Armenia - why wouldn't everyone want to go there?

-Armenia?

-Why would you want to go there?

This was the most common response I got before I left when I told people where I was going. I believe most people do not know much about Armenia, but I do not agree that they should automatically be negative towards the unknown - as I believe that is the main reason why so many do not even concider going to Armenia.

Armenia and Yerevan is at least not well know to Norwegians, and there is in fact one negative part with travelling here - the plane through Moscow can either arrive at 01:25 or 04:45 (we choose the first), and leave at 06:00. That is of course given you do not wish to stay too long at a transfer airport. The positives however are so many more, good food, friendly people, rich history, an easy accessable city and prices lower than anything I've experienced other than south-east Asia. There's lots of other positives that I am sure I will scratch into while I write. I didn't have much knowlegde of the country myself, neither about prices nor more or less what to expect other than the weather forecast telling us it would be about 20 degrees and thundershowers everyday, the weather was however excellent except for one morning which meant we had to walk in the rain for almost 5 minutes - in total over 4 full days. Most of the time it was 25-30 and perfect weather. I had looked up a tour company online and booked daytrips through them from 10 to 15 everyday before we left. Hyur service prooved to be an excellent choice, and for the cost of about NOK 1000 / €110 for airport transfer both ways and the four days of touring the countryside for two persons was a much better deal than the local guy my brothers friend knew, this guy knew no english, but could drive us where ever we wanted for €100/day. Well, again it pays off to do some research. If anyone who reads this is concidering going to Armenia/Yerevan, I can strongly recommend Hyur Services. Very reasonable priced, great mix of local and in-house guides, lots of destinations and there were no stops at some place where they just wanted us to buy some things. The later part could of course be good, but often it's just a drag.

On the first day we had booked a trip inside the city with a visit to Erebuni and the Erebuni

museum as the first stop. This is an old fort where the city first was built. Not the most exciting, so in a way it was okay that it was the first part of the trip and not the last, then to Tsitsernakaberd, the memorial site for the genocide in 1918 as well at a visit to Matenadaran where they kept most of their old scriptures. There was supposed to be a "short city sightseeing" as well, but this was very short as it was purely done from the bus. On this tour we met some girls who was doing their practice with Hyur before becomming guides themselves.

On the evening we took the expected walk around the city and found the Cascade, which I of course had to climb. That prooved to be about twice as long/high as expected, but what a view of the city it presented. We also visited a local market where there were mostly handmade items. The prices were very friendly and the craftmanship was good. I ended up buying an old russian winter hat, a pin-roller and some minor souvenirs. Not really what I had expected to bring back home, but at least the pin-roller should come in handy as my current is near dead.

The 2nd day we went out to Echmiadzin, also called the church-town just outside Yerevan. Armenia being the first country to accknowledge Christianity as their state religion in 301 did of course have a lot of old relgious history to show.

At the end of the day trip we went to Zvartsnots, ruins of an old church where there was a beutiful view of the biblical mountain Ararat in the background.Zvartsnots has also given the name to the local airport.

Day 3 was probably the highlight where we left for Garni and Geghard.On the way there we stopped at a view point of Mt Ararat which really was worth the minutes we took there, as seen on the picture to the left.

Garni is a spectacular old temple which had been left by the many wars the country has endured as this is more a regal building than a religious.The monastary of Geghard further up the countryside is still in use, but was also open for tourists. Not that there are a lot of tourists in Armenia at all, but we had our minibus with 10-15 people and there were a few others there as well.

After the arranged tour we also booked a private tour to Khor Virap where Gergorian the illuminator who had brought Christianity to Armenia had been imprissoned in a deep pit for 13 years, the name Khor Virap means "the pit", but the building was older and was converted to a monastary after Gregory had been there. Khor Virap is placed just on the border to Turkey, barely 100 meters from the neutral zone and did also display a great view of Mt Ararat. The local guide we had booked was a mountain enthusiast and had a lot of info on both these mountains as well as the others in Armenia, and even some from the rest of the world. He himself had scaled mt Aragat (highest in Armenia with 4090m) about 40 times, but due to the bad relations with Turkey he had yet to climb Mt Ararat.

On our last day we woke up to heavy rain and feared the worst, the streets were almost flooded some places, and the 5 mins walk to Hyur would have been enough to get soaked if we hadn't brought decent clothes. The rain did however, as written earlier, stop during the ride to Sardarapat which was our only destination for this day. A bit longer from the city than the other places we visited, but at least for the Armenians among the by far most important historical sites. This is where the armenians fought off the turks when they invaded Armenia just after WW1. A sentence we heard many times during this day was that Armenia as a nation would probably not have excisted if they hadn't succeeded defending Sardarapat.After this final showdown Armenia was so broken that they view the inclusion in the Sovjet union as their only chance of further survival. The monument and museum was built in stages from the 50yrs aniversary until the 60th.

This dog was just about to wake up when I took the photo, I love how she stretches her legs just before opening her eyes - quite surprised to find me laying to be ground with my camera.

The city also had lots of great buildings and statues, mainly erected during the Sovjet period. Statues like this one made an impressing view, we even went down to the south of the city purely to take photoes of this.