Armenia

A guest blog by Patrick

After our incredibly epic New Year’s Eve, we were all looking forward to sleeping in and catching up on sleep. Alas, Ira frantically woke us up in the early afternoon because the car rental company had called and our car was due back in 25 minutes. 25 minutes?!? Are we going somewhere? Oh yeah, this is a mystery trip, and AdventureSam is FULL of surprises…

We frantically packed our bags, ate a hurried breakfast, and then said our emotional goodbyes to our new friends/best friends Ira, Marta, and Jona – we’d be on our own for the rest of our adventures. You have no idea how grateful we were to our new friends for their AMAZING hospitality. We literally could not have had the experiences we did without them. Djo-ko-yu. I mean, ja-co-u. I mean, jo-cow-you. How do you say it again?

We made our way to the airport and it was time for another round of guesses.

Question #1: What country are we going to next?

We finally have the Ukrainian happy face down.

Question #2: Will it still be Christmas there (i.e. are we headed to another orthodox country that celebrates Christmas on January 6)?

How many times do you think Sammi asked us to guess what was next?

Once again, we successfully boarded a plane without know where we were going. #AdventureSam

After a few hours on the plane we landed in our mystery destination. Guess what, we were all wrong! No one even thought to guess Armenia. We were incredibly blessed to have run into our new friend/best friend Davit on the airplane. He was able to help us when the Airbnb Sammi had booked fell through, and he was kind enough to give us a brief history lesson on Armenia as we waited for a taxi to our hostel. Thank you so much Davit!

We arrived at our hostel and Sammi immediately discovered that we were meant to stay there. Our room was fitted with a ‘Mystery’ air conditioner – how fitting.

O. M. G. Another mystery.

After a quick night’s rest, Sammi and I woke up for breakfast. The greasy salami rolls and chocolate cake weren’t Sammi’s cup of tea, so I ate them all. And immediately regretted it.

Sammi informed us that we only had one day in Yeravan, the capital of Armenia, so we had to make the most of it. We immediately set off to a local market, only to discover it was closed. Uh oh. Helen wasn’t feeling well so we dropped her back off at the hotel and set off in the other direction. We encountered a number of incredible sights: a massive statue of a warrior riding two horses, a massive church, blocks of pink-stoned buildings (the rock used for the buildings is a type of volcanic rock called ‘tuff’ that has pinkish hues), world-famous natural drinking fountains, a cool area called ‘cascades’ with stairs and a built-in museum, and delicious food. We were on a whirlwind tour, so in true Mystery Trip fashion we quickly breezed by the sights so we could spend hours on the food. Good decision.

Two horse power.

A massive Armenian church.

Posers.

Still posers.

The pink city.

#eternalchristmas

The centerpiece of our day ended up being a lavish meal at Dolomama, a famous local restaurant. How do we know it was famous? Check out who has eaten there!

We obviously fit right in.

Colleen was kind enough to treat us to an AMAZING meal. Lamb stew, veal, traditional dolmas, baklava, and incredible Armenian wine, vodka, and brandy. Mmmmmm. I’m still full.

Let the feast begin!

Appetizers!

Dolmas!

Veal!

Dessert!

After our epic lunch, we set off on a walking tour of the city but were quickly distracted by a hookah lounge. OF COURSE we had to go in. One quick strawberry hookah later, we left only slightly traumatized by the music videos we had to watch. We hurriedly navigated our way to the wrong pub, only to then hop in a taxi to a different pub. When we got there, SURPRISE, our new friend/best friend Davit was waiting for us. We had another delicious meal (all we actually did in Armenia is eat) and laughed with our new friends. A perfect end to a whirlwind stop in Armenia. Full, slightly tipsy, and very happy, we hopped in a taxi, picked up Helen, and rushed to the train station for the final leg of our adventure…

Yum! Armenian pub food.

Celebrating with our new friends!