Welcome and thanks for visiting what is surely to be my last trip away before coming a married man! Saying that, the closest thing to a stripper I’ve come across on these Wales football trips is a few drunken lads with tops off, questionably belting out various Cymru ballads having over indulged in the local lager.
After this result (a 1-1 draw) and the same result versus Turkey a few days later. we ended up needing a playoff to hopefully reach EURO 2024. Thankfully we avoided any away ties, so no going to Poland or Estonia 4 days before my wedding!
Introduction
Yerevan is the capital city of Armenia with a population of around 1.1 million. On the very very very edge of Europe, Armenia is part of the Caucasus region that also include Georgia, Azerbaijan and a bit of Russia.
Armenia has spent a lot of its existence being oppressed. During WW1 the Ottoman Empire mass murdered 1 million during the Armenian genocide. Then they were in the Soviet Union until 1991, and from then to today they have been in conflict with Azerbaijan over borders. Azerbaijan has recently been on the front foot, possibly down to Armenia’s reliance on Russia, that has taken a back seat whilst Putin focuses on Ukraine.
Today many public buildings and hotels fly the Russian flag alongside the red, blue and orange of Armenia. I must admit this did feel uncomfortable, although the pleasant hospitality we “Westerners” received from everyone we met is certainly worth a mention.
I think it’s time for a fun fact. Armenia was the first country in the world to adopt Christianity as a state religion in 301 A.D. The magnificent Mount Ararat that appears in the background of any decent panoramic picture, is thought to be the location where Noah’s Ark landed. Make of that what you will.
Finding famous Armenian people *to me* is a bit difficult. Peter mentioned singer Charles Aznavour who I’d never heard of, although he was born in France. If we’re going down that route; one website I looked at also mentioned Cher, and even claimed Princess Diana was 1/64th Armenian. Shoop shoop…
Even in terms of football players – and I’m bloody good at these – I can only think of Henrikh Mkhitaryan who has recently retired from the international game. He has however played for a number of top teams including Inter Milan, Arsenal, Roma and Dortmund. He has also played for Manchester United.
Flights, accommodation and costs etc.
I usually break this up a bit more, but as my mate Peter was back in the driving seat to organise, I haven’t got an exact breakdown of costs. In total the trip cost around £700 each all in. This included about £150 on ciggies, taxis and beer, £55 for our day trip, £250 for four flights, £150 hotel and £100 coach/train to Gatwick from Newport. We also had to pay for the premium £44 tickets for the game instead of the £3/£8 options in the proper away end.
Beer and food was cheaper than your usual European country but we did choose places where a beer was more expensive than average. If you find the right place you can get a pizza for around a fiver. The bar visited before the game charged me just £8 for two beers and a G&T! On the eve before the game, I mostly drank £7 pint cocktails and imported Strongbow that added up. Gosh, if I had any more Sex on the Beach that night I would’ve ended up with twins with Pamela Anderson…
Getting Around
Thankfully Yereven international airport is located close to the city, albeit a good 30 minute drive with the city traffic.
Armenia has it’s own group of Taxi apps. The recommended GG app was a big help, with an app similar to Uber that set fixed prices, allowed payment by card, and had lots of cars available. One 40-minute trip we took stuck in traffic cost little more than six quid.
We did stay very central so there were no need to explore the public transport system. They have one main metro line that runs through the center and a maze of minibuses. I think these cost about 20p a journey, but there really was no need to use them. Even the stadium was within walking distance and the taxis we did get were due to laziness or drunkenness.
Things we didn’t do…
In terms of Yerevan itself, I don’t think we missed anything I’m disappointed about. They do love a statue mind, so maybe a walking tour would have been useful to break up my itinerary of booze and football.
Outside of Yerevan, I’m not sure how far you can go to visit the aforementioned Mount Arabat. Our day trip on the final full day was a good idea, although my friend’s day trip choice also included a trip to Tsakhkadzor that sounded a fascinating resort village with cable car, although the feedback was that late-November wasn’t the best time to sit on a cable car with inadequate clothing!
Itinerary
Day one – Newport to Yerevan
Although our trip was technically early Thursday to late Monday, two of these days were pretty much full travel. So I won’t bore you too much. The trip started at 1am on the Thursday to board our National Express to London. To get the best price possible, we flew early from Gatwick to Milan (2 hours), around 3 hours layover, then another flight to Yerevan (4 hours). Taking in to account that Armenia is also 4 hours in front of UK time in November, it was past 11pm by the time we checked-in, so we went to bed, noting that WizzAir really isn’t much better than RyanAir.
Day two – Yerevan sightseeing
We were up nice and early to enjoy the hotel’s minimal breakfast offering before a long morning planned of walking. Planning beforehand, our intended trek covered everything I wanted to see in the city, all in the space of 4 miles or so.
A short walk north from our hotel was the main Republic square with the national museum taking centre stage. It was very quiet today, but still had a smattering of armed police officers. In front of the museum were ‘singing fountains’ that I was looking forward to seeing one evening, although on approach it was obvious these are not operational all year round, obvious due to the lack of water in the pools.
From here we walked through the busy streets that would not have looked out of place in many other European cities. Shops, restaurants, cafes were opening up for the days trade. One shop I popped in to for 40 ciggies, 2 cokes and a water cost me a measly £3.50 before we arrived at stop number one, a Church, to somewhat to against the grain of my usual stop-offs!
St. Astvatsatsin Kathoghike is the city’s oldest church dating back to the 13th Century. For clarity, it is the tiny old building in the picture, encompassed by the much larger and modern St Anna’s church consecrated in 2015.
The older version only had space for maybe a dozen people standing, and frequented by locals to have a quick pray during their busy day. The larger church was somewhere where you could spend a bit more time to sit down and reflect. I don’t really know what else to say.
A short walk from here was a impressively large building that housed the National Opera and Ballet, located in ‘Freedom Square’. We didn’t go inside here, but enjoyed a chat with some other Welsh supporters.
Still going in a quite linear direction we approached the Yerevan cascade, undoubtedly the tourism focal point of the city. The Cascade, or staircase to you and me, consists of 5 hillside terraces connected with 572 steps, 302 meters high. I say building, as under the steps there are areas for exhibitions and cafes. There is also an escalator that will take you up to near the top. Peter was grateful for this, whilst I chose to drag my fat arse up the steps (my foot hasn’t been the same since, a month later).
At the bottom of the cascade is a park that had countless statues, all very different to each other. In hindsight I would have liked to take some extra time exploring these, but I didn’t. I had exercise to do FML.
Whilst the steps weren’t that steep, it was a must to turn around once reaching every terrace to see ever-better views of the city with the massive Mount Ararat becoming increasingly clearer in the background.
Once the initial 572 steps were climbed, it was still a further climb to a square right at the top. In the gap where the cascade ended and the square was placed, it was a building site that hasn’t look touched for some time. It seems obvious that the plan is/was to continue building the cascade to it meets the square. At present, tourists have to use a narrow makeshift path to access the Monumental terrace, housing the 40th Anniversary of Soviet Armenia monument.
This is definitely worth the trek for the best views – I think even Peter would agree, who is reaching his late-70’s! The clouds and insufficient phone camera didn’t really do the view justice.
For such a tourism hotspot it was a bit peculiar to see the project unfinished – and so obviously unfinished. Either side of the cascade also didn’t offer much with a lot of naked hillside, and I thought the bushes and plants could be more uniform. Hark at Charlie Dimmock over ‘ere.
After a well deserved rest at the top, we were now at a bit of a crossroads. It wasn’t long before lunch, but the restaurant I located would be a bit of a gamble. Do we go back down the hill for some lunch or proceed to have a walk through Victory Park and hope we can get a decent lunch?
Thankfully we decided to crack on with the latter. The park, whilst not of particular outstanding beauty, was a nice change from the noisy traffic. The first sight of interest was a disused Soviet era restaurant. I flagged this up when doing my research before the trip. Given the views from what I assumed used to be a dining room, I found it strange that no one had taken it on and it’s not in use today.
It didn’t quite have a feel of a ghost town type place, especially as once we got back on the main path we bumped in to Wales gaffer Robert Page. Catching me unaware, I told him that I was fit for the game tomorrow as I just managed to walk up those quote “fucking steps”. His response was a simple wave and smile. He should have stuck me on the bench at least in hindsight.
Understanding the team was staying at the nearby Radisson Blu posh hotel, I was over being star-struck rather swiftly as we headed to the most dominant statue in the city – “Mother Armenia”.
The current version replaced a similar statue of Stalin in 1962. I’m told the current statute depicts ‘peace through strength’. The site itself houses a small museum and in the courtyard outside has a few war-related exhibits including a tank and a few fighter jets. I assume these would be really impressive if it’s your thing.
Following the statue we had a stroll what is I’m sure a popular amusement park during the summer. Today though, apart from an odd stall open and a big Ferris wheel in operation (I think) overlooking the city, it was very tranquil. It did give me vibes of the Ferris wheel near Chernobyl in Ukraine. A visit there had always been quite high on my list, but who knows the next time that will be possible, if at all.
Eventually we reached the site of where we intended to have lunch. Whilst it didn’t look open from the outside, we eventually made it to the inner garden of tables and had a fabulous lunch of pork and roast potatoes, with a few obligatory beers, coming in very inexpensive. I was so pleased with the meal I left a google review, and regularly reminded every few hundred views it gets. Oh how I wish I added a link to the blog on there!
Well fed and quite tired after our trek, we headed back to the hotel using the taxi app. This took forever on the gridlocked ring road so were well ready for a siesta once back at the hotel.
The nap did me no favours as the effect of two flights and countless steps set in. For tea I suggested the Hard Rock Cafe out of being unable to put the effort to think of anything better. I rarely go to Hard Rock in places, but the memorabilia are a lot more impressive than their high prices for bang average food.
Nevertheless, it was an opportunity to have a beer and cheeky cocktail whilst we arranged to meet up with my mate Donna. Going to the underground Beatles Pub, advertised as the Wales gathering place, was not an option as it was absolutely rammed to we went to a nice bar close by among the locals. We met up with Donna and started what turned out to be one hell of a drinking session. As one group of locals left they were replaced by Welsh fans and in no time at all did we had a sing along. As always, very well behaved, even the bar manager was too busy taking videos to quickly serve me.
This was only a 2 minute walk away from where 40 odd fans got arrested for doing absolutely nothing. Unfortunately when away, with the best reputation around, you can still be in the wrong place at the wrong time with a lot of countries police.
Still, the night luckily went without any handcuffs and we ended up in the now quieter Beatles bar to drink them out of cider. I managed to walk Donna close to her hotel before giving up and getting a taxi for the remainder of the few hundred yards costing £1.32!
Day three – Matchday
I allowed Peter free reign on match day morning to have a walk around whilst I slowly dragged myself up skipping breakfast.
It was one of those times where I genuinely felt I needed a beer to sober up(!), so just before midday, that’s what we did.
I did succomb to a pizza lunch with more beers before meeting up with Donna again with the designated Welsh pub and had a few more drinks in here, cautious of the time, gambling on whether to take 40 minutes to walk to the ground or book a cab.
Deciding on the latter but still giving ourselves an hour before 6pm kickoff, the traffic was as bad as feared but ‘drive’ got us within a few minutes walk of the ground in good time. By good time, meaning time to buy two beers to watch the game with.
The ground itself, Vazgen Sargsyan Republican Stadium, was small, 14,000, with a single tier of about 25 rows around an athletic track. Although the track meant we were some way from the pitch, this didn’t spoil the atmosphere and the game was well attended by the locals.
The game itself got off to a bad start with our goalkeeper not doing enough before Armenia made it 1-0. Although we equalised before half time through an own goal (which I missed as I was queuing for another beer) we couldn’t get the much needed win, and I don’t think we deserved to either.
This result was disappointing as it meant our qualification hope was no longer in our own hands. Leaving the ground, I think the three of us were a bit dejected. We definitely needed that ad hoc stop off in a dreadful cocktail bar to get some gin and local brandy down me. Waving Pete home we somehow agreed the Hard Rock was the chosen bar to go for drinks.
With some band on and a few beers we had a good night, especially meeting our friend Chelle who I hadn’t seen since pre Covid. I have no idea how we came in to contact but she’s always a good laugh so it was great to bump into her and her pals. A mix of still getting over last night and all the excitement meant I was fasto well before last orders. Donna helping me in a taxi for the second night running. Perhaps this is why my fiancé doesn’t like coming to the pub with me? *Sigh*.
A good effort to try and get over the result. Unfortunately though, with these trips the result is a very important element, so it’s not up there with Latvia previously.
Day four – day trip
Right then, back to some actual travel content. Although my head was not exactly in the mood as we were collected for our day trip at 10am.
We planned a trip using TripAdvisor for £110 to escape the city for the day. This is the specific tour (link). Knowing nothing about sights before visiting, we hoped that the trip would do that for us.
I’m going to do something different here and link to the relevant Wikipedia pages, that saves me from blatantly rewording the text instead regarding the history and religion related bits.
Our first stop was Charents arch for a quick stop off, not too far from the outskirts of the capital. This would have, I’m sure provided a great view of Mount Ararat but with the weather being a bit miserable it was a tad underwhelming, as can be demonstrated by my hungover half arsed photos.
Next up was the Garni temple, located in the village of… Garni. Apparently the temple is the best-known structure and symbol of pre-Christian Armenia. Initially built in the 1st century, it was destroyed by an earthquake in the 1600’s and reconstructed rather recently in 1975. The views here overlooking the Azat ravine and the Gegham mountains were more appealing than the temple itself that was pretty much empty bar the people sat on the steps taking snaps for their Insta.
Third on the list was the 13th century Geghard monastery that did take my interest more than the previous stops. The area is built in to the cliffs and is still used for services today. I know that, as it was a Sunday morning and we walked right in to a service. Chris going to church on a Sunday? Bloody hell.
Fascinating but typically strange for me. This place is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. So you know it’s worth a visit even if I can’t articulate it.
Jeez, my reviews of the trip so far aren’t exactly going to get you on a plane to Armenia soon, is it? To be honest it was a good experience dotting around these sights and I think on a clearer day they could have been so much more impressive to me.
Finally we headed to lake Sevan. The lake is the biggest in the Caucasus region and over 6,000 feet above sea level. The exact point we were dropped off, outside the town of Sevan, seemed a bustling tourist spot sometimes during the year, but the stall traders and restaurants were either closed or very hopeful of a decent day’s business. The sight to see here apart from the lake itself was the Sevanavank monastery. Itself a climb of a few hundred steps. I can’t really write much about the religious building, but the views were enjoyed.
I didn’t take any swimwear for a dip to make it three swims on the trot after Turkey and Latvia, which I don’t regret. It wasn’t the warmest.
We double checked that a googled restaurant called Hayetsi was actually open for lunch – we were the only people there when we ordered. Having not eaten for over 24 hours at this point, the food will live long in the memory. Chicken noodle soup to start, some fat pork chops and a bowl of proper chips were devoured and helped me along the way for the trip back to Yerevan that took around 90 minutes.
That evening we went to a ‘sky view’ bar next to our hotel. A posh but almost empty place that didn’t discriminate against my tracksuit bottoms and boring food of another pizza and chips. Proper last night gloom before a probable miserable home game before the impending doom of back to work later in the week and a week’s worth of unread emails.
Day four – Armenia to home
Monday. No-one likes a Monday. I’ll keep this short. Again sacrificing breakfast for a lie in, the journey back to Gatwick, via Rome this time, was uneventful, getting back to the ‘Port before midnight to have a kip ready for Turkey home later the next day.
A very pleasant trip. Not cheap, not outstanding, but another country off the list! Thanks for reading.
How Not 2 Life 