July 27, 2024
Enjoying Yerevan and the Marriot
Realizing that I blew almost two weeks budget in two days with those ripoffs, it was a learning experience and it left a really bad taste in mouth. The plan was changed: bike out of here lickety split. No city tours, no brandy tours, no bar tours, no hiring a car driver, just get on the bike and go.
Another disappointment took place when I booked a bar tour and the operator canceled it without my knowledge. There were no refunds. After waiting in front of government square at the meeting point for about five minutes and seeing all these armed guards eyeing me, I realized it would be better to just move away and forget about all this.
This was all leaving a really negative impression. Maybe those Azeri girls on the yacht weren't so snotty after all. As the night went on, they knew how to smile and have fun. I wasn't seeing much of that anywhere in Yerevan.
I did some more research on the internet and found out my knowledge was outdated. You can in fact enter Azerbaijan with an Armenia stamp in your passport, you'll just be questioned. So when I do this, likely next year, I'll be ready for it. But it's not too big of a deal.
So yes I was absolutely furious as I sat there and continued my budget and felt all this pain. I knew for a fact that I could have enjoyed nearly three weeks of travel in the capital city Baku alone for the same price and with unthamomably better experiences. It felt like now I had just thrown all this money down the toilet in Armenia with not much value.
Trying to salvage the situation in any way possible, I did my own city walking tour of Yerevan. To be fair, there was a lot to see with an abundance of cafes and outdoor restaurants. I was trying everything I could to be objective and look at the positives. That's what travel is I suppose, you can't win them all but you always learn.
I found a busy restaurant, sat down and asked for the Armenia menu. A dish caught my eye that said 'Artsakh' which is the name of the dissolved pseudo-republic. It was an absolutely amazing dish: spicy beef, raisins, carrots, oninons, and all sorts of other stuff that was really filling. I pretended not to know anything about the regional conflict and asked the waitress, "Is this dish good?" to which she suddenly smiled (nobody does around here) and said "Yes, you should try it my friend" and gave a thumbs up.
Then I continued walking around and seeing all these bars, but despite it being a Saturday night I had no interest and just wanted to go to the hotel room. The vibes were not happening. On the surface you had all these people about, music was playing, fountains were spraying at the parks, children were playing, and it was a warm summer night with all walks of life. But underneath the surface you could feel a profound sense of bitterness and uneasy tension. On top of that, I was completely being ignored at most places and getting suspicious eyes from people everywhere on my walk. This was no good.
Everything started to make sense now. It's always good to understand a conflict from both sides but this was just insane.
The route planning ensured that I wanted to cover as much distance as I could, and it would be challenging with all the mountains but it was definitely time to start moving.
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