Took our usual walking tour of a new city – this time with Aida who was great.
It’s a good time to share lots of little snippets which help give us a flavour of this region.
- Aida been to 13 funerals and she’s 24. This is all about the war with Azerbaijan regarding the Nagorno Karabakh region only a couple of years ago.
- Road signs in Armenia are in English and Armenian, but not Georgian. That really irritates Georgian drivers.
- Eileen had no cash to buy a sandwich and a random guy offered to pay. This is not unusual apparently.
- Open border between Armenia and Iran.
- Armenia is only small, and likes to think of itself as a scheming cheeky underdog. Application of permission and cash to build the Cascade in the Soviet era. Refused. Then asked for monument to celebrate Armenia joining Soviet Union – granted. Then said people were keen to visit monument but hill too steep. Cash granted for Cascade. Soviet monument never erected.
- Georgia spent over $1billion on marketing tourism. Then Armenia found a lot of people discovered Armenia on the back of that and they didn’t have to spend anything.
- Lots of (rich) Russians here – escaping their war.
- Famous Armenians – Khardashians and Charles Aznavour.
- Food has been excellent, and even with a bottle of (also excellent) red Georgian or Armenian red wine rarely exceeds £50 for two.
- If you see someone with a water bottle in Yerevan they are a tourist. There are thousands of drinking fountains in the city which everyone uses.
- Asked a guy who had visited Iran a few years ago, and he described it as “terrorism by friendship”. Hardly ever had to pay for accommodations or food as they were so pleased to see him.
And after that, a few random photos from Yerevan.
The horses (there are two of them) are made out of horseshoes by a British artist and were at the Equestrian Centre in the 2012 Olympics.