I finished my exams at the beginning of June and since that time I worked in Deloitte (organized my first event in a profit sector called “KidsXO”), taught English and German and enjoyed first summer days. Right before Armenia I had the opportunity to enjoy Metronome Festival Prague which was such a great weekend. I totally needed that because my head and brain were stuck with constant thoughts about one person. It didn’t disappear but I started to feel that really the time and experience with loving people around me can make me forget and move forward. What really helped me to get out of the broken heart/victim/hoping and waiting for nothing mood was the Basic Synergy training in Romania. But about that topic will not be this post. 

This post is about a short but really enjoyed time in Armenia, specifically Yerevan and its surrounding. I went to Yerevan for a so-called Advanced Planned Visit, on which me and other group leaders from Netherlands, Morroco, Ukraine and Italy came to gather together and deal and prepare things which needed to be done in order to help with the organization of a project which will be held in Abovyan (20 min far from Yerevan) this September. The meeting was really nice, all the people were super friendly. 

Armenia, in general, is very similar to Georgia and Azerbaijan. I met many (young and old) people who really hate Azerbaijan. And if you ask why than imagine any possible reason and it will be (most probably) one of those why they hate them. not all of them, but many. The reason? Mainly due to the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. In comparison to Georgia are in Armenia much cooler cars and old buses. I was really amazed and would take pictures of them all the time. I would recommend visiting Armenia to everyone who plans to the Caucasus. It is not much different to Georgia but you can get there pretty easily by train from Tbilisi so if you have some spare time, it is definitely worth to visit. 

YEREVAN 🌇

Before going to Yerevan, I met Marek at the airport in Prague at 3:30 a.m. Our flight was already at 5:00 a.m. so we needed to be there that early. I remember from the completely exhausted (still from the Metronome Festival) travel not so much because I slept basically all the time. We had around 3 hours in Kyiv for the change of flight but we both just laid down and slept. Our taxi driver waited for us at the airport in Yerevan and took us to the hostel. There we met two Ukranian girls and went with them for a short walk to the city center.

Yerevan is one of the world’s oldest continually inhabited cities (29 years older than Rome). Nevertheless, the city looks quite modern and full of wide boulevards. However, if you feel like getting lost in tiny streets, you will also not be disappointed. I listed a few things that amazed me in Yerevan and are worth to share with you: 

1. Cascade – situated right in the center of the city. I have never seen anything like this before. It is a giant stairway made of limestone which links the downtown Ketron area of Yerevan with the Monument neighborhood. It is a beautiful place for walking during the day but much better is it during the night. Even if people say that it is forbidden to drink there, we sat there with few bottles of wine and nobody told us anything. And the view is just amazing. I don’t mean it offensive or anything, but Yerevan looks so much better during the night in comparison to the daytime. For those interested in modern art – inside the Cascade, underneath the exterior steps is a Cafesjian Museum of Art, which is free of charge. If you are lucky, you can also see the mystic Mount Ararat (which is according to the Bible a place where Noah and his family rests) 
2. Dancing Fountains. One of the main attractions in summer after sunset. Every night from 9 – 11 p.m. you can see on the Republic Square in Yerevan many people enjoying music. But pop, rock, classical or jazz music is not the only reason why tourists and locals arrive. People are amazed by the show performed by the fountains. Yes! When I read about it before I visited that place I was nt really sure what to imagine and now I also do not really know how to describe it. It is a definitelly unique experience and “must see” in Yerevan. 
3. Metro. Yerevan provides one of the cheapest metro rides that I have ever seen. You can travel through the whole city only for 100 drams (25 cents). And in my humble opinion, it is definitely worth to see.  Built during the Soviet era, the Metro provides you also relief during hot summer days. And the architecture is wonderful. I mean – only if you like Soviet kind of buildings. 🙂 
4. BARS. Usually is for me nightlife during traveling not really interesting but in Yerevan, I did a small exception. Coincidentally was in Yerevan at the same time my good friend Martina so we met and shared a few hours in the night together. The very first night I visited her and some other guys from Slovakia in the Diamond bar terrace. It is a very cool place when you want to have dinner with a nice view of Republic Place. I would not recommend it for a party since they play very pop (shit) music. But depends on your taste. Later on, we continued to the Calumet Ethnic Lounge Bar which is a super cozy place with great music. I stayed there alone and this happened on purpose because I wanted to experience how it is to be alone.  This place is better to visit during working days. I visited the place for the second time on Friday and it was so full that it was not even possible to walk inside. Last night place that I visited in the night (besides some random Irish pub which had in common with Irish culture only the name so it is not really necessary to even mention)

CHURCHES EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK ⛪⛪⛪⛪⛪

Abovyan 

A small city closed to Yerevan which will be the hosting place for the upcoming project in September. We visited a Saint Hovhannes Church which was constructed in 2006. However, built in the traditional Armenian style so it doesn’t look that new. Nice place but not necessary to go there on purpose if you don’t cross Abovyan during your journey.

Saghmosavank & Ashtarak

We visited the 13th-century monastic complex with the whole group. We went there with two cars and didn’t really spend much time there. What was really cool was a huge valley behind the monastery. In the afternoon, we went to a picnic place ( in the middle of a week) which were full of Armenian families as it would be Sunday afternoon. Armenians probably follow different schedule rules than people in central Europe. 😀 I also paid an entrance to a super small swimming pool which was not the best idea because I just became a middle point of the attention of Armenian youngsters, grandmas and kids who were jumping to the pool on purpose right next to me. 

Zvartnots Cathedral 

One of the last places that we visited with Marek. A beautiful place where we could observe young couples taking wedding pictures and pick peaches and cherries right from the trees. It started to rain a lot so we hitchhiked from there to another place which we wanted to visit. That day we actually didn’t use any type of public transport anymore.. some guys even offered us to take us to Yerevan even if they didn’t have a way there. How nice – when cars stop you and the other way around is not needed. 😀

 

Etchmiadzin Cathedral 

This cathedral is considered as one of the oldest cathedrals in the world but you know guys how it is with these things. We never know which one is the oldest one. But for sure it is very old. We spent on that place only a few minutes because it was raining really really a lot. I realized that day that my raincoat is not suitable for all kinds of rain. Only for the light one. And I also lost my raincoat later on. But everything happens from some reason so I guess that it was only a sign to buy a new one which will be usable also during the heavy rain time. In Vagharshapat (the city where the Etschmiadzin Cathedral is located) we had a small stop for soup and coffee (coffee always strong and black – almost no local restaurant has milk in their offer). Marek taught me how to make any (disgusting) meal tasty. He said that he learned this methodology in his school canteen. It worked (kind of) after we finished the whole pepper and salt and sweet pepper glass. 😀 

 

Dilijan and Sevan 

Me, Maiika and Marek decided to visit Dilijan ( a thermal place in the mountains which is also sometimes called “Armenian Karlsbad”) and hike there. Before going there we asked Armenian friend if she could recommend us something how to get there. What she recommended was a private taxi with air conditioning (LOL) for about 30 €. She also told us that there are for sure no marshrutka going there and that traveling with marshutka might be dangerous. Well. We took marshrutka anyway and it was really fun! I loved it. Marhutka is extremely slow on the way up but when you go downhill – completely different party. 😀 In Dilijan, we went for some hike to waterfalls which we didn’t reach because it was too far and we didn’t have good shoes for it. We also went for breakfast/lunch to the restaurant where one coffee costed more money than the whole meal itself. I really didn’t like it so I asked those guys why is it that expensive and they called the owner of the restaurant who explained to me that they have premium Italian coffee and that it is normal that it costs 3 € (which is for Armenia really a loooooot of money). The service in the restaurant was really slow and those guys super funny. And they had also an aquarium with real fish in the tables. Weird place. Officially called “Irish pub”. So my second “irish pub” in Armenia already. 😀 After coming from our hike, we were super tired and hitchhiked to Sevan. The guy that took us was driving Mercedes and was pretty fancy. He was showing off and was always very happy when I told him that his car is really cool. He became actually our personal driver since he stopped next to the Sevan lake, waited for us when we were taking pictures of the Sevanank church and also bought coffee to each of us. We exchanged numbers as well but didn’t meet after because it was hard to catch up without mobile data later in Yerevan.

Garni and Geghard 

Visiting these two places was definitely a highlight of this trip. Geghard actually not that much because it was full of tourists but Garni definitely yes. Unfortunately, I forgot to charge my camera so I don’t have any good quality pictures from those places. This time Ii went only with Marek because Maiika was already on her way back home too Netherlands. We took marshurtka (again) and talked about Germany and how the German language is important, especially for Czech people. To Geghard we hitchhiked. We sat next to the river in Geghard and that was probably the reason why Marek got 5 ticks and me one. I am actually happy for it because we had a very fun time in the local pharmacy, It seemed that the ladies who were selling all those medicaments haven’t seen any ticks in their life. We showed them ticks and they gave us some cream for mosquitos. Later on, we somehow managed to get a tweezer (with the same leopard pattern as Marek’s trousers) and some disinfection. We were kind of attraction for all locals when we tried to get rid off of those ticks. 

 

Last evening 🍷 

Our flight back to Prague was at 5 a.m. so we decided to rather not sleep. I had an idea in my mind that we will go to the city center and drink some wine, have dinner and than come back to the hostel and go with a taxi (which was already paid and ordered for us by the organisators) to the airport. Unfortunately, things went a little bit different than expected and we didn’t catch the last metro to the city center and because it was raining so much we couldn’t walk. We didn’t catch the metro because a very simple reason: while buying stuff that I want to take back home I bought Philadelphia cheese which cost approximately 4x more than traditional Armenian wine. Around 7 €. Apparently very luxurious cheese in Armenia. I was kind of angry with myself because I didn’t have much money left so we went back to the shop and that was the reason why we didn’t manage to catch the last metro. But as I mentioned before everything happens because of some reason and that reason was, that I needed to stop a car and in this car, we met a beautifully strange family. In the car were a guy and his two children. All of them could speak fluently English because the father worked for American embassy. The guy didn’t ride as a normal person would do. The way to the center would normally last around 5 minutes but it took us around 20 minutes. I asked the girl where are they going to and she answered that “they are just riding around, observing the rain and meeting us”. So weird, chill and beautiful at the same time. 🖤 We walked around the city for about 3 hours and after we realized that all bars or clubs are too full for just having a nice conversation we arrived back to the hostel, bought wine, a magnet for my mum (she collects magnets from my travels) and some sweets. And in the hostel started the real party. Three guys from Kazachstan, Russia and Armenia were drinking together and joined us. One of the guys was our taxi driver and i thought that we will never get to the airport. He drank ( only in front of me ) at least 6 shots of Rakia and Fernet. One of those guys was a professional jeep driver and showed us some videos of him. He added me on Instagram and tried to write me messages in Russian. But only for one day so it was OK. Our taxi driver was behaving completely FINE in the car and I was really shocked and positively surprised. Those guys in Armenia really don’t have any limits. We did (drunk and laughing) successfully the Check-in and slept the whole way to Kiyv (where we had 5 hours layover and we used it for the visit – but about it in the next article.) 

Armenian trip was really GREAT, AWESOME and brought again a bit energy to me. And also made me realize that one of the most important things for me is my freedom. Freedom to do whatever I want.