Northern Armenia

BIG

The Armenian border isn't far from Tbilisi, so before I had time to settle my crossing-a-border-have-no-local-currency-do-I-need-a-visa?-nervousness we came upon the border.

As per, we all shuffled off the marshrutka and went between the two posts. I didn't, in fact, need a visa and the only word of advice the burly, black-eyed frontier guard had to offer was to try the local cognac, it's sublime.

We had left the verdant, luscious environment of southern Georgia to find ourselves in a martian landscape. Dark earthy nothingness, endless, dotted only by the odd shepherd and skeletal Soviet factory. Mt Ararat, across the closed Turkish border, loomed in the distance.

After a while, however, my intrigue for the strange surroundings slowly gave way to boredom again.

So this time I spent my time coming up with illogical pieces of advice: 'if you tear the pages out of your book as you go, you've got less to read!, or, stretching one leg has the psychological effect of stretching both.

I digress.

Yerevan slowly came into focus in the distance and I we edged closer, in the suburbs, I noticed that almost every car, be it Lada or Land Rover, has 100% tinted windows. This, coupled with the abandoned factories, empty landscapes and run-down tower blocks gave the feeling that perhaps no-body is actually here...

I got off the marshrutka at a bus station that was split by a road, connected by an underpass. The alphabet is different from Georgian (not that I ever got the hang of that) so I just stood near the bus stop, looking into space, to lazy to commit to a decision.

From amongst the huddled up families, waiting for buses, a giant loomed.

"Are you alright mate?
"Eh, yeah, just waiting for a taxi... (is this some elaborate scam?)
"I have my car, hop on in!"

It turns out that this gargantuan man was an American diplomat working in Yerevan. He gave me a lift all the way to the hostel and fed me bread (not in some weird, erotic way, I'm just too lazy (again) to find a better way to express myself).

It turned out to be one of those great, travel moments where being lazy kind of pays off.

Yet, it was most definitely surreal.