And on to Armenia :-)

And so it was time to leave Georgia and head to Armenia, country number three. We left Tbilisi late as it was not too far to the border. Unfortunately though it was a public holiday and there was only one person stamping everyone out of Georgia and one stamping into Armenia so it took ages. It was a long process for Pernille, who is Danish as they didn't know where Denmark was!

Once through we drove for a couple of hours and found a bushcamp. We had tried to get close to Yerevan so that we could get there early in the morning. There were 7 people in the group who did not yet have their visas for Kazakhstan and would be applying in Yerevan and so an embassy visit was on the cards for them. It wasn't the best bush camp - it was a bit wet and as we had got there a bit later due to the longer border crossing, it was almost 10pm when we ate dinner - some grumpy, hungry campers were in the group that night!

Next day we were up and away early to try and get to Yerevan for 9am. We got to the hostel and stored our bags as it was too early to check in and the Kazakh 7 (our new name for them) had to head off to the embassy. The rest of us had a bit of a wander around Yerevan and found a cafe/coffee shop for early brunch. Yerevan is a nice city, very European - lots of nice cafes and shops - there is even a Next!

Yerevan pics......

 

 

Once back at the hostel we got checked in and were more than happy with our accommodation - it was clean, recently redecorated and had great showers and wifi. Our grumpy group was grumpy no more! Unfortunately the Kazakh 7 had lucked out at the embassy as the guy who worked there and did the visas hadn't bothered to turn up for work so they made plans to go back the next day. I spent the rest of the afternoon pottering about, going for a walk in the park etc and at night we headed for our Armenian feast.....

The food was in abundance - in fact even though we ended up taking some doggie bags there was still too much. Afterwards the majority of us headed to the Wild West bar for a wee drink....

The next day unfortunately the weather was not great but i headed off for a walking tour run by the hostel which was good, the girl was lovely and really informative. In the afternoon I headed to the Armenian genocide museum. For those of you who do not know anything about this - have a look online and read up a bit about it. Although it was 100 years ago it is still topical and a reason why some nations are opposing Turkish entry to the EU do to their refusal to recognise it as genocide.

Taht evening a few of us went for a wander and had dinner and dessert in the park. Yerevan was definitely proving a success for the group. The Kazakh 7 had managed to apply for their visas but had to come back to Yerevan on Thursday to pay for them and then collect on Friday. That meant coming with us when we left Yerevan on the Wednesday morning, we would then drop them and our guide off, they would stay the night in the hostel and catch up with us again on the Friday night before we crossed the border into Azerbaijan on Saturday. A major faff and pain in the ass for them, not to mention an additional cost but it was necessary to get the visas.

Anyway, on the Wednesday afternoon we left Yerevan and headed out towards Mount Ararat. The mountain is a major part of Armenian history but unfortunately now lies within Turkey after their war with them. We got pretty much as close as we could and at one point were within a few yards of Turkey again! For those of you who are wondering where they have heard of Ararat - probably the bible as it is allegedly where Noah's Ark ended up!

We bushcamped within sight of the border and mountain before heading off the next day to visit Geghard monastery, where apparently there was a spring for eternal youth!

We then dropped off the Kazakh 7 in Yerevan and the rest of us headed to Lake Sevan. we found a great camping spot in what we think was previously a former Soviet picnic spot and got started on dinner. We were going great style when the heavens opened and we had torrential rain and thunderstorms - not nice for camping in! It got so wet that we had to eat dinner in the truck. Spirits were high tho and a truck party and amusing game of Cranium followed! We headed off to bed still in high spirits - unfortunately for me though that didn't last. It was chucking it down and I felt ill and had to get up a few times in the night to be sick. Not pleasant at any time never mind when it is chucking it down and you are camping! The next morning we were a sodden crew as we packed up camp - a night in Yerevan with the Kazakh 7 was thought of with envy! After packing up the wet camp we set off on the truck and we were crossing the border back into Georgia for the night. This was a necessary step as we needed to cross the border into Azerbaijan from Georgia. There is a border between Armenia and Azerbaijan but the two countries are hostile to each other and the border is closed. This time the border crossing was much smoother and quicker and within half an hour we were on our way. We drove as close as we could to the Azerbaijan border and set up camp, ready and waiting for the Kazakh 7 to arrive! They had quite a drama getting visas and didn't catch up with us until 4 am after a long and arduous trip. The worst part though was that only 6 of them got visas - they didn't process her application and she is now going to have to apply in Uzbekistan :-(

That's all from Armenia - posts for Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to follow!

 

 

 

And the capital of Georgia is.....

Tbilisi!  It was our next destination and everyone was excited about some city life, cafes and restaurants and 2 nights in a hotel.  It was only a few hours drive and we got there around lunch time.  The main priority at that point for me and many others after 5 nights bushcamping was laundry.  The hotel was really expensive so we decided to try and find a laundrette.  A real team effort was employed, with me finding one in the Georgian Yell.com site, googling the address, Hayden getting our guide to phone them and then all of us for finding it!  It's definitely one thing that is a pain when on the road and your definition of whether something is clean definitely changes - wearing something once and washing it is a luxury that we can't give ourselves!

With reassurances that our laundry would be ready the next day we all headed off for a bit of a wander around and then sat and had a drink in a nice bar.  It has to be said though - whilst it was obvious from our surroundings that we were back in the city, we would have known from the attitude of the people.  Whilst in the countryside everyone was really friendly - not so much in the city, with everyone from the hotel staff to shop workers being quite abrupt and/or rude!  Oh well.

Louise and Becs had decided to try and organise a group meal for the evening so we headed back to get ready for that.  They had booked an Indian restaurant which we were all looking forward to.  We headed off in anticipation and walked through some questionable areas before we reached the restaurant, which seemed nice enough.  However the evening was not a success, with meals taking up to 2 hours to arrive, food arriving cold and some disputes over bills.  It was not the best start to a night that was supposed to end up with us going for a night on the town - unfortunately most of us had had enough and ended up back at the hotel for just after 10pm.  It was a shame, not the girls' fault though - the restaurant was just not equipped to deal with a group our size all ordering different things.  The day in Tbilisi though had not been a resounding success, with the best part being finding the laundry!

The next morning Za Za, our guide, did a walking tour of the city.  Unfortunately my feet were covered in blisters from all the walking the day before so I decided to give it a miss.  Instead I just pottered around the hotel then caught the metro into Liberty Sq.  Whilst wandering around I came across half a dozen of the group and joined them for lunch.  Jo and I then went to find the funicular railway and took a trip up to the top of the hill for a view of the city......

At the top of the hill there was some cafes but mostly a kind of kids area with rides etc, not for me but just nice to get the good view.  We then headed back to get our clean laundry and at night I had a night at the ballet to look forward to!  I'd read in the Lonely Planet that Tbiisi was a good place for either opera or ballet.  There was no opera on so a night at the ballet it was.  Anna and Simon also wanted to go so they had got me a ticket - they were so expensive at £2 each!  We headed there and had pretty good seats.  It was quite enjoyable, especially for the price!

Anna at the opera

That was it for my time in Georgia.  I have to say I've enjoyed it on the whole - the people have been nice, they food good and the scenery has been stunning.  It's cheap and accessible from Europe so look out for more people coming here in the next 10 years.

Next stop Armenia!