What do you know about Armenia? How do you imagine it looks like? Poor and “third world” or similar to Poland? How does the capital of a country with only 3 million citizens look like, where the second biggest city (Gyumri) has just 150 thousand inhabitants?
I guess that the opinions about Armenia vary, because like before our trip to Georgia last year, most of the people were like: “go where? with a child? why?. Couldn’t you go to Italy or France instead?” when we told them where we’re going. No we couldn’t. We love Italy and Italian cuisine, often admire France, but it’s places like Georgia or Armenia, that allow us to experience our travels more intensively. You just can’t beat the feeling we got when we were on a night train to Yerevan, with a khachapuri in one hand, listening to Russian ballads playing from the speakers. That’s one of the reasons we decided to go to Armenia. Georgia is nothing unusual right now. Actually just the opposite, it gets more and more popular and more and more people either want to go, have been there or want to come back. Armenia is not a holiday destination yet… maybe it should be? Maybe it’s time to change the standard way of thinking about holiday travels and look for a place the tourists haven’t reached yet?
We’ll see how it is after we finish our trip around the country (starting now!), but Yerevan already managed to surprise us. In a positive way of course!
amazing Republic Square
Maks’ everyday destination – the fountains
We started our walk through Yerevan from one of the most characteristic sites – the Republic Square. Our Yerevan home (a hired flat managed by Yerevan Hostel) is located on Tpagrichner street which is approx. 5-7 minute walk from the square. An ideal distance. Maks fell in love with Freedom Square almost instantly – that’s because of the huge “singing fountains” on it, in front of the Armenian National Gallery. Like in the European Park in Tbilisi, here the fountains also show off every evening from Spring to Autumn. A real treat for kids, even before the real shows, 24 hours a day!
What else is there on the square? National History Museum, National Gallery, government buildings… and Marriott. Someone recommended ice cream in the hotel’s ice cream parlour and they were indeed very good (coconut and cheesecake!). There’s generally a lot of tasty ice cream parlours in Yerevan. The Republic Square seems like a most representative area in the whole city. We realised this as our walk for ice cream was interrupted (and the whole traffic too) while a bunch of elegant cars with French president Francois Holland drove to Marriott. It turned out that he was having a trip around the Caucasian countries at that time.
Two trendy streets start at the square – Amiryan and Abovyan – the most important one. These two are full of cafes, ice cream shops, high profile boutiques and really well dressed people (in the Russian style if you know what I mean). First surprise: it’s a clean and rich city, with lots of restaurant and cafes. A bit similar to a lively Tel Aviv!
a break – Abovyan street
walking through the most important alley in the city – Abovyan street
We left the Republic Square and continued through Abovyan street to Freedom Square and then to Kaskad, that gives you great view of the city and if the conditions are good also the magical Ararat on the Turkish side. We’ve already seen it from the train windows and it looked stunning! Just look how it towers over the city! The fastest way to Freedom Square leads through a footpath with a very “Armenian name” – Northern Avenue! 🙂 Madness! The street was opened in 2007 and after seeing it you will never ever consider Yerevan a poor little town. You don’t get trendier than that. Armani, Burberry and other luxurious brands, cafes, restaurants and trendy citizens drinking their coffees slowly. The street isn’t too pretty or interesting but shows us Yerevan that we didn’t expect! Going past the footpath, we reach Tumanyan street and then the Freedom Square, formerly known as Theatre Square…
little artificial pond by the Freedom Square
It’s green and nice around. More cafes and restaurants and an additional artificial pond (a little one) called Swan. Very relaxing with lots of parents with children, good for a walk with a pram. On the square there’s also an Opera house and…drumroll… attractions for children that every child will love! An inflated castle, cars, swings! Something for everybody! Fortunately the exchange rate is not bad and most of the attractions cost us no more than PLN 2-3.
around the artificial pond
Freedom Square with its landmark – the Opera house
every kid’s favourite square
Kaskad with Cafesjian Center for the Arts is located just a few steps from Freedom Square. We plan to see Ararat from here. If you’re travelling on your own, you’ll get there in 5 minutes. If you have the child with you, add extra 10 minutes for the tantrum caused by the need to leave the car/swings/inflated castle.
Cascade is a very interesting spot. Big set of stairs leads you up the hill where you can find hidden museum rooms. New York Times reportedly called it “one of the most unusual and spectacular museum buildings in the world”. We liked the green leading to Kaskad with lots of intriguing and unusual sculptures. The Center for the Arts was established in 2009 in order to present Armenian cultural heritage. We gave up on it since Maks is not at the museum age yet and climbed up the stairs to see Yerevan. We couldn’t see Ararat too clearly though, it was too cloudy. We had storm in the morning, so we were fortunate enough to have decent weather!
everyone likes a selfie from time to time 🙂
Maks gets a bit too excited with the sculptures in the open air
meeting with the guard, Maks admires from a distance 🙂
Maks’ favourite sculpture? 🙂
Let the hike begin!
I made it! I got here on my own feet!
original, isn’t it?
Yerevan looks quite cool, doesn’t it? It may not have that many places worth seeing to offer, not that many monuments or the old town, but it’s really nice. An there’s quite a few museums in case you’re travelling without a little creature sabotaging this kind of activities. We’re still planning to see Erebuni Fortress and Genocide Museum. It’s a very green city with many walking terrains, lots of restaurants, cafes. All at low prices. A nice place to live. You can also see the Blue Mosque (a tiny one) and the covered market on Mashtots avenue. From outside it looks a bit like our own Mirowska market. But inside it’s more like a modern mall with 3 floors, a supermarket, clothes shops, food court and a children’s paradise on top of it – arcade games, swings, percussion, cymbergaj games and other machines I can’t even describe. What I know is that Maks run from one machine to another and couldn’t decide which one to play on. 🙂
Wait, what about the food?? I was supposed to write about it today but I’m running out of time and the entry is already long enough. Therefore I’m gonna leave you with a teaser and write more about the food later on 🙂
chi qufta – spicy lamb tartare wrapped in salad leavesy
paklava, here served cold with vanilla ice cream
PS. It’ not TOO perfect though. It’s 9 am here and it’s already been raining for a few hours… At 10 am, we’re going to pick up our car from Europcar and see what to do next..
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