After five days at the beautiful campsite of Sandra and Marty (3Gs – check it out) we got waaaaay to comfortable with the swimming pool, two kitchens and a washing machine. Not to mention the showers, toilets and incredible wifi. You can imagine, it was time to go.
Churches!
With over 4.000 churches we’re sure Armenia must be in the top country of churches. Especially per squared kilometre. We are doing our best to visit some of the most famous, least known and the ones with the prettiest views. The later was on the program for today.
After 1.5 hours we arrived at a small monastery ‘Chor Virap’ with Mount Ararat as a backdrop. Can it get better than that? Maybe, maybe not.
The church itself wasn’t that spectacular, however we did manage to crawl down some stairs into the deep where we arrived at the church dungeon. Here they had built another chapel. God knows why. But it was fun to climb under a church for a change.
Red red wine
As the church and wine are inseparable we decided to continue our trip today to the wine region of Armenia, Areni. Not as big as that of Georgia but maybe nicer?
On the way there we drove alongside the Armenian / Turkish border where we saw many many watchtowers. A bit further we drove alongside the Armenian / Azerbaijani border. Yeah, Azerbaijan has some enclave in the South West of Armenia, bordering Turkey. That’s why Azerbaijan is so keen on creating this corridor through Armenia. The whole road was protected by a big pile of stones and sand. Every 50 metres (I think, I’m not good at measuring this) was a dug out place where a soldier could fit. He would be surrounded by tires as protection. Than these dug out places changed into tiny, two men bunkers. On the other side we saw the same on the Azerbaijan side. Looks a little hostile of course. But even more so when we saw the dug out trench for soldiers to walk across. And then of course we passed the Russian peace keepers chilling in their tent, visible because of the flag fluttering through the air.
We drove a little further and actually had to cross an enclave of Azerbaijan. So small only one village fits in it and it didn’t seem like another country to us. The highway just went through, there were no flags and the landscape was the same. The only difference was the road. It’s like driving from The Netherlands into Belgium. The nice beautiful tarmac roads make place for old roads with some cracks. But other than that you wouldn’t notice you would drive through an enclave.
A little bit further we drove into a gorge which is best known as the wine region Areni. We looked for a nice wine cave restaurant (got good reviews on Google) but when arriving it felt like an intrusion. “Are you open?” “We certainly are!” So we parked the car, got inside and ordered a wine tasting. After five minutes she opened a bottle of wine, gave us some glasses and walked away. Her daughter came back with some bread and cheese, smiled friendly and told us to ring a bell when we need her. The door closed and we were alone in the wine cellar with a bottle of wine without name.
Well we know very well what to do with that bottle, that bread and that cheese. The wine was delicious. The cheese not so much but that’s kind of what we are used to now. For good cheese one has to stay in Western Europe. Nothing beats the French, Swiss and Dutch cheese.
Half way through the bottle we decided it was time for the main course: Harissa. That’s something I, Milene, make a lot at home. Moroccan Harissa is my favourite! So I was pretty curious what the Armenians make of that. Well, it’s nothing alike. It’s totally different, even the colour doesn’t look the same. It was nice though.
Sleeping under a thousand stars at the church
We continued our adventure to Noravank monastery, which is about 15 minutes from Areni. To get to the church you’ll drive through a magnificent gorge with mountains (and caves) all around. And then after some curves through the gorge you’ll hit a straight road and head towards red rocky mountains. Amazing!!! After seeing mainly dry desert like land today, this was a very welcome change of landscape.
In Armenian Noravank means ‘new monastery’. A name that doesn’t really fit a monastery that’s seven centuries old. So it was built in the 13th century, above the Amaghu River, near the city of Yeghegnadzor. In 2002 it became a UNESCO heritage sight.
Funny story about the church. Apparently the Armenian alphabet was designed so that a single swastika was a monogram of the alphabet: every letter could be found in its shape. This saved space, so that more could be written. During the unstable times, when invasions and destruction were common, Armenian history was written carved into the church walls, and words were written as monograms, with all the letters stacked on top of each other, in order to save space.
The church sits at the end of the gorge, on the most beautiful place of course! We arrived quite late so it was very quiet in and around the church, which we love. And as the sun dropped in the ocean somewhere in the world, the wind took over and one by one stars appears. We could see thousands if not millions of stars in the dark sky. No light pollution so it was all very visible. The Milky Way showed its grandeur and was almost as white as a single cloud on a clear day. Not long after the darkness set in, the few cars that had been here left and we were all alone.
Quietly we watched more stars stealing the show and the contours of the mountains only slightly visible against the sky that darkened even more. We saw stars falling and satellites moving. It made us dream of far away places that now seem unreachable. But, when this church was built the priests would certainly not imagine that we would be travelling to the universe one day. Let alone step on the moon! So, even though we seem so tiny under that big black sky we can do things unimaginable. Things that some people think impossible. Like reaching Armenia with a 45 year old Volkswagen van.
And that, our dear reader, gives us reassurance and trust in the future of this journey. It might not continue exactly as we planned but every day on the road is a unknown advanture and we take them as they come.
Love, Milene & Yuri