Armenia, do not farewell, but goodbye!
Finally, spring has come. And, as the classic wrote, “. . . He was seized by anxiety and a desire to change places... ”. interesting, informative and safe, and what is important in our time of crisis, so that the weekend abroad does not deal a crushing blow to the personal budget. In the light of the above reasons, we faced the first difficulty: where to go for new impressions, if the old Europe has already been traveled up and down, examined, studied, and there is catastrophically no time for a flight to distant and exotic countries. Here, we had such a conversation with a friend on a March Saturday evening under the muttering of the TV, which in the end played a decisive role in choosing a venue for the weekend. I wanted new impressions more and more, the agony of choice tormented me inexorably, and we still could not decide. And then, we simultaneously turned our eyes to the blue screen. From him, Garik Martirosyan smiled charmingly at us. The sound of the TV was immediately turned up and, having laughed at the witty and invariably intelligent jokes, we remembered that there was a small country of Armenia on the map, which we had never been to, despite our common Soviet past.
- What do you think, how much to fly to Yerevan? She asked me, as my friend, who had a constant five in geography at school, who can easily perform complex mathematical operations in her mind, but who invariably falls into a stupor when trying to name the capital of a state and confusing Austria and Australia.
Having visited the Aeroflot website, we found out that the flight time from Moscow to Yerevan is about 3 hours and our national carrier operates three flights a day. Amazing! We fly away on Friday late at night, without losing a working day, and return on Monday morning, getting from the ship to the ball, that is, to the offices. The ticket price is also quite reasonable. We take!
- Again we will move in small dashes, dodging annoying male attention, as in Istanbul! My friend, who has the looks of a fashion model, muttered.
But, the tickets were booked, we no longer had a way back and we had to think about a roof over our heads. But, in addition to bread, that is, a hotel and breakfast, we also wanted spectacles, that is, the most saturated cultural and educational program. And since we had very limited time in Armenia, judging that rest is a serious matter, we decided to trust the professionals.
Again, using the Internet, we easily found the Yerevan Travel company, and we decided to entrust our vacation to them and never regretted it!
The process of booking and purchasing a ticket in Moscow did not take much time, I think it makes no sense to describe it. I will only note that the visit to the Moscow office of Yerevan Travel confirmed the correctness of our choice: everything is very clear, fast, professional: they advised a suitable hotel, made an excursion program for us.
And so, we arrived at the Zvartnots airport. Which pleasantly surprised us with its novelty, manufacturability and convenience. We quickly passed passport control and at the exit representatives of Yerevan Travel were already waiting for us. The journey from the airport to the Erebuni hotel through the sleeping Yerevan at night by minibus took about 15 minutes. We discussed with our guides the details of tomorrow, and went to bed.
A few words about the hotel: The second time we were pleasantly surprised: for a very modest price, the hotel turned out to be wonderful. New, literally creaking from cleanliness. With free internet, good breakfast and great location.
After breakfast, we went to Vernissage, which we decided to visit back in Moscow.
This is a market for handicrafts. The atmosphere there is amazing! The craftsmen themselves sell their products and are happy to tell interesting facts about the history and art of Armenia. No one forces you to buy, does not drag you to yourself. Very cultured and intelligent environment! Products presented at the Vernissage are made with soul, great love and are mostly unique and unrepeatable. Well, the prices. . . To put it mildly, they are VERY affordable! By the way, Russian rubles are a convertible currency there and they are taken with pleasure! Well, everyone, without exception, speaks Russian! So, I didn’t want to leave at all: I wanted to watch and communicate! But, we were waiting for a rich excursion program!
We were waiting for Etchmiadzin - the Vatican of Armenia, the fortress of Erebuni and a sightseeing tour of the city. Describing the beauty and grandeur of what you see is in vain! You must see it, breathe this air and hear our amazing tour guide Gaspar Levonovich! A person of encyclopedic knowledge has a rare gift to convey a lot of information in an interesting and accessible way! And our driver David made the trip very comfortable and enjoyable. We interrupted for a delicious lunch at the Kavkaz restaurant with traditional cuisine and again plunged into the most interesting story of our guide.
We were once again pleasantly surprised by the cleanliness of the city of Yerevan.
Clean streets, clean squares. It is pleasant, comfortable and safe to be in the city!
Everywhere in the city there are fountains with delicious drinking water that you can drink without fear for health.
We returned to the hotel late in the evening, tired and overwhelmed with impressions, so that tomorrow we could again go to meet the beautiful!
On the second day, Garni, Geghard and Lake Sevan were waiting for us. I will not describe what I saw again: even in the photographs I could not convey the unique beauty and grandeur of what I saw, and in order to briefly retell, even part of what our wonderful guide told us, it will take more than one page! Come to see and hear it all! You will not regret! And I won’t even try to describe the taste of the Sevan trout, which we were fed in a nice restaurant overlooking the lake: you have to feel and taste it!
And at the end of the day, another pleasant surprise awaited us - an exclusive from "Yerevan-Travel": the Yerevan labyrinth! This is an underground passage, as high as an eight-story building, which an ordinary person independently dug with improvised means!
But, unfortunately, all good things come to an end sooner or later. And our stay on Armenian soil was coming to an end. We only had time to collect things, which, for some reason, became much more than when we arrived, and to sleep a little before flying to Moscow.
Once again we are at the airport clean and comfortable surrounded by friendly staff. Check-in for the flight, farewell to David and souvenirs from Yerevan Travel.
We left Yerevan at night (or early in the morning) with a feeling of slight sadness. In a short time we managed to fall in love with this city and this country. So, Armenia, do not say goodbye, but goodbye!