Yerevan I

 The Hotel Erebuni was conveniently located just behind the grandiose pink buildings which make up Republic Square. We had requested a pick up service from the airport and were met by a rather nice man holding a sign once we had traversed through immigration. He let us get some cash out of the ATM and then we hopped in his car, which took us the fifteen minutes or so to the hotel. Unfortunately he spoke no English and insisted in having a conversation in Russian, which with my limited knowledge, an early start and a long journey was the last thing I needed. Still, we managed to bumble our way through and got to see the huge US Embassy on nearly nine hectares of land along with the impressive Hrazdan Gorge on the way, which cuts through the city of Yerevan as the river makes its way to the Caspian Sea. Driving over the wrought iron victory bridge we also got to see the factories of the two main cognac producers in the country, Ararat and Noy, with cognac being the country’s main drink. We then drove into the city proper, seeing the statues of Shaumayan Square and the green corridor flanked either side by two roads. We also got to see the imposingly impressive white bricked building now housing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before Republic Square, initially named after Lenin, opened out in front of us. This is one of the main squares of the city and housed a number of government buildings when it was constructed between 1926 and 1958. Many of these have moved down the road further south, leaving one as a Merriot which opened in 1991. It’s a pleasant square to walk around, with musical fountains in summer which were sadly not operational during our stay. These are situated in front of the huge white arched building which now houses the national museum and the national gallery - a building which is in striking contrast to the pink tufa curved edifices which sit opposite it. We were told that we should really check both out but they were largely all day affairs and we didn’t really have the time. Anyway, driving up at six o’clock, we took a sharp turn to five o’clock, drove through an archway and we had arrived at our hotel, a slightly faded Soviet relic but one with friendliness and charm. They were very accommodating about the fact we were arriving a day later than anticipated and didn’t even charge us for the night we had missed. 

 

We swiftly checked in and rested for a short while, but didn’t want to hang around too long as we had lost most of Tuesday due to our flight being delayed. With it getting dark shortly after 6pm and checking in shortly after 4pm, we didn’t have much chance to explore the city in the daytime so we soon were back out in the city to see what we could see. Firstly we looked around the aforementioned Republic Square, a place that was arguably more impressive at night time when it was lit up beautifully and was alive with throngs of people. We saw the stone centre of the square which represents an Armenian carpet. We were surprised to see there were no traffic lights around the square, meaning you had to take your life in your hands when crossing at the pedestrian crossings. Armenians aren’t the best drivers, and a number were quite speedy in this area, so care was recommended, despite the police car stationed at the southern flank of the square. Indeed it’s fair to say that Armenian driving is amongst the worst we have ever seen, with one accident happening right in front of us later that evening and a most likely fatal accident occurring three days later which we drove past after one of the tours. Anyway, we just had to be careful and ensure we didn’t jaywalk, what with a new law just being passed (although jaywalking would have been bloody suicidal as it was anyway).

 

Heading up Abovyan Street, we soon turned left into Northern Avenue, one of the few diagonal streets in the city, contracting the plan of Alexander Tamayan, who pretty much designed the city in the 1920s. Indeed one thing to note is how little history there is here, despite the site being occupied since 782 BC, making it the oldest continually occupied city in the world, predating Rome by something like thirty years. Indeed at the entrance to Northern Avenue there is a plastic hashtag monument celebrating 2800 years of the city, with the main festivities having taken place in the last weekend of October. Most of the old city is in Erebuni, a fortress area now to the south-east of the city centre. Alas we didn’t get chance to visit the museum here either. Northern Avenue was bulldozed through the city about ten years ago and now contains a number of high end shops selling goods that the vast majority of the locals cannot afford. There was a Clarks shoe shop interestingly along with a Burger King (although no McDonald’s throughout the whole of the country, which was surprisingly) along with the rather ubiquitous Tashir Pizza, whose outlets we regularly saw along our walks around the city. This street, and indeed Yerevan in general, felt incredibly European, despite the indecipherable 39-character alphabet throughout the country. I had tried to learn this before we went to Armenia but so many letters look alike and others are the same shapes as English letters but mean different letters (e.g. an S is actually an Armenian letter T) that I gave up pretty quickly. Consequently I could only really recognize a number of characters towards the start of the alphabet. Anyway, Northern Avenue was very much like any Western high street except underneath it was an underground shopping mall which we decided to explore on the lookout for a mobile phone shop. Having had success with our own regional SIM card in Bosnia last year, we decided we should do the same again, with both getting data only plans which would allow us to navigate around the city more easily. Exploring the mall, we initially became quite frustrated until we spotted the familiar green of a U Comm! store at the far end. We walked in, initially not realising it was a Post Office style ticketing system, before we were pointed in the direction of the machines. We soon got a ticket and after some further confusion got to see one of the operatives, who took an age sorting out the SIMs for us. It must have taken twenty minutes or so, with frequent copies of Wolfie’s passport for proof of identity, but eventually we got ourselves sorted and emerged back onto Northern Avenue (the U Comm! store was over two floors) just as it was getting dark.

 

Being around the corner from Opera/Liberty Square, the other major square in the city, we decided to take a look. The opera building is hugely imposing and pretty much dominates any view to the north, with most roads in this part of the city pointing to it. It’s not a particularly attractive building but it does have some world class performances and a number of small restaurants situated around its periphery. These were largely stalls with plastic curtains protecting diners from the elements but each were connected with pretty lights hanging over cultivated walkways so it was quite pleasant. There is also a rather small fountain area called Swan Lake which we didn’t even notice was there until Friday evening, when we revisited this area. There was no water in it so it was just a concrete hollow although a rather yappy Yorkshire Terrier did have a good time bounding in and out of it as its owners were trying desperately to silence him. Walking around the large square upon which the opera building is situated, we saw a number of barren flagpoles and statues to a few composers but because I cannot read Armenian, I don’t know who they were. As we were rounding the building towards its main entrance, we started to hear the sound of music and were delighted to discover a military band playing outside. I’m not sure why they were there but the event seemed very friendly so we stuck around for a few minutes, enjoying the music. It was quite pleasant standing there in the cool November air listening to the ~30-piece band and I got the impression they were there for a specific event but I wasn’t sure what that event was. Considering this was Remembrance Week, it may have had something to do with that. 

 

Pressing on, we saw a number of other statues as we flanked Opera Square including a rather unique one carved out of a tree to commemorate the Armenian composer Comitas. We also saw a white stone fountain/statue dedicated to Sayat-Nova, an eighteenth century poet. Fountains are quite common in Armenia, largely because it’s a way of distributing fresh drinking water from local springs to the populace so you see many fountains, both commemorative and just for drinking, throughout the country. We then headed up Mashtots Avenue in search of some more modern art - a man made out of steel piping similar to scaffolding. Immediately after getting my Armenian SIM, I had checked whether there were any geocaches in the area, on the off-chance there were. As it turned out, there were nine so as we wandered around the city, we started to tick them off. We found the man very easily, a stylish sculpture leaning against a lamppost, but alas we could not find the cache, not now at nighttime nor in the daytime when we checked again on Saturday. We did find a syringe though, which was far less rewarding. In the end, we had to accept it was a DNF, with our suspicion being that someone had taken the cache. This was disappointing as I hadn’t yet found any without Arc but we would go on to find all eight others, along with one in the grounds of one of the monasteries we visited on Sunday.

 

Disappointed and hungry, we headed to the nearby Beer Academy, one of only two microbreweries in the country. We had slated a visit and as it was nearby, we thought we would pop in for dinner. It was around 7pm by this point and quite quiet, meaning we got our food pretty swiftly. Armenia is famous for its barbecued meats or khoravats so we decided to go for a meat platter, which was incredibly hearty. A full range of meats where there, with the BBQ pork and steak probably the speciality. We also ordered fries with a number of dips, which came out significantly earlier than the meats for some reason. All of this provided excellent accompaniment for the beers they had, with us trying all six they had on offer (they do brew seven but one as a summer beer - which we couldn’t get - and another as a winter beer). The beers were all pretty solid and in the Czech style while the meats were incredibly good, making this a perfect place for our first Armenian meal.

 

With the time now pushing past 8pm and after a very early start in Ukraine that morning, coupled with the fact we had an early start planned for our first tour of the trip, we decided to amble back towards our hotel at the opposite end of the city. On the way, we spotted a number of anthropomorphic based films at the local theatre and some scarily lifelike bear and spider statues made out of wrought iron in the neat little square outside the imposing Russian cinema. There was also a large chessboard with all 32 pieces situated here too, with chess being the national sport of Armenia and something they take very seriously. Indeed one of our guides told us that every school has a chess club where children are encouraged to play, and that Armenian mentality means they succeed far more in individual sports (see also boxing, weightlifting and martial arts) than team-based pursuits. Slightly off to the side there was also a picturesque little fountain containing statues to the twelve signs of the zodiac around its edge. Built in 1983, each sign is represented by a delicately carved stone statue which makes for a cute little place.

 

Continuing south down Abovyan Street, we noticed a sign on a wall next to a courtyard advertising a bar called Buro. With its wine and sickle logo, not dissimilar to the Soviet symbol of course, it looked interesting so we ducked into this secluded area surrounded by tower blocks. The bar was tucked away in one corner but soon we spotted it, peering inside to see what type of affair it was. It looked a little like a craft beer place so we walked in, only to discover it was more a trendy music venue for the be seen crowd. We were here now though and thought we might as well grab a beer, particularly as our entrance had been spotted. It was quite quiet in there really, with only a couple of tables being occupied, particularly one by a group of around eight friends. To our pleasant surprise, they did serve Dargett beer though, with Dargett being the only craft brewery in the country. They have a bar on Aram Street we intended to visit on the trip too, so sampling two bottles of their beer here was not a bad shout. This is what we did, noting just how good it was - indeed it was on a par with western craft beer, which is a huge compliment to a scene that is just starting out. The beer was very good but I did feel a little uncomfortable in Buro so we only made it one, leaving shortly after 9:30pm and arriving back at our hotel some fifteen minutes later for showers and bed, not before taking the one Armenian beer they had at their bar - a fizzy standard affair called Kilikia (naked after the Celicia region of modern day Turkey that used to be part of Armenia) - back to the room. After some chilling and watching Russian traffic accidents on the TV, we headed to bed shortly before midnight with an 8am start ahead of us.