Armenia is the first country I’ve visited and not liked. I went with another volunteer from Gomarduli, Vilte from Lithuania, and we had a nice time but the country didn’t do anything for me. I will caveat this opinion by saying winter is not the best time to go to Armenia! But I think even in the summer I wouldn’t like it. After giving it some thought these are the reasons why:
- I was expecting Armenia to be a bit like Georgia in terms of its distinctness and scenery. This meant I was disappointed when it wasn’t, and was constantly comparing it to Georgia in my mind. I loved Georgia, so it highlighted just how much I didn’t love Armenia. It’s unfortunate for Armenia that it’s next to such a wonderful country.
- Armenia didn’t feel distinct. The food was mostly the same as in Turkey, and even the balkans. The flavours of the food weren’t special. The only new speciality was Harissa, which is like chicken soup and porridge mixed together - it was very warming and cosy but not exactly a flavour explosion. The cities felt the same as ones I’d visited in Turkey. The music and dances were similar to Turkish ones.
- The scenery was desolate. Armenia doesn’t get much rain and you can tell. Looking out of the window on our bus and train journeys we commented on how it looked like a barren war zone. The weather was grey the entire time which emphasised it. We saw blue sky once for about 10 minutes.
- The people didn’t seem happy. It’s not that we had any particularly bad experiences, but people weren’t particularly friendly to us, and when you were walking down the streets everyone had a stern expression on their face.
This resulted in my gut feeling of Armenia to be one of dislike. Which I really realised when we returned to Tbilisi and I felt so much happier and in love with my surroundings. I will concede that Armenia has a good reason for most of my points. The fact cities in Turkey felt like Armenian ones are because they were Armenian cities, taken by Turkey in the 1920s after the Armenian Genocide in 1915. And the food is similar, Armenians would argue, because Turkey stole it (but it doesn’t matter either way, it’s still not distinct). Additionally, Armenia has a good reason for people to not be happy. They’re in an active conflict with Azerbaijan and their economy is not doing well. According to a tour guide, lots of people lack the certainty of being able to feed their families. It’s also just had a bit of raw deal in modern times. Horrific genocide in Turkey that was swept under the carpet, then invasion by Turkey, then a war with Azerbaijan, and most recently a revolution which saw the Government being thrown out in 2008. Out of its 4 borders, only 2 are open. So I’m not blaming Armenia for its unlikeableness, just being open about it.
We spent 5 nights in Yerevan (the capital) and 2 nights in Gyumri (the cultural capital).
Yerevan
We tried out couchsurfing for the first time for our first 3 nights here. Couchsurfing is an app where you can get in touch with people about staying with them for free. We stayed with Maria, a lovely 21 year old Armenian girl who lived with her older sister and niece. I was impressed with how easy it was and how enjoyable the experience was, and the additional insight you get into the culture. It was socially quite tiring, because after spending a long day exploring I’d have to then socialise with Maria and her friends when sometimes I just wanted to rest. One funny interaction was when they asked me if I knew where they could sell pictures of themselves (I’m still not sure if they meant that sort of picture or not!). I will definitely use couchsurfing again though! Sadly, despite Maria’s lovely sharing of Armenian culture it wasn’t enough to salvage my opinion. Some things even added to it, for example she told us that anytime she had a job interview she was asked if she was a virgin. Insane! Yerevan was utterly soulless. It had a strange, faux luxurious centre with a big shopping street with fancy shops and fancy restaurants. The other streets were brown and depressing. There was no historic feel. This is because at the end of each era everything from the old one was destroyed, and the whole city centre was newly designed and built in the mid 1900s. The old town has been squeezed to one small corner of the city and it’s more like a slum than an old town, but at least that had some soul. The main structure is the Cascades, basically just some big stairs. There’s no historic meaning behind it, it was just built to link together the Opera theatre and a park. We really struggled to find cheap places to eat that weren’t fast food, there were no cheap little family run Armenian restaurants. The only part of Yerevan I enjoyed was going to the ballet at the Opera theatre one night. We saw Spartacus which was a fun one to watch. The interior of the building was beautiful too. It was a very enjoyable way to spend an evening!
Lake Sevan
We visited Lake Sevan from Yerevan, trying to use public transport to get there. It was a disaster by all accounts. We started by getting a taxi to the marshrutka station and I almost got beaten up by the taxi driver after I accidentally tried to rip him off. He settled for shouting aggressively and kicking us out. At the marshrutka station another taxi driver told us there was no bus going to Lake Sevan and the ticket lady said the same. But Maria and the internet were sure there was so we persevered, with a really lovely Armenian girl helping us out. Eventually we were on a marshrutka going to a different city but stopping at Lake Sevan! Before we got on this, we triple checked there was a marshrutka going from Lake Sevan back to Yerevan. Finally arriving in Lake Sevan felt like a miracle, and it was beautiful. Two churches on the hill and a huge lake. When it came to return it wasn’t a huge surprise to us to find that there was actually no marshrutka heading back to Yerevan from here, it was that sort of day. So we had to get an expensive taxi 10 minutes down the road to Sevan city where we then caught a bus back to Yerevan. Was it worth it? Maybe not. Would like to say a huge thank you to Vilte for paying attention to her russian classes at school because without that it would have been even more of a nightmare! And I am now desperately trying to learn russian ready for the ‘stans.
Monasteries
I went on a day tour to two monasteries and a pagan temple. After the fiasco of visiting Lake Sevan it seemed like the best idea if I wanted to see anywhere outside of the city, and the tour was surprisingly cheap (£22 for a full day)! I did enjoy this, the monasteries were both pretty, especially Geghard Monastery which was cut into a dark rock cliff surrounded by the sides of the gorge. Armenia was the first country to declare Christianity as its religion. The pagan temple looked really cool, and was in a great location, but it’s not actually that old. It was destroyed in an earthquake and rebuilt in soviet times. Khor Virap was the other monastery and is where St Gregory the Illuminator (the guy that brought Christianity to Armenia) was imprisoned for 13 years. Usually there’s a great view of Mount Ararat from here, but alas it was too grey and misty. If you think Mount Ararat sounds familiar you’re right, it’s the same mountain I was next to in Turkey (on the other side of it). It used to be part of Armenia however, and the Armenians are very attached to it, still referring to that part of Turkey as West Armenia. You might also remember that it’s where Noah’s Arc supposedly landed. Well in Armenian, Armenia is called Hayastan, which means ‘Land of Haya’. Haya is Noah’s grandson.
Gyumri
Gyumri was definitely better than Yerevan as it kept its historical buildings, but still unbelievably grey. The buildings are all made from black stone, and some have orange trimmings which looked quite nice. The only things to see are churches and a fortress, which has been converted into a medieval theatre maybe (who knows, there was no information up there!). One church was under construction but when we popped our heads in the construction workers encouraged us to enter. Not exactly a peaceful place to pray! The only enjoyable thing here was the Mariam and Eranuhi Aslamazyan gallery. These were two sisters that were artists during the soviet period and they travelled all over the world, something that was quite unusual for woman in that period. It was very female focused and very empowering. Our guesthouse was quite pleasant here, and we enjoyed watching our first Christmas film of the season one night (Home Alone - Vilte’s favourite)!
Logistics
- Marshrutka from Tbilisi to Yerevan. Was meant to take 5/6 hours, it took 7.
- Train from Yerevan to Gyumri. It took 3 hours.
- Marshrutka from Gyumri to Tbilisi. Was meant to take 5/6 hours, it took 4.