Armenia

We waited one more week for Sylvains visa for Iran. Every day I lost a small piece of my soul in the hostel. It was enough, time to go to Armenia.  It took us about a week to reach the capital. One of the instincts of a bicycle tourist is to ride to every possible blue spot on the map. So we went straight to lake Sevan, already imagining ourselves swimming, catching some fish, and settling down camp for some days. What we didn’t know was that it’s one of the biggest high-altitude lakes of the world, at nearly 2000 meters. No fishing rods nor swimsuits got unpacked, and we headed straight to the lower Yerevan. Cycling in Armenia is much less exhausting than in Georgia. Quiet roads, almost no people insisting to join then for vodka in the morning, …. People keep a bit more distance, but are always very helpful when you ask them something.

After one night in the park there, we got hosted by a group European volunteers, living in a big house, near the center. While Sylvain was making a last attempt to get his Iranian visa here, days became weeks again. Winter is coming, and we are both looking around a bit for a place to stay. So why not there? If only we had something to do.  The idea came in to start a bicycle courier company in Yerevan, something that would definitely work here. The city is perfect for cycling, but Armenians don’t realize that. It started as a joke, and we talked to the head of the volunteer group.  Since they were working a lot on green projects, he was very enthusiastic, and before we knew, we had an office, a free place to stay, etc. … We only needed some Armenians to work with us, and an meeting was arranged with the local bicycle group, where, surprisingly, also television showed up. There we concluded that, although there certainly was enough of enthusiasm, nothing was ever going to happen. Maybe later. I didn’t want to wast my valuable Iranian visa, so the time had come to move on.

I really enjoyed the three weeks I stayed in Yerevan. Compared to Tbilisi, there is so much going on. Really good bars there, and I met a lot of nice people. My biorhythm got shifted to night-mode again. Time for some change…