Walking over Graves, Abandoned Cable Cars and Russian Fighter Plane

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As Armenia isn’t that far from Tbilisi, we decided to go on a day trip there, as neither of us had visited it before. Our guide/driver, Irakli picked us up at around 9am, which goes to show how close it is because of the late start!
Irakli explained that there’s a lot of animosity between Georgians and Armenians due to culture clashes and nationalism. People love their own country so much, they believe that’s it’s the best at everything and have disdain for others. That sounded VERY familiar! His father in law for example refused to try Armenian brandy, but our driver convinced him to try a sip and little by little, he drunk it. Now our driver says that though Georgian wine is better, Armenian brandy is superior. It took him all night to get his father in law to concede that for the price, the brandy he was drinking was better than what you’d get for the same price in Georgia. However, father in law had to have the last word in that best Georgian brandy is still by far the better of the twoThe area in Georgia between Tbilisi and the border has a lot of folk from Azerbaijan, plus some Armenians, who moved there for better soil and other things. It’s the only place they get along. Irakli reckons the best way for people to bond is over food and drink, the problem being that due to differing religions (Azerbaijanis are Muslim and Georgians and Armenians are Christian) they eat different things. Georgians drink lots of wine but Azerbaijanis do not. The latter also have arranged marriages and are not so much into education, so there’s less places for them to mix socially. However, Irakli is on a mission to fix this with gifts of food to people he meets.There were market stalls with washing powder on the roadside, as Armenians come to Georgia to buy it and other groceries as it’s a lot cheaper. They refuse to go to Turkey because of the 1915 genocide. However, the Georgians go to Turkey for cheap goods that they sell on to the Armenians. There was also a lot of talk about football. Our driver said that in Georgia they say that football was born in England, grew in Brazil and was killed in Georgia! They never have a good team as all good players get bought by the Russians because it’s far more money than they could ever dream of. These players are stuffed right now with the current international sanctions against Russia. However, like England, their women’s team are doing a lot better than the men’s.Passport control was pretty quick and easy on the way in. Glyn got questioned a bit about our car and driver. Fortunately the inspector had a camera and could spot the number plate of our car as I remembered it was blue.Like Georgia, Armenia has its own unique alphabet and language. Our driver knows a little Armenian but it’s hard for him to learn as his Armenian friends speak to him in Russian. Hardly anyone speaks English.Being south, it’s hotter and drier. The land was very rocky and brown. Armenia is a lot more Russian than Georgia and this was more noticeable in the architecture which was rather run down. There are about 10 million Armenians in the world, 4 million of them are in Armenia and 1 million in California. The area we saw seemed poorer than Georgia, however, I’ve only seen a fraction and cannot judge on a day tourist trip.Our first stop, Akhtala Monastery was originally Georgian as it‘s on land that belonged to Georgia and Stalin gave it to Armenia as a present. The carpets hide the original Georgian floor and pointing this out in front of the Armenian priest does not go down too well, so we didn’t do that.Being Sunday, there was a service going on but we were allowed in, just don’t talk. They’re totally relaxed about the dress code here and I was not obliged to cover up. However, because there was a service and the local ladies wore head scarves, I decided to do so too. I felt respected in that I wasn’t forced to, so I didn’t mind. There was a lot of chanting and incense burning in the dark church with one window where the sun streamed in like a spotlight. The service goes on for 3 hours, but the congregation can wander in and out as they please.Irakli appears not to be a fan of organised religion, he was telling a story about how someone was telling a priest that they didn’t feel like they were praying when in church. The priest said it was because they weren’t praying, only chanting. That’s because it comes from the mouth, not the heart, so it isn’t praying. Irakli fully agrees with that and I do too. People generally go to church to be seen as going to church, in my experience. And many are bored witless. Genuine prayer can be done anywhere and going to church does not prove you are a good person, although many good people do go to church.The church had been built in 1253 but the surrounding fortress was from the 10th century. There were a lot of old stone carvings laying about that I guess were once part of it but cannot be repaired.Naturally, like all places of interest, it was high up a hill. The whole area was dotted around Debed Canyon, so we could see distant towns at the canyon’s edge where it was flat.Haghpat was a proper Armenian church that we visited secondly. Now our driver had brought Georgian bread for the ladies who work on the souvenir stalls there. He often brings gifts to help relations between the nations. And they were very pleased at the sight of the giant loaves.They also had a tiny kitten! It was a bit shy and apparently a stray. The ladies were surprised that I asked if it was theirs and said I could have it! Kittens don’t need passports, so there would be no problem getting it back to Georgia they said. I had noticed at the border on the bridge between the Georgian and Armenian passport control, a pack of stray dogs running around like they owned the place. I wasn’t sure about getting it on the plane home, but Glyn the miserable so and so, said no. Luckily as we stepped into the grounds of the church, I saw a female cat running towards the kitten, so hopefully that was its mother, returning to do some parenting.Hagpat was fairly simple and we walked around appreciating the stonework. It was built in 976. Irakli was incredibly knowledgeable about the history and how a king and his son were in competition as to who could build the best church. This one, the son’s, got the title as the best and Dad’s the oldest as it was 10 years older.Next was lunch in a restaurant in the valley by a river. This is used by locals, but they tend not to eat until the evening, we had couscous, some veggies and beans stuffed into some leaves, bread, aubergines, onions and pepper. It was very nice. We were given cherry juice to drink which was nice but rather sweet to have with savoury food.Afterwards, we went back uphill and Irakli took us off piste, first to an abandoned cable car station, closed in 2016. It was owned by the copper mine in the valley and was a free service to the locals to get them home. It closed with the mine and was left to rust and decay. There was a fence as you’re not really meant to go in there, but we found a small child sitting on the step as the fence is easy to step over.The platform gave us a wonderful view to the valley and town below. There were two cable cars still dangling in mid air as apparently that is the best place for them. Irakli Also found a weed plant! He said he’d not seen it before and I’m surprised that the locals hadn’t already harvested and smoked it! It’s not illegal to smoke weed in Armenia or Georgia, but it is illegal to supply or sell it. I don’t know what the law is on deliberately growing it.Upon leaving I heard a pitiful meowing and saw a ginger and white cat stuck up a tree. Glyn and the driver walked off as I tried to coax it down. It almost got to the bottom, but took some convincing. It should be ok.The area was full of shabby old apartment blocks that had been built by the factories in the valley below for the workers who lived in them for free. I think that these days they can own them, however, it didn’t look like the best place to live and many were abandoned with broken windows. A lot still were in use with washing hanging out of the circular windows and people were milling about outside. I doubt the people have much money, as fences had been repaired with old bedsteads, mattresses, radiators and bits of old cars.Our next extra stop was at Mikoyan Brothers Museum, Alaverdi, where the first Russian fighter jet that the brothers had designed sat outside. The brothers had been born here, so that’s why the museum is here, in the middle of a residential area.Our final stop of the day was Samahin Monastery, the aforementioned old one. As always, there were souvenir stands outside and Glyn used the last of our local cash (we only changed about £30 worth and had bought a small dish and two fridge magnets) to purchase a wooden mask that the vendor claimed he had carved himself.The church floor was covered in graves that made it impossible to walk across without walking over them. However it was explained that unlike Georgian (and many others) culture where it is disrespectful to walk on a grave, in Armenia it is seen as a blessing. Good job, as I walked on rather a lot today. The style was similar to the previous churches; dark with a hole in the roof to let the light in and a hole beneath it to catch water. The roof was domed with a strong pillar and it was nice and cool inside.I went for a stroll in the graveyard which was an uphill climb. Many of the newer gravestones had people’s likenesses etched into the stone, it reminded me a bit of graveyards I’ve seen in Athens. The climb up took me to another great viewpoint across the valley and town of Alaverdi. It was quite overgrown with weeds and flowers, with plenty of butterflies and some lizards. I could have stayed for hours with my macro lens if I’d brought it!It was now past 5pm and time to head back to the border. Driving back we chatted about many things including pets. Our driver has three parrots named Cat, Bunny and Chicken, his 6 year old daughter had named them and there was confusion at kindergarten when she talked about them.There was no queue at either passport desk at the border. The Armenians said ‘Bye bye’ and a lady with multi coloured fingernails and big earrings at the Georgian border barely spared me a look. Unlike when we arrived, neither our baggage or ourselves had to go through a metal detector. There were two staff there, having a laugh doing chair dances who just waved us through. I guess it was the end of their shift.Driving back to Tbilisi, I wrote some of my blog in the car, but as we arrived in Tbilisi, I asked about the thousands of high rise apartment blocks that have seen far better days. Irakli lives in one with his wife and two small children. He pays rent to a private landlord and had about 60 square feet space. Not only can he hear his neighbours, but can also smell them. Each floor has the same layout and occupants are only allowed to make cosmetic changes. Irakli Is concerned as he thinks that neighbours below him have moved walls and he fears for the next earthquake. He’d rather have a house but that’s expensive. Before Georgia was part of the Soviet Union, far more Georgians lived in the country, usually in houses with many generations. When it became the Soviet Union, a lot of factories were built in the cities, and so the high rises were also built to accommodate the workers as people moved there for jobs. But now they are stuck with ugly buildings that aren’t built very well. Irakli hopes that they’ll be replaced with new and better ones. His dream is to start his own wine tasting business, based in Tbilisi and in his home village, with food, cooking and culture to educate the tourists. He hopes his daughters will grow up to be a part of it and run it. I really hope his dream comes true.

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