“If there was wisdom in beards, all goats would be prophets.” – an Armenian proverb. And even though we have visited about 20 churches already, Yuri is still no prophet. Neither am I. But yeah, 14 days in Armenia and already 20 churches! Oh my. We don’t visited churches because of religion, never lit a candle, nor do we ever make the sign of a cross. Or walk out backwards. We are not religious and do not believe in the constitution of the church. So why do we visit religious buildings? Cause it is telling a story, it shows part of the past. That, we truly love. Imagining how monks have lived hundreds and sometimes thousands of years ago.
YereVAN fixing
In Yerevan we didn’t visit a church though. We visited the genocide museum, watched a private screening of the movie ’45 days – the fight for a nation’ and tried as many restaurants as possible. We walked the streets up and down, eating here and there, drinking lots of milkshakes and hiked the 550 steps of stairs to have a look over the city. Unfortunately Mount Ararat didn’t show itself too clear. It didn’t matter, the delicious food was all we needed. And oh my is that a blessing!
We ate and drank our way through the city. The most surprising was the Pizza with apple, cinnamon and raisins. Soooo delicious!!
We stayed a bit longer in Yerevan, first because we needed to fix the van. Again. In Georgia we had problems with our battery, we apparently cooked the battery over and over again. When the third battery cooked in Armenia we understood it was time to fix things. You know when you cook a battery when you smell something like overdue eggs and when you put your ear next to the battery you can actually hear it cooking.
So, we went to the garage of a friend of a friend; Agop. Little did we know that the three guys working there were all named Agop. So Agop 1, 2 and 3 worked on our van. They are Armenians born in Syria and that meant; they know what they are doing. In Syria there are (or were) many Volkswagen vans on the road, just like in Iran. After checking the battery and explaining our problem we found out that again it was the alternator causing the problem. We took it out and found out the alternator itself had been cooked. Luckily, someone knew someone who found an alternator. Not a Bosch alternator, unfortunately, but not a Chinese one either. This one is from the USA, alright, we take it.
Alternator changed, but now Alexine had some starting issues. Thus we took the carburettor out and opened it. Lot of dirt in it and the gasket was thorn to pieces. So, Agop 1 cut new gasket, Agop 3 cleaned the carburettor and Agop 2 installed it.
Starting the van after such a big operation always feels scary but this time, BAM! She was onnnn… And on fire. She hasn’t sound so good since ages! Hopefully this time she’ll be running a little bit longer than last time.
We happily, and a little more broke left the scene, on to another appointment.
Getting vaccinated in Armenia
We read that many Iranians flocked to Yerevan to get themselves vaccinated because in Iran it’s going too slow. Politics and corruption are getting in the way there. So, we figured, if Iranians can get a vaccination here we might as well try. Thus, we went to the mobile vaccination unit on Northern Avenue. “Sorry, the line is so long we are not sure if we can vaccinate you today” she said. But, after a kind conversation she put us on the list anyway. In the meantime we got ourselves another milkshake, oh my these things are good, walked around for a bit and returned. Still 20 people in front of us, so we walked again a bit. The same streets, same buildings, same people. We did find out that most of Yerevan is newly built, almost nothing is left of the old city, which is a pity.
And did you know that the architect of the city had a vision about all buildings being smaller than the Opera house? That would’ve been great and for a long time it was like that. Until a new government came, destroyed the old beautiful buildings and replaced them with buildings without a soul. Luckily the people of Yerevan bring that soul because my oh my is this a great city! We absolutely love the parks with their many restaurants and pubs.
At 20.00 the mobile vaccination clinic would close and it was 19:45 when it was our turn. Pfew. We got the Astra Zeneca vaccination. Within 10 minutes we were both vaccinated. Hurray! Thus, we went to celebrate it with a beer. Little did we know that people shouldn’t drink for two days after the vaccination. We only drank one beer so felt it should be okay. In Armenia they also say you shouldn’t shower for two days after the vaccination. Don’t know what the reason behind that is but to us it seems a bit too much on the safe side.
The next day we woke up with a horrible hangover. Our bodies were turning hot, then cold. Couldn’t hold my head straight. So we booked another night at the hotel and did absolutely nothing that day. Just sleeping, watching movies and sleeping.
We woke up and all was over, we were fine, felt absolutely normal and were ready to hit the road again. Which we did.
Love, Milene & Yuri