After a somewhat refreshing sleep, we were ready to make our way to Armenia. We would then back track into Tblisi and spend a couple of days there before finally returning to Turkey. The Green Stairs had a community bathroom at our disposal. Alex took a shower and discovered that there was no hot water. I tried to take a shower, but the water was too cold for me to handle. We were told that the closest place with an internet connection was a McDonalds down the street. We were off to research a route to Yerevan that was cheaper than $100.
We ordered McDonalds and I researched ways to get to Armenia. I discovered that we could take a bus, a train, or a dolmus. The website indicated that the dolmus would be the fastest route (and I needed to be back to Istanbul to meet my family by the 19th of June). The bad news was that the dolmus (minibus) left within the hour, giving us not much time to find the place and get a seat on the bus. We crossed the street and took the subway to the nearest terminal.
After getting off the subway, we were directly across the street from the terminal where dolmuses were leaving to Yerevan and other areas in Georgia. The terminal looked like something straight out of a movie. If you asked me what the most stereotypical piece of Soviet architecture I have ever seen was, my answer would easily be the terminal station. Looking at the building, I could almost feel the repression that was the Soviet Union.
We found the right dolmus and were able to get a seat with 15 minutes to spare. I was glad I remembered to buy water for the trip at that time because we definitely needed it. The bus ride was going to take another 6-7 hours because the route to Yerevan took us straight through the Lesser Caucasus Mountains.
After a couple of hours on the bus, we arrived at the Georgia-Armenia border. When I visited the exit officials in Georgia, their eyes lit up when they saw my passport. They said, "oh! American!! We love Americans!" This was a very surprising reaction to me because the majority of people are either neutral towards Americans or don't like them too much. Even more hilarious to me was that after they were excited about us being American, they said yeah!! George Bush!!" I knew because of the war and from our Georgian police officer friend that Georgians already liked Bush a lot. So I decided to do a little test. Usually when you meet people that don't know any English and are border guards, they will say, "Obama!!" when they understand that you're an American. So I said to them, "What do you think about Obama?" They shook their heads disapprovingly and made sounds of disgust. Then, I said, what about McCain? They responded with enthusiasm, "Yeah!! McCain!" (in the same way they responded towards Bush). It was all very comedic for me.
On the border between Armenia and Georgia, they require everyone to leave the van with their belongings inside while the vehicle is searched. You are required to walk across the border (good thing I am not disabled or anything). In this part of the world, very few accommodations seem to be in place for older or disabled people. I wonder how difficult life is for them living here. I took my camera, thinking it would be a neat opportunity to snap some pictures as I crossed the border. There was even a sign that said "Georgia." I was excited because lets be honest, how often do you ever get the chance to take a picture in front of a sign that marks a border between two countries (ok maybe a bit more often if you live in Michigan or Texas but not for me). Well, apparently the Armenian officials were less than pleased that I was taking pictures of their border facilities. Perhaps they thought there was some sort of security risk by allowing me to do that. They took my camera and examined the pictures I had taken. I was so afraid that they were going to make me delete my photos. Luckily, they decided not to but made it clear to me that I shouldn't take any more pictures.
After we crossed the river on foot, we arrived to the border control guard on the Armenian side. We learned that a single-entry tourist visa costs 15,000 Armenian Dirhams. This was about 40-45 USD. That blew. They also demanded that we could only pay the fee in Armenian Dirhams. Of course I didn't have any Armenian money because I had not been in Armenia yet, so they allowed Alex and me across the border to the border offices in order to change money into Armenian Dirhams. I decided that it would probably be better for me if I changed Georgian Lari into Armenian money instead of the Turkish Liras in my wallet. I wasn't sure how the average Armenian felt about the border closings with Turkey, but I didn't want to find out at that particular moment.
While we were waiting in line, a girl approached me and asked me if I remembered her. I did not. Apparently, she was a French foreign exchange student and remembered me from one of my classes at Bogazici (it was hard for me to know who was in class because some of my classes had 60-80 students in them). She was traveling with her boyfriend, which was a little disappointing for Alex. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. One thing that was pretty awesome was they had a Lonely Planet book for Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, which they let us examine so we could figure out stuff to do once we made it to Yerevan.
After the boarder crossing, we got back on the bus. The scenery immediately changed over the border and became much more rugged and mountainous. The first sign of civilization (about 10-15 minutes over the boarder was quite strange). There were clearly enough buildings that the place used to be a decent sized town of sorts. The factory buildings indicated that it was involved in the production of something. However, many of those buildings had since been abandoned, probably since the fall of the Soviet Union. The design of all of the buildings appeared very Soviet in style and it was both interesting and eerie to see.
The mountainous scenery along the ride was amazing. The road quality was poor, sometimes not even paved. Winding around the mountain roads allowed me to see scenery like I had never seen before. The mountains were green but beautiful. I think one day I would love to return to Armenia, and instead of visiting Yerevan, I'd like to go on some sort of hiking/nature exploring trip. I felt the mountains in Armenia were much more beautiful than the ones we passed through in Georgia. The other interesting thing was how free the livestock was. Several times the bus had to stop and/or swerve to avoid hitting it in the middle of the road. It was clear that we were in a different world.
We pretty much had to stop every 45 mins to an hour because one of the Russian Armenian passengers was a chain smoker. At one particular rest stop, there was food but I decided not to get any. Instead, I decided to play a game of backgammon with the bus driver. Unfortunately for me, the bus driver was quite good and I lost. I think this was also because the Russian-Armenian was forcefully suggesting me to make more risky plays, which the bus driver took advantage of. Alex took a picture of me playing backgammon with the bus driver: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_npXKmJnH00s/Sk-4a1oVrII/AAAAAAAACy8/mRA0AUEe6ok/s1600-h/IMG_0174.JPG
We got back in the bus and we made friends with another student, Vlad, who was studying Political Science at a University in Armenia. His English was decent and he taught us some introductory phrases in Armenia, which was awesome. He also told us where we should visit while in Yerevan. Since we didn't have a guide book and we had done almost no planning, this advice was very helpful.
After our first stop, we continued along in the mountains. Before long, the mountains turned into rolling hills with brilliant green meadows. It was amazing and unlike any landscape I had ever seen. It was like something out of a movie. Add to this picturesque scene white mountains in the distance. It was so strange because there were hardly any trees on this massive green expanse. Because we were so high in altitude, the temperature was much cooler as well. As someone who spent most of his summers in Florida and Georgia, it was really strange to be in 70 degree weather in the middle of June!
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Our second major pit stop was in an Armenian village high in these plateaus. Although we did not stay for long, we did stay long enough to get a snack and something to drink. I decided to try some of the local cuisine. There was a type of soft flatbread that was native to Armenia and I bought some for the trip. It was really good. Across the street from where the bus stopped, there was a fountain with water flowing out of it. It was clear that this was the villages' local water source and people would come there for drinking water. I decided to fill up my water bottle with it (I am sure that it was fresh from local mountains and springs). Yum!
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We got on the bus and started to make the descent towards Yerevan. As we entered the outskirts of the city, one could easily see the mark of the Soviet's everywhere. The streets had several of the Soviet style apartment community living spaces. They appeared as if they were on the verge of collapsing. The place overall appeared to be rather depressing, devoid of much culture or varied architecture. The van driver asked us where we wanted to go and we asked to go to the city center because we did not know where to stay for the night (neither did our French friends actually). Vlad translated for us and it was explained to us at that time that there weren't really many hotels in Armenia. Apparently, there were business places for Americans and Russians who come to do business, but those luxury hotels are around 100 dollars a night. I was not about to pay those kinds of prices.
Then, the bus driver offered to see if the hotel where he was staying would allow us to stay there. They did not have any available room, but the owners agreed to host us in a bonus room they had under their house, which was within walking distance of the city center. We agreed and were lead to the house. A young girl named Lucy (who Alex had spoken to on the phone) met us and she spoke fluent English (apparently she had been studying in school and on her own). She was quite fluent and I was impressed!
They lead us into the room under their home. As I sat in the bed, I sunk almost all the way to the floor. Additionally, there were spider webs (and a couple of spiders) in the corner of the room. These were definitely NOT luxury accomodations. Additionally, there was no bathroom for our use (and apparently Lucy was only permitted to show the female French girl the bathroom in their house and the boys were not allowed inside). They told us that the hotel rooms would be available for us tomorrow. The area of their home was in what appeared to be a really poor area of Yerevan. I snapped some pictures of the street we were on. It literally seemed like a scene straight from a movie about a third world country (I feel like a lot of things looked like they were from a movie on this particular part of the trip). At any rate, I wasn't sure I wanted to stay long as I was on a tight schedule and my initial impressions lead me to believe that I didn't really want to spend a lot of time in Yerevan.
After getting settled in the four of us decided that we wanted to go out and explore and get a nice dinner. As we began walking towards the city center, two Armenian boys began to follow us. I thought it was a little weird and was a little concerned. Our French friend decided to strike up a conversation with them and ask them for advice about where we should go. They agreed to show us around and come with us. We went to a place downtown that was recommended to us by them.
They were curious as to why we wanted to come here and I told them I didn’t know anything about Armenia. Because of that, I felt that it would be necessary to just dive right into Armenia and get a crash course. We talked a bit about the country, economic problems, the problems with Azerbaijan, and other things. I was impressed though. One of them had pretty good English for only taking lessons for four months. I was also surprised about the cost of food there. Our meal was something like 7 dollars (and the next day our meal out was equally expensive). For this part of the world, eating out was kinda pricey. I was not sure if it was because this was a city or because their borders were closed on the majority of sides (Turkey and Azerbaijan have closed borders with Armenia) and I don't know how much trade they maintain with Iran. I believe the unfortunate political situation added to the already stifling effect of the Soviet Union and its aftermath combined to make Armenia a poor place. Nevertheless, there were still interesting things to see and experience! We walked back through the city center (where you could see a re-gentrification process occurring). There were new apartments (like Atlantic Station) that were supposed to open soon. Republican Square was also really pretty at night (but more about that later). We returned to our sleeping quarters and slept.
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