walk the last four kilometres instead of taking a taxi, but since the weather was looking like it’s going to rain and I didn’t trust maps.me on their hiking routes that much anymore I decided to stick to the road, which wasn’t the nicest choice but I wasn’t up for a big adventure that day. I was walking along the road, thinking about the weather and the rain and that I was a bit tired of travelling and walking and moving again, when suddenly a car stopped next to me with a smiling Indian couple sitting in the back seat. They offered me a ride to the monastery as it turned out they were in Yerevan for a week and hired the driver that day for a day trip. Since I liked them and the tour guide also explained the history and symbolism of the monastery I decided to take their offer to go with them for the day instead of hiking all the way to Garni and to the symphony stones. Although I was a bit sad to not see them up close, I didn’t regret my choice when it started to pour cats and dogs again In the middle of the ride. It would have caught me cold. I would still recommend though to skip the temple in Garni and opt for the symphony stones instead, if you are not a lazy ass like me. If you do go to the temple in Garni, don’t pay the 1500 AMD entrance fee (it’s really not worth it). Instead, there is supposed to be a way to sneak in if you turn left and hike a little before the ticket booth.
After five days in Yeravan, including celebrating its 100 year anniversary of declaring a republic, it was time to make my way up to Georgia.
