First impressions of Yerevan

We arrived in Yerevan, the capital city of Armenia, early in the morning after a tiring overnight train journey from Tbilisi, Georgia. Our first impressions of the city were that it was very hot, very Soviet and just as confusing to arrive in as its Georgian counterpart. Using our (extremely) rudimentary Russian we asked an old guy in the train station where the metro was and went to try to catch a train to the centre. It was very confusing in the metro station as nearly all the signs were in Armenian script which neither of us understand. Luckily, there were a few signs in Russian too which I can read so we caught a train going in the right direction. There wasn't a word of English anywhere so if you didn't know at least a little Russian you'd be in trouble. I knew my degree in Russian history and culture would be useful one day!

The platform at Yerevan statıon early in the morning.

It was still pretty early when we got off at the central station and everywhere was quiet and deserted. Wethought we mıght have wandered into a war between the Nazis and the Anarchists as there was graffiti from each group sprayed on the walls outside the station which wasn't very welcoming. The effect was enhanced  by the stone used for most of the city's buildings as it was strangely marked in a way that made it look like they were riddled with bullet holes. We felt rather intimidated as we wandered down the empty streets in the ever increasing heat.

We walked to the Envoy Hostel, a place we'd read good things about online. We didn't have anywhere booked to stay in Yerevan. They were having a power cut when we arrived, a problem that we'd also found was common in Georgia. In the end we decided not to stay there despite the friendly English speaking staff and good facilities as it was too expensive for us - more than $18 a might for a bed in a dorm room. We walked back across the the city centre to a place called the Theatre Hostel which had an agreement withe Bonney Hostel where we'd stayed in Tbilisi to get a 10% discount. Thankfully, Yerevan's centre is pretty small so hiking across it with all our bags wasn't too bad.

We decided to stay at the Theatre Hostel as it was clean and really cheap - only $8 or $10 a might for a dorm bed. It was a really small place and a bit cramped but very, very clean. The staff were nice but seemed a bit on edge and could not stop cleaning all the time. Did I mention it was clean there yet? It was probably the cleanest place I've ever been but not very social. The hostel had a lot of strict rules including no 'hard' alcohol, no noise after 10pm, front doors locked at 2am and the best one was everyone had to be out of the building between 1pm and 3pm so the staff could yet more cleaning without the inconvenience of guests cluttering up the place! Still given the cheap price and the free weird bread stuff for breakfast in the morning it wasn't bad.

After grabbing a quick shower we headed our to explore Yerevan armed with our downloaded Armenia Lonely Planet guidebook on the iPod and some maps. We started off by lookıng around a nearby rather ugly looking new church that was ernormous.

The gıant and monstrous looking new church ın Yerevan.

Then, we visited the National Museum in the centre of town whıch was housed in a stately looking building off the main square. It was a confusingly laid out place. The Art History museum was in the same building but on a different floor so the museum attendant women kept demanding to see our tickets all the time and they followed us around the displays like store detectives hounding a pair of potential shoplifters. This was the same as when we visited a museum in Georgia and I had experienced the same close supervision in museums in Russia. I don't why these museum attendants (who are invariably older stern looking women) feel the need to shadow visitors in this way but it's very disconcerting. I guess it's just a hangover from Soviet days and a symptom of overstaffing. Sack 'em all!

The museum did have some interesting displays on Armenia's history from the stone age onwards including the world's oldest shoe which was found in 2008 in a cave around the back of a restaurant under some cow dung.

We were both starting to feel really tired as we hadn't slept much on the train ride from Georgia but we couldn't go back to the hostel to rest as it wasn't 3pm yet! We still made it round the museum in record time (for me) as we were so exhausted then took a slow wander back to the hostel via Hyur Tours where we bought tickets for an 11 hour tour of south Armenia fir the next day. As we wandered, we noticed that Yerevan was a much more Soviet style city than Tbilisi, all straight lines, brutal architecture, monolithic, wide avenues and lots of concrete. It is also much newer than Tbilisi as it was only really built in the 1920's. All the main avenues have been built with a view leading to Mount Ararat, an important symbol for Armenia which is now lost to them as it lies over the border in Turkey. 

We found people in Yerevan to be a bit more closed and less friendly than their Tbilisi counterparts and we were ripped off for small amounts of money several times which was annoying and totally different to the honesty we'd become used to in Georgia. Still we later found that Armenian people in the countryside were very friendly so maybe Yerevan just suffers from 'big city' syndrome despite its relatively small population of 1.1 million. Interestingly, a Russian guy who Rowan spoke to at our hostel commented that "Georgians are friends but Armenians are business people."

We made it back to the hostel at 3.01pm so were allowed back in! We had a nice afternoon nap in our creaky insubstantial looking bunk beds then went out for some dinner at a local kebab restaurant after walking around the central Opera House area. 

The grand but stıll slıghtly ugly concrete Opera House ın central Yerevan.

 

People speeding around Opera Square on their Segways. It was a popular ara to relax, stop ın a street cafe or tear around on your rollerskates. 

Some of our delicıous food from the kebab restaurant.

It was a good meal and quite cheap. We had pork barbecue and mushroom barbecue which were both smothered in butter and loads of salt and were delicious as well as tabbouleh, olives and lots of bread. Tired after scoffing all that tasty food we set off back to the hostel for a creaky night's sleep!