Yerevan – the Pink City

Armenia

This morning this set back out to Tbilisi, through the spiraling Gudairi National Park. As we finally arrived at the Tbilisi long-range bus depot at 2 pm, it turned out that we just missed the last bus to Yerevan. Following this many step-in taxi drivers hounded us trying to siphon out about 100$US from both of us for a private journey in their 'limousines'. We declined with the foresight that there will almost certainly be a shared taxi hanging around (in a roadworthy car or van). Eventually, after several referrals we found a guy who agreed to 25 euro for the both of us. This did, however, involve a couple of transfers in Tbilisi, as we seemed to be waiting for somebody or something. The only passengers turned out to be us and Igor, a young Russian traveler.

Journey all up was about 6 hours give or take, including the border crossing. The vast majority of travel actually rook place in northern Armenia near the closed off border with Azerbaijan. The closed-off border is quite a long story and involves quite a bit of bad blood between the two nations mostly because of contested territory. The journey through Armenia dragged on quite a bit because of the broken and absolutely horrendous road conditions and a detour caused due to a major road through the country being closed for some reason. The highlight of this road trip was watching very large trucks attempting to traverse massive potholes in the approaching dark, with the minivan we were in slowing down almost to a crawl in order to prevent losing a wheel axle.

Yerevan

We ended up spending the night at Ivan's uncle's place somewhere in northern Yerevan. It was an opportunity to share a some of our experiences and lives while at the same time practice my Russian. We drank Armenian wine, drank imported Russian vodka, and ate a various assortment of Armenian food, with cheese and bread which actually reminded me a bit of Iranian cuisine (don't mention this to any self-respecting Armenian). The fascinating thing is that the people in this part of the world are super hungry to find out what family and social life is like in the west and central Europe, even with the language barrier that we were experiencing, alcohol certainly helps relax the anxiety experienced by most when speaking a foreign language you aren't fluent in. One thing that sticks out though is the assurance that Armenian hospitality is better than that of their neighbours. I just couldn't make a definite decision who is more hospitable at this point, but being in the country since only a few hours ago I can certainly say this was an excellent first impression of Armenian hospitality.

After waking up we had a nice simple Armenian breakfast, bid our Armenian hosts' goodbye, and off we went to find the bus to our scheduled homestay through Airbnb. After a couple of misunderstandings, we were finally on the right bus and got off at the right bus stop. The apartment we stayed at was in an old building, recently renovated and very nicely furnished. As typical of Armenian hospitality, we were treated to morning tea before we even had a chance to fully unpack. It was delicious and after a nice relax on the balcony in the nice sunny weather we were off to explore Yerevan and its sights.

I should mention that Yerevan and Tbilisi through the capital cities of neighboring countries are completely different. If Tbilisi is Eastern Europe then Yerevan is extremely eastern. For one thing, the roads and infrastructure were not as well maintained as Tbilisi. The cars and the people were visibly poorer. It also felt much more Soviet here, which I will get into shortly. A  contrast for me at least was the location of a food bank right with a long line right next to a modern and well-maintained shopping centre. Hard times are indeed experienced by many Yerevan citizens and as many Armenians will tell you the government is too corrupt to care for the growing number of those truly in need.

Where we stayed it was about an hour walk to the city centre or a 10 min marshutka ride away. The city centre was a bit more well maintained than just outside of the centre, and had a cosmopolitan vibe to it, with the predominant thing of note being the pink colour of most buildings. How Yerevan came to be known as the "Pink City" falls back to Soviet times, where an architect by the name of Alexander Tamanyan was tasked with creating a "perfect city". It didn't quite end that way however the modern soviet design climate can be felt as you walk around, with very wide streets, concrete buildings at every corner, and a spacious city centre.

The church Saint Gregory the Illuminator is one of the prominent examples of Yerevan landmarks, with the church being very visible in various cityscapes and viewpoints of the city. It was completed in 2001 and is the largest Armenian Apostolic Cathedral in the world. An interesting fact to note, Armenia is actually the oldest country to have adopted Christianity, having adopted it in the early 4th century, many years before Emperor Constantine did so for Ancient Rome. This makes the Armenian Apostolic Church the oldest in the world, not the Roman Catholic Church.

It is widely accepted in Christianity that Mount Ararat was the resting place for Noah's Ark. This mountain as shown below is actually in the extreme far east of Turkey, very close to the currently closed Armenian border. This lookout is on top of the hill Tsitsernakaberd.

The elaborate structure below is known as the Cascade and is one of the standout landmarks we happened to walk by while exploring Yerevan. It is a giant stairway built during Soviet times. Inside is the Cafesjian Museum. An art museum that offers a variety of exhibitions including many sculptures currently outside of the museum around the surrounding promenades.

A trip to Yerevan isn't complete without a visit to the Armenian Genocide Monument. Due to the controversy surrounding the genocide and the frigid Armenian-Turkish relations, as a result, I won't get into detail about it.

At nighttime, we returned to the republican square to watch the fountains there become "dancing fountains", synced with a light show and an eclectic mix of classical and pop music. All up it lasted about an hour and was definitely a must-see in my opinion. The plaza filled up very quickly with many Armenians families enjoying a drink or an ice-cream cone as well as many tourists watching the performance in awe.

Next: Geghard and Garni