Day 52 (17 July)

You don't need to go through Armenia to get to Baku. (Indeed you can't.)

So this is a deviation. Just because it's there, and it's easy (there's a night train that comes from Batumi, calls at Tbilisi, and goes all the way to Yerevan).

We climbed aboard said train just before 10 pm on what was still Day 51, and we set off at 10.15. They bring round sheets, pillow-cases, and towels, and you make up your little berth (there are four in the compartment) as best you can.

Georgian passport control was no problem. They just do it all on the train.

The Armenian end was a bit more faffy.

As veteran Caucasus blogger Emily notes: "As of April 2018, people of 45 nationalities -- including Australian, US and British passport holders -- no longer require a visa to enter Armenia as a tourist for up to 180 days. If you hold one of the lucky passports on the list, that means no more visa fees, and no more disembarking the train for immigration procedures at the Armenian border."

As Kiwis, we too feature on that list.

The problem is that the train staff don't seem to be familiar with New Zealand passports... So, when we arrived at the Armenian border control post, we had to get off the train (with other nationalities not on the famous list), and queue up to get our passports stamped. Those with more easily recognizable passports just stay on the train -- in bed, in fact -- and the official comes round and stamps their documents right there. So it's kind of annoying... But hey...

Once all this is over, you do get back to sleep -- at least that bouncy, fidgety, rumble-filled version of sleep peculiar to night trains.

And as you near Yerevan, you get amazing views of snow-covered Mount Ararat (and of loads of storks who have built nests on various lofty bits of railway equipment).

Yerevan station is very grand.



Downstairs is a supplier of cheese pastries (she called them khachapuri, but they were certainly different from the Georgian variant) and the Metro. The system is very simple: you buy a token for AMD 100, and insert it into the barrier.

Yerevan's abundance of tree-lined streets, fountains, pink-hued buildings, and interesting sculptures makes it a wonderful city for walking. Which is a good thing, as we're not going to be able to afford to do much else... It's expensive here...

Having relaxed about the budget in Turkey and Georgia, where we ate out on a regular basis, we now have to exercise caution. Expect to see sandwiches popping back up in this narrative...

Anyway, today's food has left no scope for complaint. The matsun here is as good as its matsoni equivalent in Georgia. The fresh plums and apricots we bought were very flavoursome. And a meal consisting of lavash (huge thin pieces of flat bread baked in a traditional oven) and chechil (an Armenian braided, smoked cheese) would be hard to match anywhere. I liked the floweriness of the local beer, Kilikia, even though Nigel wasn't a fan.

And it's been a very scenic day:



















I must admit I hadn't realized Charles Aznavour's Armenian connection (he was born in Paris to Armenian refugees)... Nor that he was still touring when he died last year at the age of 94. Nor that he was a protege of Edith Piaf, which kind of brings us full-circle.


Day 53 (18 July)

The Mashtots (good location, small rooms) does a good brekkie. Fried potatoes, a salad of yogurt and cucumber, bread, cheese, butter, jam... It's not till 8.30, though. Caucasus-dwellers don't breakfast early, it seems.

Our first task this morning was to deal with the laundry. Damn laundry again...




We located a place that, judging by the website, did laundry by the kilo. But when we got there, it turned out there were individual prices for shirts and trousers, and the kilo measure applied only to sundries. So the bill was astronomic (but still cheaper than the hotel, and as we've failed to locate viable alternatives, we've had to cough up).

Truly, laundry is the scourge of the traveller...

A little lowered by this, we went to the English Park for a while, in the hopes that the shade, greenery, and peacefulness would help us to regroup. They did.


Over the course of the rest of the day, we took a look at the Cathedral of St Gregory the Illuminator; spent a while by the boating pond at Lunar Park; and checked out the Yervand Kochar Museum, dedicated to a richly innovative and versatile artist whose work can be found in a few places around Yerevan (he created the wild statue of Vardan Mamikonyan, at the top of this post).