Seeing as it’s almost December, and this trip was back in August, I’ll get it finished off.
Armenia Day 1
I was going to Yerevan (the capital of Armenia – nope, I’d never heard of it before either) from Tbilisi by bus since it made a bit more sense than flying such a short distance. Ugh. I got to the bus station at a stupid time in the morning, with no other people around and nothing open. I had some online booking thing, but the information was a bit wrong. The bus I’d booked was actually a s**ty little minibus and picked up from the car park of a hotel opposite the actual bus station. Not best pleased, but at least there were only three other passengers, so there was room to spread out a bit.
Then there was the border crossing. This was the main overland crossing between the two countries, but there was no ATM, nowhere to pick up a local sim card and the money changers wouldn’t take Georgian currency despite EVERYONE using that crossing coming in from Georgia. They wouldn’t take pounds either, and I didn’t bother trying Hong Kong dollars .Luckily, I had a few euros on me to get a bit of cash before I could get to an ATM.
About an hour away from the final stop (this was around a 6-hour ride despite being sold as less than five), I suddenly got really ill, having to get the bus to stop so that I could puke at the side of the road. I’ve never been travel/car sick, so thought maybe it was that for the first time. Nope.
By the time I got to the hotel, I was shaking, puking more and in a state of delirium. The front desk bint seemed a bit concerned, but I just said I was hungover rather than risk not being allowed to check in. I just climbed into bed for “a couple of hours” at around 2pm, and woke up at 1pm the next day.
Great 1st day in Armenia then.
Armenia Day 2
I woke up at 1pm. The puking was over, but now here come the s**ts. Yay! I always carry Imodium with me when I travel, so that was easily “fixed” at least and meant I could get out and do stuff. I’m not one to self-diagnose stuff, but everything about it suggested a stomach virus (couldn’t have been food poisoning since it was much too long between eating something and the puking happening).
Yerevan was pretty small, and had three small parks to cred whore. These were all walkable from the hotel, though in different directions, so it was easy to see the city while getting to them. I’d planned to work in a circle and do all three, but ended up using the hotel as a “Disney Castle” hub and taking short breaks between each one since I was feeling rotten.
There wasn’t much to see on the way to the first place since it was out and away from the main stuff. It was only a 15-minute walk or so anyway.
Mankakan Erkatughi
I came close to not bothering when I saw the place and realized that I’d have walk back up again.
However, I’m such a little trooper that it had to be done for the +1.
Like I said before, I went back to the hotel for a quick break and then headed back out to one of the bigger parks. This one was near the top of the main tourist attraction in Yerevan, the Yerevan Cascade, which is basically a big staircase which also acts as an indoor/outdoor art gallery.
I later found out, after climbing all the way up the f**king thing, that there are escalators inside. Fuming. It looks ok from the bottom, but when you get to the “top” you realise that the top actually isn’t finished, and has been sitting as a construction site since the ‘80s. Gorgeous!
It’s all a bit Soviet at the top, with the park being a few minutes’ walk from there.
Haghtanak Park
F**k knows why RCDB don’t just call this Victory Park since that’s the translation. This place had a bit more to it than I was expecting, with a fair few flat rides of dubious origin.
I was trying to figure out where I’d seen this type of Ferris wheel before.
I realized later that it was just outside Chernobyl:
Onto the cred. There’s just one listed here: Cobra. It’s only small, but was actually not bad with some decent speed to it.
They also had one of these shuttle things which RCDB doesn’t list, but I count. It was closed though.
The there was this next thing, which was also closed, but definitely one for the “Is it a cred?” discussion. I’d have been strongly tempted to count it had it been open. I’ve seen similar types of rides which I wouldn’t count since they don’t really go up or down, just move in a circle, but this one was pretty much just a much bigger Go-Gator.
As before, it was back to the hotel for a break, back the way I’d come, before heading out to the final park, which was also the closest and didn’t involve any f**king hills.
Luna Park
This place was pretty much what you’d expect: a small amusement park right in the city.
There was just one cred here. RCDB has it with three spinning cars, but those have since been replaced with one single “pirate ship” car instead.
And that’s Yerevan. Meh. It doesn’t help that I was feeling like s**te, but after really liking every other place on this trip, it was definitely a lowlight. It also doesn’t help that this was the last place to visit. If I’d started here, I probably would’ve liked it a lot more.
Armenia Day 3
I had the whole day free the next day (late flight out) and had seen the city while heading back and to between the hotel and parks, so ended up booking a car and driver for the day through some travel agency (they only did group tours a couple of days a week) to get out and see some other tourist stuff.
Tourist stuff in Armenia just means old churches on hills, and it was nice, but I’d done all that in Georgia, which, in general, had a much more impressive landscape. There was also a cable car up to the final place which was decent. I’m just going to dump pictures in. There were three places visited, but all pretty far from each other, so it took about 10 hours if I remember correctly.
First church on hill (with Mount Ararat in the background):
Second church on hill – probably the nicest one:
Third church on hill – via cablecar:
And that’s that summer trip finally f**king done.
Armenia Day 1
I was going to Yerevan (the capital of Armenia – nope, I’d never heard of it before either) from Tbilisi by bus since it made a bit more sense than flying such a short distance. Ugh. I got to the bus station at a stupid time in the morning, with no other people around and nothing open. I had some online booking thing, but the information was a bit wrong. The bus I’d booked was actually a s**ty little minibus and picked up from the car park of a hotel opposite the actual bus station. Not best pleased, but at least there were only three other passengers, so there was room to spread out a bit.
Then there was the border crossing. This was the main overland crossing between the two countries, but there was no ATM, nowhere to pick up a local sim card and the money changers wouldn’t take Georgian currency despite EVERYONE using that crossing coming in from Georgia. They wouldn’t take pounds either, and I didn’t bother trying Hong Kong dollars .Luckily, I had a few euros on me to get a bit of cash before I could get to an ATM.
About an hour away from the final stop (this was around a 6-hour ride despite being sold as less than five), I suddenly got really ill, having to get the bus to stop so that I could puke at the side of the road. I’ve never been travel/car sick, so thought maybe it was that for the first time. Nope.
By the time I got to the hotel, I was shaking, puking more and in a state of delirium. The front desk bint seemed a bit concerned, but I just said I was hungover rather than risk not being allowed to check in. I just climbed into bed for “a couple of hours” at around 2pm, and woke up at 1pm the next day.
Great 1st day in Armenia then.
Armenia Day 2
I woke up at 1pm. The puking was over, but now here come the s**ts. Yay! I always carry Imodium with me when I travel, so that was easily “fixed” at least and meant I could get out and do stuff. I’m not one to self-diagnose stuff, but everything about it suggested a stomach virus (couldn’t have been food poisoning since it was much too long between eating something and the puking happening).
Yerevan was pretty small, and had three small parks to cred whore. These were all walkable from the hotel, though in different directions, so it was easy to see the city while getting to them. I’d planned to work in a circle and do all three, but ended up using the hotel as a “Disney Castle” hub and taking short breaks between each one since I was feeling rotten.
There wasn’t much to see on the way to the first place since it was out and away from the main stuff. It was only a 15-minute walk or so anyway.
Mankakan Erkatughi
I came close to not bothering when I saw the place and realized that I’d have walk back up again.
However, I’m such a little trooper that it had to be done for the +1.
Like I said before, I went back to the hotel for a quick break and then headed back out to one of the bigger parks. This one was near the top of the main tourist attraction in Yerevan, the Yerevan Cascade, which is basically a big staircase which also acts as an indoor/outdoor art gallery.
I later found out, after climbing all the way up the f**king thing, that there are escalators inside. Fuming. It looks ok from the bottom, but when you get to the “top” you realise that the top actually isn’t finished, and has been sitting as a construction site since the ‘80s. Gorgeous!
It’s all a bit Soviet at the top, with the park being a few minutes’ walk from there.
Haghtanak Park
F**k knows why RCDB don’t just call this Victory Park since that’s the translation. This place had a bit more to it than I was expecting, with a fair few flat rides of dubious origin.
I was trying to figure out where I’d seen this type of Ferris wheel before.
I realized later that it was just outside Chernobyl:
Onto the cred. There’s just one listed here: Cobra. It’s only small, but was actually not bad with some decent speed to it.
They also had one of these shuttle things which RCDB doesn’t list, but I count. It was closed though.
The there was this next thing, which was also closed, but definitely one for the “Is it a cred?” discussion. I’d have been strongly tempted to count it had it been open. I’ve seen similar types of rides which I wouldn’t count since they don’t really go up or down, just move in a circle, but this one was pretty much just a much bigger Go-Gator.
As before, it was back to the hotel for a break, back the way I’d come, before heading out to the final park, which was also the closest and didn’t involve any f**king hills.
Luna Park
This place was pretty much what you’d expect: a small amusement park right in the city.
There was just one cred here. RCDB has it with three spinning cars, but those have since been replaced with one single “pirate ship” car instead.
And that’s Yerevan. Meh. It doesn’t help that I was feeling like s**te, but after really liking every other place on this trip, it was definitely a lowlight. It also doesn’t help that this was the last place to visit. If I’d started here, I probably would’ve liked it a lot more.
Armenia Day 3
I had the whole day free the next day (late flight out) and had seen the city while heading back and to between the hotel and parks, so ended up booking a car and driver for the day through some travel agency (they only did group tours a couple of days a week) to get out and see some other tourist stuff.
Tourist stuff in Armenia just means old churches on hills, and it was nice, but I’d done all that in Georgia, which, in general, had a much more impressive landscape. There was also a cable car up to the final place which was decent. I’m just going to dump pictures in. There were three places visited, but all pretty far from each other, so it took about 10 hours if I remember correctly.
First church on hill (with Mount Ararat in the background):
Second church on hill – probably the nicest one:
Third church on hill – via cablecar:
And that’s that summer trip finally f**king done.