By our final day in Armenia, David and I were sick and tired. I don’t mean that figuratively. We were both actually sick and developing a tolerance for expired Russian Theraflu, and tired from sleeping on 1 thread count sheets in our “hotel” (a generous assessment if there ever was one) in Yerevan.
We started the day with the horrific continental breakfast before being picked up by our driver from the Envoy Hostel who would be transporting us back to Tbilisi that day. He must have carried some street cred with him or something, because as soon as he walked in the door, the hotel attendants trying to fleece us for a missing cup dropped their story and let us waltz out like cup-thieving bandits. Score one for the burly Armenian driver and his sick clients for the day.
As we drove, our driver (who shall remain anonymous) regaled us with stories of vodka, Russian hookers, his wife and kids, and other hookers – to him hookers and his family weren’t at odds with each other, they were simply unrelated facts of life. Great, sounds good – we won’t judge, especially when we’re sick and want to get back to our well heated apartment in Tbilisi. Bring on the hooker stories if that means getting back with a quickness. Also, we’re going to stay at his apartment next time we’re in Yerevan, he insists.
But yes, we saw more churches that day! They were churchy and great. If you want to get up to speed on the churches we visited prior to this day, you can find my other recaps here and here. But here we go:
Day 4: Yerevan to Dilijan to Tbilisi
Mood: Full blown sickness, wind chill to negative a billion. Back to Georgia, please. Angry drunk Russian emoji.
Monastery 1: Sevanavank
COLD HOLY SHIT COLD. I thought I was going to die at this monastery, like literally. It was perched on top of a mountain, and really beautiful, but I couldn’t get over the fact that I couldn’t feel my lower extremities. I left a lot of phlegm on that mountain. Lots of germs. Nice views though. 3/5
Monastery 2: Haghartsin
Almost entirely reconstructed, souvenir stand closed. There was a really cool abandoned cable car station from pre-independence on the road up to the monastery. If I had been lucid, I would have asked our driver to stop, but nope. Friendly stray dog. 3.5/5
I should add that the town of Dilijan itself is super cute (called the “Switzerland of Armenia” by the tourism board – what is it with places and being the Switzerland of their respective nation??). And by cute, I mean falling apart, because that’s what I look for in a post Soviet mountain town. See below:
Monastery 3: Goshavank
Over it, let’s just have tea and chat with the owner of a guest house instead. David didn’t even pretend to walk around the monastery. 2/5
Overall, we had a memorable time in Armenia. I would say that any discontent derived from the trip came from the fact that we were lofty in our sightseeing goals, it was mother effing cold, and we were just tired in general. There were things I loved about Armenia – and I’d certainly love to go back to in the summertime to experience Yerevan’s café culture, see Tatev and Geghard Monasteries, and explore Nagorno-Karabagh. But as it was, when we completed our time there and were on our way back to Georgia, we weren’t sad to leave. It was honestly a relief to be dropped off at our apartment in Tbilisi, where it was warmer, and where I had more facility with the local language. If I were to go back in time, I wouldn’t not go to Armenia – but I would perhaps adjust our aggressive schedule for church-traipsing.
Have you been to Armenia? What did you like most? Was it cold as f*ck when you were there, too?
