Blogs from Yerevan, West, Armenia, Asia - page 2

Day 144 Friday 10th June 2016 – Tbilisi to Yerevan A new morning, a new country and a new adventure. Before getting to the new country we needed to exit the old one, and today was to be one of the fastest exits we have ever had. The alarm went off at 6.30 and we did our now very professional and fast pack and check out and were out the front of our hotel hailing a taxi by 7.15. The taxi driver couldn’t speak English but we had the bus terminal written down in Georgian so he knew where to take us and quoted us a reasonable 5 Lari to get there. As always we prepare ourselves for the inevitable argument at the other end about the price but today the guy was happy ... read more

July 7, 2015 – *Disclaimer – be warned that this entry has disgusting bodily functions mentioned* The train ride to Yerevan from Batumi went quite well, actually. I left the guesthouse at 2:30pm, giving myself an hour to get to the train station before my train left. It is about 25-30 mins, so it should be fine, right? Well, the traffic was crazy on my street and I had to wait about 10 minutes for the right number minivan to come by, and then we barely moved for a while. I was getting a little nervous, but of course it worked out fine. I gave my ticket and passport to the ladies checking and they studied it and studied it. I think one was learning the job, but not sure. Either way, we didn’t speak the ... read more

Niedzielę zaczęliśmy od wizyty w meczecie. W Erewaniu działa tylko jeden; odbudowany i zarządzany przez Irańczykow. Nazywa się Blue Mosque i miałam nadzieję, że będzie przypominał choć trochę struktury z Esfahanu. ale choć leży na cichym dziedzińcu z (suchą) fontanną, to brak w jego wykonaniu delikatności i finezji spotykanych w Iranie. Bardziej wygląda na wersje soc-real. Po drugiej stronie ulicy jest centrum handlowe, które kiedyś było lokalnym bazarem i ono juz ma bardziej dystyngowana konstrukcje. W ogóle z bazarami w Erewaniu jest średnio, w centrum tylko sklepy spożywcze albo ewentualnie duże warzywniaki, czasami zdarza sie na rogu babcia sprzedająca jabłka z wiadra, ale nie zaobserwowalam nic z naszej kultury straganu zieleniaka. Z meczetu pojechaliśmy na weekendowy pchli targ o dumnej nazwie Vernissage. Mam jeszcze w pamięci taki targ (i kupione... read more

So onto the Armenian capital, courtesy of a combination of one short taxi ride, and one longer marshrutka (minibus) ride, and hey presto, I'm smack ban in the middle of Yerevan, the official capital city of Armenia. The choice of hotel, Yerevan Deluxe hotel, scored points for being conveniently-located and sufficiently equipped to make a 3-night stay here feel wholly fulfilling, and with the delights of Yerevan to sample, the Armenian chapter was on the brink of being fully realized. Oddly enough, the first port of call was the outlying leisure complex that is the Aquatek indoor waterpark, and the range of attractions therein made it worth a short trek out of the city centre. Stopping off at the Yerevan city mall on the way back was a mighty fine way of becoming acquainted with the ... read more

Since Turkey the bus trips have been quite daunting, fast drivers over taking purely on luck. We hope our bus ride to Yerevan will be a bit smoother but it turns out to be the worst one yet. We wait three hours in the marshutka before it departs (they have no time schedule, they only leave when the bus is full) Two hours before we are meant to arrive the bus suddenly stops. We look out of the window to see the aftermath of a terrible accident, another marshutka has crashed with a large truck. People come towards us covered in blood; we quickly try to gather up the bottles of water from our marshutka to bring to the wounded and we start making our way to the accident to see if there is anything we ... read more