I could see the whole city spread out in front of me. Beyond the buildings began the long and empty Armenian highlands. But dominating the view and towering above everything was the Ararat Mountain.

I do not only travel in my free time and vacations, but I also need to take regular trips for my job. My team works for the EMEA region, which stands for Europe Middle East and Africa. In the past 2 years and a half I’ve been to some destination that I honestly never thought I would go to anytime soon. One of those destinations was Yerevan in Armenia. To be completely honest, when my boss told me about the project, I quickly googled where exactly the country was. I also never heard (or remembered) about the capital: Yerevan. So I had no clue what to expect when I got the chance to wander around the city for 2 nights. In this post you will find out why I was very pleasantly surprised!

Yerevan Day 1: The Empty Restaurant

From one plane to the other

Daisy and I had just landed from 5 amazing days in Tenerife (more about that another time!). My  trip to Armenia would start about 7 hours later. My plan was to sleep but there too much stuff to take care of. I managed to pack and get ready to go by the time the taxi came. Once in the airport I made my way to the gate to catch the first of three planes. Madrid Yerevan is apparently not a very popular route. I was not very surprised…

Flight n° 1

Luckily we are allowed to fly business on long distance flights. The first flight with Air France was thus very comfortable and the food very good. I had the ideal seat (in front at the aisle, so I got out of the plane in Paris as one of the first passengers. The Charles De Gaulle Airport is gigantic and I had to transfer terminals. This meant I had to take a bus terminal 2C for 15 minutes. It was already past midnight so it was just me and the driver. I got to spent exactly 15 min in the lounge, just enough to stock up on water bottles and use the facilities. I hopped on to the next slightly longer flight to Moscow.

Flight n°2

This flight was operated by Aeroflot. The staff kept speaking Russian to me only to correct themselves after seeing my completely lost expression. The menu sounded quite fancy but the food was less so. I tried to get some sleep but miserably failed as usual on planes. So once we had landed in Moscow I immediately looked for a place to sleep. Going to the Radisson just outside the Airport appeared to be out of the question since a Visum was needed, which I obviously forgot to arrange. Luckily there is a capsule hotel in Terminal E. So I booked myself a room for 5 hours and managed to sleep 4 of those.

Flight n°3

I got out into the terminal again slightly dazed and  made my way to the gate to board the third and last flight. I only really woke up once we had taken off. The landscape was breathtaking once we started flying over the Caucasus Mountains. Afterwards we glided over the Armenian highland planes and landed finally in Yerevan. I changed into my suit in the bathroom since I had to be at the customer already at noon. I tried to find an official cab but all the cars with a taxi sign on it had no meter. So I took an official looking airport taxi that charged me a whopping 15000 Dram. To be fair I had no clue how much that was, and when I looked it up later it appeared to be around € 25.

First Impressions

Luckily I had downloaded the offline google map for Yerevan because I had to guide the driver to where I had to be. After a full afternoon a the customer, it was time to go to the hotel in the city center around 5 PM. While driving into the city the first thing that I noticed was that the gas and water pipelines seemed to be above ground, probably because of the temperature in the winter. The housing around the city seemed crammed and consisted of hundreds of similar apartment blocks. However people were out and about in the street and the place seemed very lively.

The Center

The Hyatt Place was really cozy and my room was huge. The staff was also very friendly, and pointed me to some places I could still visit at this hour. After changing from my suit into my normal clothes I went out into the city. The hotel was around the corner from the impressive Republic Square. The way it was lit up made it even more impressive. After taking it all in I walked through a busy shopping street towards the Opera, another huge and impressive building. It is hard not to notice that the city center was very modern and filled with a ton of art and statues. The contrast with the neighbourhoods I passed on the way in was huge.

The cascade

The lighting of the buildings at night made the center look very cozy and charming. I also noticed almost all shops, restaurants, bars and clubs were in the basements of the buildings. I ended up walking all the way to the cascade, a huge museum (unfortunately closed a this hour) built into the side of a hill. The outside was just as impressive and I went up the steps to get a view from above the city.

The Empty Restaurant

Traveling on a western budget in Yerevan gives you certain perks. So I looked up the number one restaurant on TripAdvisor and decided to check it out. I half expected to be refused because all would be full or reserved in the cities best dining spot. However to my big surprise there was no one. Literally no one. Just me. When I came in (it was in a basement) some young guys were sitting around one of the table listening to loud music.

I asked somewhat confused if the place was open. One of the guys at the table stood up and answered yes. He kicked out his friends and set a table for me. The guy was very friendly and I had a full Armenian meal: spas yoghurty soup with flat bread, a brandy and wine stewed pork chop and a typical pastry with some ice cream for dessert. After dinner I had a tea and a nice talk with the female half of the ownership. She explained the restaurant could get really full one day and be empty the other, with no way to predict which days would be busy. The whole meal had cost me no more than € 14, satisfied  I walked back to the hotel and fell asleep like a rock.

Yerevan Day 2: Mother Armenia

Finishing the work

I woke up to my alarm slightly more recovered from the long trip. Trying not to think about the fact I had to do it all over again that night. I had a very nice breakfast downstairs and left with a cab towards the customer outside of the center. I again ended up using my Google maps to guide the driver. The old driver did not speak any english however and had to show my phone with the location to other taxi drivers to figure it out. I got there in one piece however and right on time. We finished our work around 4 PM and I got the same cab driver as the day before to bring me back to the hotel.

Mataderan

At the reception I asked what else I could see. Unfortunately most things closed at 5 and apparently I had seen most of the highlights already. During my wandering the night before. Everything looked way different in daylight however, so I walked the same path but instead of going to the cascade again I took another street to end up at the Mataderan. This place apparently has a huge collection of old scriptures but was also closed already. I rather illegally walked past it up the hill, not really following a path or a road. I walked along a busy streets with no sidewalk but arrived at my destination: the very top of the cascade.

Ararat

The view from that hill was amazing. I could see the whole city spread out in front of me. Beyond the buildings began the long and empty Armenian highlands. But dominating the view and towering above everything was the Ararat Mountain. It’s actually a volcano called Agri Dagh in Turkish, and the mountain is on Turkish territory. I learned later that the mountain is considered by some to be the landing-place of Noah’s Ark after the biblical flood. The mountain also lends its name to Armenia’s most popular brandy.

Victory Park

From the viewpoint I turned around and crossed the street into Victory Park. In the park a mostly abandoned amusement park gives it a very creepy look. There’s just something about abandoned theme park rides that looks eerie. I walked past it to check out the huge victory statue, symbolizing Mother Armenia watching over the city. In front of it the flame of Communism burns eternal and around the statue all kind of tanks, missiles and other military apparatus is displayed. I mostly enjoyed the breathtaking views over the city and the surrounding area.

The long way back

I took a cab back to the hotel where I only had 20 min before my transport to the airport arrived. After a short ride I checked in and received my lounge voucher. That apparently allowed me to skip the queue for security. The customs guy stamping me out could name all the first class football teams of Belgium to his and my great amusement. I indulged myself in the duty-free shop by buying some Ararat, the famous Armenian brandy. Once on board I decided my weekend had started and went for the sparkling wine and a strong gin cocktail. The attendant made me smile after my third glass by casually mentioning the sparkling wine was finished but she still had champagne. If I am OK with that? Hell yes! It made the three flights (and stopover in Moscow) back to Madrid a lot more tolerable!