Yerevan and beyond: travels through Armenia

 After walking across about 1/4 mile of "no man's land" over the Debed River while dragging our luggage, followed by scrutiny of every page of our passport to make sure we hadn't visited Azerbaijan, we officially entered Armenia.  Once we entered the country we had a 3-4 hour ride through winding mountain passes to make it to the capital of Yerevan.  Along the way we stopped at a rest stop for our first taste of Armenian food and we were hooked!   

Armenia Clue #1:  Coyle is very excited that tomorrow he is going to be learning about one of the required school subjects in this country!  

That subject?   Chess!   Armenia is a country with one of the highest numbers of chess grandmasters per capita in the world.  Chess is a required school subject for kids in Armenia and Coyle was very jealous.  We had the chance to visit a Russian bar that Armenians gather at to play chess.  Coyle was able to hold his own with some of the Armenians which he was very excited about.  

Later that day we experience another famous part of Armenia but this one was much more distressing.  We had the chance to tour the museum of the Armenian genocide.  The Armenian genocide, perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks, lead to the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians from 1915-1924. Because of the timing of the genocide in relation to World War I, many countries (including the US for many years) have refused to recognize it as a genocide and instead claim that they were war time casualties rather than a systemic state policy of extermination.  I was so proud of Coyle and the thoughtful and respectful way that he approached this museum.  

We also had the chance to explore downtown Yerevan including the Mother Armenia statue that was built in 1957 to replace a statue of Joseph Stalin and was designed to commemorate the women who took up arms along with their husbands to defend Armenia.  The statue was surrounded by decommissioned military hardware that Coyle really enjoyed.  

Finally today we got the chance to ride the Armenian subway (no pictures allowed) and visit the Cascade Complex.  Coyle was very amused by the story that Yerevan did not meet the 1 million people threshold for the Soviets to build a metro.  So the Armenians called all of the people from the surrounding areas to Yerevan to create an artificial traffic jam to trick the Soviets into building it!  The Cascade Complex is a massive staircase in the center of Yerevan filled with and surrounded by artwork.  It has amazing views over the city and Coyle found his favorite statue here!  

Clue for the day:  We tried to look for the docking spot of a famous boat but the weather didn't cooperate.  

One of the most famous symbols of Armenia is Mount Ararat despite the fact that today is sits in Turkey.  Mount Ararat is thought to be the final resting spot for Noah's Ark as described in the Book of Genesis.  You can see Mount Ararat from Yerevan in good weather but it was too hazy every day we were there and we never got a good view.  

Our last full day in Armenia was our favorite.  We started with a visit to the Temple of Garni. The Temple was built around the year 77 as a sanctuary to the Armenian Sun god.  When Armenia became the first country to adopt Christianity as a state religion in 301 CE, they destroyed most of the pagan temples.  Garni was spared because it became the summer palace for Armenian kings. Unfortunately, the temple was destroyed by an earthquake in 1689 and remained in ruins until it was rebuilt with the original stones in the 1960s.  It's a beatiful temple overlooking some amazing views and the famous "symphony of stones". 

Then it was on to our favorite experience of the trip...our Armenian cooking class.  We traveled to a family home with a large orchard and an outdoor oven where we learned to make lavash. The making of lavash is recognized by UNESCO as an "intangible cultural heritage" and is amazing to watch.  Lavash is made of flour, water and salt and is cooked in a large underground oven called a tonir.  The dough is rolled out very thin and then placed on a large pillow.  The women pick up the dough colored pillow and slap the dough onto the wall deep inside the oven.  The lavash cooks for 30-60 seconds before she takes it off with an iron hook.  The lavash is ripped into invidual servings where they wrap it around salty cheese and greens.  It's absolutely delicious and Coyle got right in there rolling out the dough (and sampling the results!). 

Finally we visited the GUM market, a huge traditional market filled with dried fruits, spices and other Armenian delicacies.  Everyone is giving out free samples as you walk through and we got some amazing dried apricots - the national fruit of Armenia. The site and smells of this market were amazing and a great way to wrap up our tour of Yerevan.  

 

Clue of the day:  We met lots of people here and not all of them had names that start with "K".  

I figured anyone up on pop culture would get this clue.  Probably the most famous Armenian-Americans are the Kardashians.  They are active in the Armenian community in the US and have visited Armenia several times.  Many people we met in Armenia were grateful for Kim Kardashian's advocacy in getting the genocide recognized on the world stage.  

We absolutely loved Armenia and would like to go back again and travel through more of the country.  Preferably when it's not so hot!  

 

Travels through Georgia...Nope not that Georgia

After 5 flights, border crossings by air, by car and on foot, two continents and countless ice cream stops, our great adventure has come to an end.  We've had some time to relax and recover from our jet lag and are ready to share more about our adventures.    

When we left JFK we flew almost 9 hours to Belgrade Serbia.  After a 3 hour layover we hopped onto one more flight to our first mystery country. Three hours later we landed in the beautiful Tbilisi, Georgia!   

The country of Georgia is a former Soviet Republic in the Caucuses mountains known for being the birthplace of Joseph Stalin. It borders Russia, Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan and has its own unique language and alphabet.  

Clue #1:  It was not a repeat continent for either of us but which one(s) were we repeating depended on who you asked. 

Well, Georgia is technically in Asia based on geography but it definitely has a European feel. There has been a big push by the Georgian people to join the European Union although the government has been pushing back on doing so.  Our guide said that Georgia "has its house in Asia but its front porch in Europe" 

Clue #2: on the way to the hotel we passed a street named after a US president in order to honor him for the special connection he made with the country.  

In downtown Tbilisi there is a George W. Bush street named after him after his historic visit to Georgia in 2005 when someone tried to assassinate him and the president of Georgia   

On our first full day exploring Tbilisi we took a walking tour of the capital   We visited an old Georgian church (women cover their heads in churches in Georgia) and then took a cable car to the top of a mountain to see the statue of "Mother Georgia"  She is holding a wine bowl in one hand and a sword in the other.  This symbolizes Georgia's history of hospitality if you're friendly and a fierce fighting spirit if you're not.  

Later that day we headed to the Underground Printing Press Museum where a young Stalin used to secretly print anti-tsarist propaganda.  The most interesting part of this tour was that the guide, who didn't speak English, was very clearly pro-Soviet and our guide, who was translating for him kept getting mad and telling us she wasn't translating everything he said because she didn't agree with him   

Clue # 3: We learned about boiled birds today which made me think twice about my chicken soup for dinner.

The legend of the founding of Tbilisi is that a king was hunting in the forest along the Kura river with his falcon in the 5th century.   His falcon caught a pheasant but both birds disappeared.  He found them boiled in a natural sulphur spring and ordered a city to be built near the springs.  The name Tbilisi comes from the Georgian word for "warm" 

We spent the next day doing a deep dive into the Soviet history of Georgia by heading to Gori - the birthplace of Stalin.  We visited the Stalin museum and got to see his famous train car.  Because Stalin did not like to fly he traveled through Europe in his 83 ton armor plated train car to summits like Yalta and the Potsdam Conference. We also got to see one of the original death masks created of Stalin after he died.  

After leaving Gori we visited an old mining town and got to take a cable car up to the top of the mountain to take in the beautiful view.  

Finally, We headed down to the city of Kutaisi which is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.  This was a beautiful city with a fountain in the center and was a great place to walk around and people watch in the evening.  Coyle's favorite thing in Kutaisi?  The bubble waffle sundae from Wendy's!   

Clue # 4: Jason may have had some trouble in this city but we're enjoying it.  

Kutaisi was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Colchis in the 6th and 5th centuries BCE.  In the story of Jason and the Argonauts, Kutaisi was where he went to try and find the Golden Fleece and he had to fight dragons and fire breathing bulls to find it.  The fountain in the middle of town is filled with replicas of the artifacts they have found from this period.  

Our next stop in Georgia was definitely my favorite because it was absolutely fascinating to see.  We visited Tsalktubo, a famous spa resort town that over 100,000 Soviets, including Joseph Stalin who had an apartment nearby, would visit every year for mineral water therapy.  When the Soviet Union collapsed, these ornate sanatariums were basically abandoned.  In 1992 some of them became home to Abkhazian refugees after a conflict on the Russian-Georgian border but most have just slowly started to be reclaimed by nature.  They have a ghost town feel to them with these ornate marble walls and huge chandeliers with the parquet floors all torn up to be burned as firewood by freezing refugees.  It was such a cool and eerie place to wander through. 

 We went back even further in history for a visit to Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, an Orthodox Christian Cathedral built in the early 11th century.  

The food in Georgia was delicious.  I fell in love with Khinkali, a type of dumpling that is one of the national dishes of Georgia.  You hold the dumpling by the knot and take a bite.  They are often filled with meat and a broth that you have to quickly drink. You eat the dumpling and the meat and leave the knot behind.  They also had amazing potato khinkali.  I also enjoyed Shkmeruli which is a garlic chicken dish.  Coyle did try some Georgian food but with his peanut allergy we had to rely a lot on fast food where we could be fully certain of the ingredients.  (I do carry a card explaining his allergies in the languages of the countries we are in so we can do some experimenting!). He also relied a lot on ice cream.  Not that he was complaining!  

Before we knew it, it was time to pack up and head for the border to say goodbye to Georgia.  We drove a few hours to the Sadhalko border checkpoint where it was time to say goodbye to our guide and walk across the bridge to Armenia.  We loved our time in Georgia and would love to go back and explore more!