We had a full night’s sleep, which surprised us as we had read lots about how historic Tbilisi is a big party scene, especially in weekends, with bass thumping until 3am (says grumpy old man, who years ago would have been at said clubs).
Later in the afternoon Heather read that Patriarch Ilia II of Georgia died on March 17. He was the patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church for the last 50 years. This would be the equivalent of the Pope dying while we were visiting Rome. Bars and nightclubs in Tbilisi are closed until Sunday as part of the national period of mourning, thus the lack of noise at night.
Anyways we were not aware of this as we went out in the drizzle to sightsee. We started with lunch at a nearby khinkali place which was excellent. Khinkalis are the Georgian version of dumplings and are ubiquitous here.
We walked over to Meidan Bazar, a small underground market. It’s designed to look like an old souq, and just for tourists. There’s not much space to walk through, we were lucky there were no tour groups at the time. It’s also a rather short market - less than 50m? We did buy a mini plastic khinkali for our key shelf. Some online guides suggest spending 1-2 hours here, but it only took us 10 minutes to browse.
Next we walked over to see the Clock Tower. This is famous for both being crooked and leaning, as well as the puppet that comes out of the window to clang the bell on the hour. It was a good rainy-day thing to do, as there was hardly anyone else there. We also by chance ended up there at 2:55 so only had to wait a few minutes for the puppet.
We walked down to the Kura River to walk across the Bridge of Peace, a landmark in the city. The tramway to Mother of Georgia is right beside the bridge, so we bought tickets (2 GEL, about 1 CAD, for a reloadable card, and 2 GEL each for a one-way ride on the tramway, cash only). There was no line up at all, we just walked right up and boarded the next car which we had to ourselves.
It’s a quick ride, about two minutes to the top. There’s nice views of the city on the ride up.
At the top we headed for the iconic Mother of Georgia monument. It’s a 20m tall statue overlooking the city. Took a pic, then found the staircase back down to the old city. The best views of the city are from this staircase, better than view from the top.
At the bottom there was a little café which rated highly on Google, so we stopped in for a dessert and coffee. It was a really cosy spot, with vinyl playing in the background.
We got back to our hotel and that’s when we read about the Patriach’s passing.
Our reception recommended kneina for dinner and made a reservation for us. Good thing too, as we got a prime table at a very busy restaurant. The food was excellent, more home style cooking than yesterday. The restaurant is in an old house which has been owned by the same family for several generations. The restaurateur was quite proud of its history and showed us artefacts throughout the restaurant after we ate.
We took a circuitous walk home cause we ate a bit too much, and had another quiet night’s sleep.
A Travel Blog
by Heather and Eric
Friday, March 20, 2026
Thursday, March 19, 2026
Tbilisi, Georgia
We had booked a private transfer from Yerevan to Tbilisi through the hotel. We’ve enjoyed the sightseeing + transfer combos, which we first did between the Baltic capitals. It’s good use of a transit day, plus we get to places that are otherwise a long day trip.
It’s five hours if you drive straight to Tbilisi; with our sightseeing we figure to get to our hotel in about nine hours.
We had the same driver who drove us to Goris. We left a few minutes after 9am under sunny skies, climbing towards Lake Sevan.
We were making good time until our driver tried to accelerate too quickly and did something to the car. The car worked fine at lower revs and speeds, it’s just when he tried to accelerate that it was wonky. I think the car runs on four cylinders for efficiency and only uses all six when needed and something sounded off on a cylinder.
Anyways, we arrived at Sevanavank (Sevana Monastery). It’s a spectacular setting with snow capped mountains in the background, surrounding Lake Sevan. It took us a few minutes to hike up the stairs, we were both winded at the top (possibly also due to the elevation at 1900m).
Took lots of pics. It’s not possible to enter the monastery; however it’s more the setting here that attracts the tourists. We walked up a little hill on a muddy path to get pics with sun in the right direction. In all we spent about 30 minutes here, a bit longer than I had expected.
We got back on the road. In Vanadzor, the only town of size along our trip, our driver stopped at a mechanic shop to have them look at the car. I was surprised that a) a mechanic was immediately available to look at the car and b) he had all the diagnostic tools for our vehicle make (Honda). The mechanic took out one of the fuel injectors, cleaned it and reinserted it. My earlier armchair analysis seemed accurate :) The mechanic was obviously confident about his fix cause he then replaced the engine cover without testing the engine.
We got back on the road, with our driver determined to make up for lost time.
We exited the highway and drove through the small town of Sarahart to get to the Sanahin Monastery Complex. It’s a UNESCO Heritage Site, and it’s amazing. It’s in an unrestored state, and we had each building to ourselves for the most part. My favourite room was the gavit, which was home to a couple pigeons. Every so often a pigeon would fly across the room from one pillar to another, the acoustics amplifying the sound of its wings flapping. It was super cool.
The Church of St. Amenaprkitch itself was also amazing, it’s still an active church.
Duly impressed, we got back on road. We had a quick stop at a convenience store where I bought some freshly made bread with a potato filling. This tided us over as we weren’t stopping for lunch.
Next up was Haghpat Monastery Complex, about 15km away. It’s actually part of the same UNESCO site as Sanahin.
Haghpat has some cool exterior pics, sitting in rolling hills above the valley. It’s in the same unrestored state as Sanahin. It was starting to feel colder, about 3C and a damp mist. Took another bunch of pics.
We also had Akhtala Monastery Fortress on our list for today, but we were getting out-monastery’d, and the access road was in poor condition. So we agreed with our driver to skip Akhtala and just head to Georgia.
The border crossing was really straightforward. We had to think about our previous land border crossing - it was in the Balkans in 2020!
First our driver stopped before the border to purchase auto and medical insurance for himself (I’m guessing a requirement for commercial drivers).
On the Armenia side, we walked through passport control to get an exit stamp while our driver drove through separately.
Then we took the bridge across the Debed River into Georgia. At the Georgian immigration, it was the same deal, we had to walk through, although this time with our luggage. Canadians don’t need a visa to enter Georgia; we just got a stamp and in we were! The customs folks just waved Heather through. I got caught up amidst some other people in immigration and put my luggage through the scanner for customs, although likely I could have just exited like Heather.
Another hour brought us into Tbilisi, a couple hours earlier than expected, about 5pm. Our driver had difficulty navigating the one-way streets in the historic centre, we finally asked him to drop us off about a 50m walk from our hotel.
We checked in and got a couple recommendations for dinner. We ate at Iasamani, a hip restaurant in a cool setting and good food too. We were lucky to get in as walk-ins. Cheese features prominently in Georgian food - I think every dish we ordered contained cheese, some more than others.
Overall a great transit day. The monasteries we saw earlier in the day were really cool, it’s worth coming to Armenia just to see them. There’s way more to see too. If you’re planning a trip and wondering where to go, I’d consider Armenia for sure.
It’s five hours if you drive straight to Tbilisi; with our sightseeing we figure to get to our hotel in about nine hours.
We had the same driver who drove us to Goris. We left a few minutes after 9am under sunny skies, climbing towards Lake Sevan.
We were making good time until our driver tried to accelerate too quickly and did something to the car. The car worked fine at lower revs and speeds, it’s just when he tried to accelerate that it was wonky. I think the car runs on four cylinders for efficiency and only uses all six when needed and something sounded off on a cylinder.
Anyways, we arrived at Sevanavank (Sevana Monastery). It’s a spectacular setting with snow capped mountains in the background, surrounding Lake Sevan. It took us a few minutes to hike up the stairs, we were both winded at the top (possibly also due to the elevation at 1900m).
Took lots of pics. It’s not possible to enter the monastery; however it’s more the setting here that attracts the tourists. We walked up a little hill on a muddy path to get pics with sun in the right direction. In all we spent about 30 minutes here, a bit longer than I had expected.
We got back on the road. In Vanadzor, the only town of size along our trip, our driver stopped at a mechanic shop to have them look at the car. I was surprised that a) a mechanic was immediately available to look at the car and b) he had all the diagnostic tools for our vehicle make (Honda). The mechanic took out one of the fuel injectors, cleaned it and reinserted it. My earlier armchair analysis seemed accurate :) The mechanic was obviously confident about his fix cause he then replaced the engine cover without testing the engine.
We got back on the road, with our driver determined to make up for lost time.
We exited the highway and drove through the small town of Sarahart to get to the Sanahin Monastery Complex. It’s a UNESCO Heritage Site, and it’s amazing. It’s in an unrestored state, and we had each building to ourselves for the most part. My favourite room was the gavit, which was home to a couple pigeons. Every so often a pigeon would fly across the room from one pillar to another, the acoustics amplifying the sound of its wings flapping. It was super cool.
The Church of St. Amenaprkitch itself was also amazing, it’s still an active church.
Duly impressed, we got back on road. We had a quick stop at a convenience store where I bought some freshly made bread with a potato filling. This tided us over as we weren’t stopping for lunch.
Next up was Haghpat Monastery Complex, about 15km away. It’s actually part of the same UNESCO site as Sanahin.
Haghpat has some cool exterior pics, sitting in rolling hills above the valley. It’s in the same unrestored state as Sanahin. It was starting to feel colder, about 3C and a damp mist. Took another bunch of pics.
We also had Akhtala Monastery Fortress on our list for today, but we were getting out-monastery’d, and the access road was in poor condition. So we agreed with our driver to skip Akhtala and just head to Georgia.
The border crossing was really straightforward. We had to think about our previous land border crossing - it was in the Balkans in 2020!
First our driver stopped before the border to purchase auto and medical insurance for himself (I’m guessing a requirement for commercial drivers).
On the Armenia side, we walked through passport control to get an exit stamp while our driver drove through separately.
Then we took the bridge across the Debed River into Georgia. At the Georgian immigration, it was the same deal, we had to walk through, although this time with our luggage. Canadians don’t need a visa to enter Georgia; we just got a stamp and in we were! The customs folks just waved Heather through. I got caught up amidst some other people in immigration and put my luggage through the scanner for customs, although likely I could have just exited like Heather.
Another hour brought us into Tbilisi, a couple hours earlier than expected, about 5pm. Our driver had difficulty navigating the one-way streets in the historic centre, we finally asked him to drop us off about a 50m walk from our hotel.
We checked in and got a couple recommendations for dinner. We ate at Iasamani, a hip restaurant in a cool setting and good food too. We were lucky to get in as walk-ins. Cheese features prominently in Georgian food - I think every dish we ordered contained cheese, some more than others.
Overall a great transit day. The monasteries we saw earlier in the day were really cool, it’s worth coming to Armenia just to see them. There’s way more to see too. If you’re planning a trip and wondering where to go, I’d consider Armenia for sure.
Wednesday, March 18, 2026
Yerevan, Armenia
On longer trips we try to schedule some down time, today was one of those days. The only thing we had planned was a visit to the History Museum of Armenia.
The museum wasn’t quite as good as we had hoped. They do have the world’s oldest shoe (circa 3500 BC) and attendants who insist you follow the museum in a very specific order. But the history abruptly ends after the 19th century, with just a brief panel about the genocide, and nothing about independence from Russia.
We had lunch at the bakery a few doors down from the hotel, it was okay. Bought the mini stone monastery from Vernissage market. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon rejigging our itinerary to skip the southeast part of Turkey. Instead we’ll fly out to Sofia and Belgrade before rejoining our original itinerary in Malta. The new destinations were based on cheap direct flights on Air Serbia. The replanning took the rest of the afternoon.
We had dinner at the hotel. They were hosting some sort of games night, like a trivia night. So we had to sit in the piano lounge overlooking the dining hall. The games night featured dramatic countdown music, which gave me a headache after a while.
The museum wasn’t quite as good as we had hoped. They do have the world’s oldest shoe (circa 3500 BC) and attendants who insist you follow the museum in a very specific order. But the history abruptly ends after the 19th century, with just a brief panel about the genocide, and nothing about independence from Russia.
We had lunch at the bakery a few doors down from the hotel, it was okay. Bought the mini stone monastery from Vernissage market. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon rejigging our itinerary to skip the southeast part of Turkey. Instead we’ll fly out to Sofia and Belgrade before rejoining our original itinerary in Malta. The new destinations were based on cheap direct flights on Air Serbia. The replanning took the rest of the afternoon.
We had dinner at the hotel. They were hosting some sort of games night, like a trivia night. So we had to sit in the piano lounge overlooking the dining hall. The games night featured dramatic countdown music, which gave me a headache after a while.
Tuesday, March 17, 2026
Yerevan, Armenia
We had a leisurely breakfast before starting our day. First up were a couple attractions south of the hotel, the Armenian Market, and Saint Gregory The Illuminator Cathedral.
The Armenian Market was in the former GUM Market building. (Most capitals in former Soviet republics had a central GUM department store, which stands for Glavny Universalny Magazin / Main Universal Store). Anyways it’s a really colourful market. There’s lots of dried fruits of all colours, big piles of lavash a couple feet high, a cheese section and a meat market. A cheese vendor offered us some stracciatella cheese which was super fresh. We also sampled a couple dried fruits from different vendors.
We walked back to Saint Gregory The Illuminator Cathedral. The sun was in the wrong direction for pics, so we decided to come back later in the afternoon (it’s only a 10 minute walk from the hotel). We checked out inside, it’s spartan but nice.
Onto the National Puppet Theatre! We had bought tickets a couple days ago for The Dog and the Cat, based on a poem by Hovhannes Toumanian. We were there a few minutes early and browsed the collection of puppets on display in the lobby.
There 200-seat theatre was filled with groups of school kids. The kids did a cheer before the show started, maybe a countdown? The seats folded to different heights for kids and adults which was cool. The house lights went down and the show started!
The show was in Armenian but we got the gist of the plot. (I guess no different than going to an opera in Latin). It was in two 20-minute halves with kitschy organ music. We enjoyed the show, looks like the kids did too.
After the show we walked down the pedestrian Northern Av, and had lunch at Sorriso Café. The weather was so nice we actually ate outside on the patio!
We then walked over to the Modern Art Museum which we had scouted out on Monday. Even just looking in from the ticket entrance, it looked like we’d like the art. Sure enough, we really enjoyed it. Our favourite museum in Yerevan.
It was around 4pm by now so we walked back to Saint Gregory The Illuminator Cathedral. The pics looked way better with the sun in the right direction.
Last on our agenda was souvenir shopping in Vernissage Market. We were looking for three items for our key shelf - a mouthpiece from a duduk (a double-reed wind instrument unique to Armenia), a mini stone khachkar, and a mini monastery. Found the first two. The folks at the duduk stall were really helpful, asking if the reed was for a musician or a souvenir. It was way more expensive for a real one, so it’s good they asked. The last item, a mini monastery, we had seen while browsing, but by the time we went back they had packed up for the day. We’ll catch them tomorrow.
It was a pretty full day! We ate at the hotel again. I tried a trout baked in lavash, and Heather had a squash / chickpea soup. Both were excellent. We wondered why we bothered to try a different restaurant yesterday :)
The Armenian Market was in the former GUM Market building. (Most capitals in former Soviet republics had a central GUM department store, which stands for Glavny Universalny Magazin / Main Universal Store). Anyways it’s a really colourful market. There’s lots of dried fruits of all colours, big piles of lavash a couple feet high, a cheese section and a meat market. A cheese vendor offered us some stracciatella cheese which was super fresh. We also sampled a couple dried fruits from different vendors.
We walked back to Saint Gregory The Illuminator Cathedral. The sun was in the wrong direction for pics, so we decided to come back later in the afternoon (it’s only a 10 minute walk from the hotel). We checked out inside, it’s spartan but nice.
Onto the National Puppet Theatre! We had bought tickets a couple days ago for The Dog and the Cat, based on a poem by Hovhannes Toumanian. We were there a few minutes early and browsed the collection of puppets on display in the lobby.
There 200-seat theatre was filled with groups of school kids. The kids did a cheer before the show started, maybe a countdown? The seats folded to different heights for kids and adults which was cool. The house lights went down and the show started!
The show was in Armenian but we got the gist of the plot. (I guess no different than going to an opera in Latin). It was in two 20-minute halves with kitschy organ music. We enjoyed the show, looks like the kids did too.
After the show we walked down the pedestrian Northern Av, and had lunch at Sorriso Café. The weather was so nice we actually ate outside on the patio!
We then walked over to the Modern Art Museum which we had scouted out on Monday. Even just looking in from the ticket entrance, it looked like we’d like the art. Sure enough, we really enjoyed it. Our favourite museum in Yerevan.
It was around 4pm by now so we walked back to Saint Gregory The Illuminator Cathedral. The pics looked way better with the sun in the right direction.
Last on our agenda was souvenir shopping in Vernissage Market. We were looking for three items for our key shelf - a mouthpiece from a duduk (a double-reed wind instrument unique to Armenia), a mini stone khachkar, and a mini monastery. Found the first two. The folks at the duduk stall were really helpful, asking if the reed was for a musician or a souvenir. It was way more expensive for a real one, so it’s good they asked. The last item, a mini monastery, we had seen while browsing, but by the time we went back they had packed up for the day. We’ll catch them tomorrow.
It was a pretty full day! We ate at the hotel again. I tried a trout baked in lavash, and Heather had a squash / chickpea soup. Both were excellent. We wondered why we bothered to try a different restaurant yesterday :)
Monday, March 16, 2026
Yerevan, Armenia
Most museums and the like in Yerevan are closed on Mondays, so we had planned outdoor stuff for today. It was still drizzling when we woke up, but by 11am the sun had started to poke its head out.
We chatted with the front desk on excursion options to get to Tbilisi. It’s a common route for tourists, stopping at a few monasteries in Armenia on the way. Yesterday at the National Gallery we had seen some reproductions of paintings in churches in Akhtala and Haghpat, which I’d like to see in real life.
We headed out in the sun (with our umbrellas just in case) towards the Blue Mosque. It was okay to see, with its turquoise and yellow tiled dome. The front is under renovation so I didn’t post any pics.
Across the street is the façade of the old market. Our room had an old b/w poster-sized pic of the building, so we wanted to see how it looked current day. The exterior looks the same, inside is a chain supermarket. Wouldn’t be worth a visit as a tourist unless you had the same room as us.
The Modern Art Museum was across the street. At first we thought it was marked incorrectly in Google Maps, cause there’s a cool-looking building nearby. But it’s as marked, in the ground floor of an apartment complex, without any external indication there’s a modern art museum inside. Anyways it was closed Mondays, but at least we knew how to find it now.
Next on our list was wandering around Kond, one of the oldest quarters in Yerevan. It’s sort of like Parkdale used to be in Toronto, before it gentrified, with cool cafés and artsy places. It was pretty muddy in the alleys with the overnight rain and some alleys were under construction, making it even muddier, which we weren’t dressed for, so we decided to skip it.
Looked at Google Maps to see what else there was to do on Mondays. Decided to visit the Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex. The museum was closed but the memorial is open 24x7.
It was about an hour walk, which was good with us as it had turned into a really nice day, and we didn’t have much else to do. The walk itself was through industrial areas, but a good way to see the city. It was on the other side of the Hrazdan River, which has only a couple bridges near the centre of Yerevan. We crossed over the Victory Bridge, which is between Noy Factory (brandy / wine / vodka) and the Ararat Museum. Ararat Museum was open, but it’s really just a tasting tour to sell brandy. A friendly dog followed us across the bridge, only giving up when we started climbing the 100 or so stairs up the hill to the museum.
We finally got to the Genocide Memorial. We walked around the complex, it’s rather peaceful at the top of a hill overlooking Yerevan. There’s not much signage or explanation outside, likely it’s all in the museum. Unfortunately the memorial is half under scaffolding so no good pics.
We walked back to the centre across the Kievyan bridge (the Rough Guide calls the Memorial ‘outside the city’). There was a busy restaurant just across the bridge, so we stopped in for some shawarma. It was huge, we probably could have split it. The restaurant (called ‘Parking’) reminded me of California Sandwiches. You know it’s a popular place when first responders and trades eat there.
We had planned to take the subway back to the hotel but decided to walk back in, another hour. The route took us through mostly residential areas. Eventually we got back to the center and had a coffee and dessert before getting back to the hotel. Total walking distance for the day was 16.0km according to my iPhone.
Decided to head to the laundromat before relaxing so we didn’t lose steam. It’s so much more convenient, especially with heavier clothing like jeans and flannel shirts.
We ate off-campus, just to try something different. Tried a family-run Iranian restaurant about four minutes from the hotel. The food was good, it hit the spot. Walked quickly back home as it was starting to drizzle again.
We chatted with the front desk on excursion options to get to Tbilisi. It’s a common route for tourists, stopping at a few monasteries in Armenia on the way. Yesterday at the National Gallery we had seen some reproductions of paintings in churches in Akhtala and Haghpat, which I’d like to see in real life.
We headed out in the sun (with our umbrellas just in case) towards the Blue Mosque. It was okay to see, with its turquoise and yellow tiled dome. The front is under renovation so I didn’t post any pics.
Across the street is the façade of the old market. Our room had an old b/w poster-sized pic of the building, so we wanted to see how it looked current day. The exterior looks the same, inside is a chain supermarket. Wouldn’t be worth a visit as a tourist unless you had the same room as us.
The Modern Art Museum was across the street. At first we thought it was marked incorrectly in Google Maps, cause there’s a cool-looking building nearby. But it’s as marked, in the ground floor of an apartment complex, without any external indication there’s a modern art museum inside. Anyways it was closed Mondays, but at least we knew how to find it now.
Next on our list was wandering around Kond, one of the oldest quarters in Yerevan. It’s sort of like Parkdale used to be in Toronto, before it gentrified, with cool cafés and artsy places. It was pretty muddy in the alleys with the overnight rain and some alleys were under construction, making it even muddier, which we weren’t dressed for, so we decided to skip it.
Looked at Google Maps to see what else there was to do on Mondays. Decided to visit the Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex. The museum was closed but the memorial is open 24x7.
It was about an hour walk, which was good with us as it had turned into a really nice day, and we didn’t have much else to do. The walk itself was through industrial areas, but a good way to see the city. It was on the other side of the Hrazdan River, which has only a couple bridges near the centre of Yerevan. We crossed over the Victory Bridge, which is between Noy Factory (brandy / wine / vodka) and the Ararat Museum. Ararat Museum was open, but it’s really just a tasting tour to sell brandy. A friendly dog followed us across the bridge, only giving up when we started climbing the 100 or so stairs up the hill to the museum.
We finally got to the Genocide Memorial. We walked around the complex, it’s rather peaceful at the top of a hill overlooking Yerevan. There’s not much signage or explanation outside, likely it’s all in the museum. Unfortunately the memorial is half under scaffolding so no good pics.
We walked back to the centre across the Kievyan bridge (the Rough Guide calls the Memorial ‘outside the city’). There was a busy restaurant just across the bridge, so we stopped in for some shawarma. It was huge, we probably could have split it. The restaurant (called ‘Parking’) reminded me of California Sandwiches. You know it’s a popular place when first responders and trades eat there.
We had planned to take the subway back to the hotel but decided to walk back in, another hour. The route took us through mostly residential areas. Eventually we got back to the center and had a coffee and dessert before getting back to the hotel. Total walking distance for the day was 16.0km according to my iPhone.
Decided to head to the laundromat before relaxing so we didn’t lose steam. It’s so much more convenient, especially with heavier clothing like jeans and flannel shirts.
We ate off-campus, just to try something different. Tried a family-run Iranian restaurant about four minutes from the hotel. The food was good, it hit the spot. Walked quickly back home as it was starting to drizzle again.
Sunday, March 15, 2026
Yerevan, Armenia
It was raining when we woke up, the first rain we’ve had on the trip. Luckily today was just a transit day, a four hour drive from Goris back to Yerevan.
We had another nice breakfast, with the best fried eggs ever. Our driver, Hamlet, (same driver as yesterday) was at the hotel at 10am and we left for Yerevan.
It was a bit foggy in the passes getting out of Goris. After we passed the high point, we dropped below the clouds and it was better visibility. It didn’t feel like Hamlet was driving fast, but he was way ahead of Google Maps estimates. Maybe that was due to the smooth ride of the older model Mercedes.
We stopped midway for a coffee, one of the better Armenian coffees we’ve had.
We zipped into Yerevan around 1:30pm. Our room wasn’t yet ready so we left our luggage with the front desk and had lunch. We split a halloumi salad and a club sandwich, which as the waiter said, was not small.
The front desk in the meantime had upgraded us to the Executive Suite, which was really nice of them. The room is huge, with a balcony view over Vermissage Market and Khachkar Park.
We quickly washed up so we could squeeze in a visit to the National Gallery of Armenia this afternoon. Museums aren’t open Mondays, and by seeing the art museum today, we avoided bunching up museums on Tue/Wed.
We walked over in the rain, using our little travel umbrellas. The art museum covers seven floors, with floors 3-4-5 featuring Armenian artists. We started on floor 5 and worked our way down.
The museum was quite good. It’s interesting to see what national cultural symbols are featured. For example, the medieval city of Ani came up a few times. It’s now part of Türkiye and on our itinerary for later in the trip. Mt Ararat also appears in a number of paintings; it too became part of Türkiye in the Treaty of Kars in 1921, despite being a national symbol of Armenia.
Anyways we quite liked the museum.
It had stopped raining by the time we exited. Walked over to our hotel, and relaxed in our Executive Suite. I looked it up on booking.com, it’s 540 sq ft! That’s bigger than a floor in our house!
Heather was still full from the not-small club sandwich from lunch, so I just went down to the restaurant on my own. Had a small lamb soup and a glass of Armenian red, and caught up in my blog.
We had another nice breakfast, with the best fried eggs ever. Our driver, Hamlet, (same driver as yesterday) was at the hotel at 10am and we left for Yerevan.
It was a bit foggy in the passes getting out of Goris. After we passed the high point, we dropped below the clouds and it was better visibility. It didn’t feel like Hamlet was driving fast, but he was way ahead of Google Maps estimates. Maybe that was due to the smooth ride of the older model Mercedes.
We stopped midway for a coffee, one of the better Armenian coffees we’ve had.
We zipped into Yerevan around 1:30pm. Our room wasn’t yet ready so we left our luggage with the front desk and had lunch. We split a halloumi salad and a club sandwich, which as the waiter said, was not small.
The front desk in the meantime had upgraded us to the Executive Suite, which was really nice of them. The room is huge, with a balcony view over Vermissage Market and Khachkar Park.
We quickly washed up so we could squeeze in a visit to the National Gallery of Armenia this afternoon. Museums aren’t open Mondays, and by seeing the art museum today, we avoided bunching up museums on Tue/Wed.
We walked over in the rain, using our little travel umbrellas. The art museum covers seven floors, with floors 3-4-5 featuring Armenian artists. We started on floor 5 and worked our way down.
The museum was quite good. It’s interesting to see what national cultural symbols are featured. For example, the medieval city of Ani came up a few times. It’s now part of Türkiye and on our itinerary for later in the trip. Mt Ararat also appears in a number of paintings; it too became part of Türkiye in the Treaty of Kars in 1921, despite being a national symbol of Armenia.
Anyways we quite liked the museum.
It had stopped raining by the time we exited. Walked over to our hotel, and relaxed in our Executive Suite. I looked it up on booking.com, it’s 540 sq ft! That’s bigger than a floor in our house!
Heather was still full from the not-small club sandwich from lunch, so I just went down to the restaurant on my own. Had a small lamb soup and a glass of Armenian red, and caught up in my blog.
Saturday, March 14, 2026
Goris, Armenia
It was another sunny morning, although somewhat on the chilly side, 0C at 8am. We got down for breakfast at 8:15am and then found out it only started at 8:30 :( so we used the time to pack up for our Tatev Monastery excursion.
Breakfast was quite the spread, given how few guests there are. The eggs to order were really tasty.
Our driver had already arrived and was chatting with the staff and having a coffee. I suppose he’s a frequent driver for the hotel guests.
Our main attraction for today, and the reason we came all the way to Goris, was Tatev Monastery. It’s reached by a 5.7km cable car from Halidzor.
The cable car holds one of those obscure Guinesss records, the longest non-stop double track cable car in a country starting with A. Or something like that.
First I had to update our timed tickets to include the return. Our outbound ride was at 10am, and the ticket people suggested returning at 11:30am. This would allow us just over an hour at the monastery, accounting for the 15 minute ride itself, and being in line 5 minutes before the return. We found it to be the right amount of time.
There was a group of five French-speakers with their guide also in the cable car. The max capacity is 25, which sells out in the summer (thus the timed ticket). 25 people in the car would be pretty packed. On the other hand the eight of us had plenty of room and could take turns at the front taking pics.
There’s beautiful views of the valley and of Old Halidzor below; the fifteen minute ride went by quickly. We disembarked and walked over to the monastery, about 100m away. The monastery is free to enter (all the monasteries have been free so far, although we thought they could charge tourists to help with upkeep).
We walked over to the church to get pics before more tourists arrived. Women require a shawl, of which there some hanging on the wall to borrow. A priest was doing some puttering about and made a nice subject in my pics.
We then exited the monastery grounds and walked 1km along the road to reach the classic viewpoint of Tatev Monastery. We could feel the altitude as we walked uphill. A pack of five friendly dogs joined us on our walk, just like our trek in Bhutan.
It was about 30 minutes round trip to the viewpoint. There’s a bright green tarp or something covering a part of the monastery, which I cropped out later. We were lucky once again with the weather, to get nice clear pics of the valley.
We explored around the rest of the monastery grounds. There’s rooms with some historical khachkars, and others with nice views over the valley.
We caught the cable car back down where our driver was waiting.
Our next couple stops on the excursion actually took us back towards Tatev Monastery, into the valley via the switchbacks we’d seen from the cable car.
First we went to the Devil’s bridge, which is actually just small-ish stalagmites and travertine pools in a cave. It’s an effort getting to them - it’s a rope ladder down about 20’ and then Spider-Man crawling about 10’. There’s a couple entrepreneurial guides who lead the way, for a fee. I went to see them cause we were already there; Heather waited up top. It’s cool enough to see but not worth the effort to get there.
On the drive into the valley we had seen the ruins of the Great Hermitage of Tatev, which was also on the itinerary I had planned. It didn’t look all that great, and definitely not worth getting muddy over. So we skipped it. Also our driver didn’t seem to know about the site as a tourist attraction, maybe i was fooled by travel blogs with carefully cropped pics.
The last site I had included in the Tatev excursion was Old Khndzoresk, where old homes and churches were carved out of the soft rock. The 4km access road to get there was really muddy due to the melting snow and ice. We got about 2km in before turning back, you would need a Jeep or something like that to get through. We’ll see similar stuff in Turkey, just with more tourists.
Also you can see from the transliteration of Խնձորեսկ / Khndzoresk why that monk invented a new alphabet for Armenian. It’s pronounced sort of like schnor-esk.
On the way back to Goris, our driver stopped at viewpoint overlooking the town for some pics. Goris is built into a valley with houses reaching up both sides, just like La Paz. It looks cool and would make a better pic in the spring when things turn green.
We got back to our hotel and had lunch, we both had the chicken soup and then split a large dish of dolmas. Mmm good. We’ve been suitably impressed with the hotel, which punches far above its price point.
We went for a walk after lunch to check out the town. A stray dog followed us, initially trying to jump up on us with its muddy paws, while I frantically tried to get google to translate down boy into Armenian (just kidding). We walked down to Grigor Tatevatsi Square in old Goris, had a hot chocolate from a stall in the square, and walked back.
Dinner was excellent, we had three dishes that were really tasty: stufffed eggplant, grilled/smoked vegetables, and a beef dish with dried fruit and a mushroom pilaf.
Breakfast was quite the spread, given how few guests there are. The eggs to order were really tasty.
Our driver had already arrived and was chatting with the staff and having a coffee. I suppose he’s a frequent driver for the hotel guests.
Our main attraction for today, and the reason we came all the way to Goris, was Tatev Monastery. It’s reached by a 5.7km cable car from Halidzor.
The cable car holds one of those obscure Guinesss records, the longest non-stop double track cable car in a country starting with A. Or something like that.
First I had to update our timed tickets to include the return. Our outbound ride was at 10am, and the ticket people suggested returning at 11:30am. This would allow us just over an hour at the monastery, accounting for the 15 minute ride itself, and being in line 5 minutes before the return. We found it to be the right amount of time.
There was a group of five French-speakers with their guide also in the cable car. The max capacity is 25, which sells out in the summer (thus the timed ticket). 25 people in the car would be pretty packed. On the other hand the eight of us had plenty of room and could take turns at the front taking pics.
There’s beautiful views of the valley and of Old Halidzor below; the fifteen minute ride went by quickly. We disembarked and walked over to the monastery, about 100m away. The monastery is free to enter (all the monasteries have been free so far, although we thought they could charge tourists to help with upkeep).
We walked over to the church to get pics before more tourists arrived. Women require a shawl, of which there some hanging on the wall to borrow. A priest was doing some puttering about and made a nice subject in my pics.
We then exited the monastery grounds and walked 1km along the road to reach the classic viewpoint of Tatev Monastery. We could feel the altitude as we walked uphill. A pack of five friendly dogs joined us on our walk, just like our trek in Bhutan.
It was about 30 minutes round trip to the viewpoint. There’s a bright green tarp or something covering a part of the monastery, which I cropped out later. We were lucky once again with the weather, to get nice clear pics of the valley.
We explored around the rest of the monastery grounds. There’s rooms with some historical khachkars, and others with nice views over the valley.
We caught the cable car back down where our driver was waiting.
Our next couple stops on the excursion actually took us back towards Tatev Monastery, into the valley via the switchbacks we’d seen from the cable car.
First we went to the Devil’s bridge, which is actually just small-ish stalagmites and travertine pools in a cave. It’s an effort getting to them - it’s a rope ladder down about 20’ and then Spider-Man crawling about 10’. There’s a couple entrepreneurial guides who lead the way, for a fee. I went to see them cause we were already there; Heather waited up top. It’s cool enough to see but not worth the effort to get there.
On the drive into the valley we had seen the ruins of the Great Hermitage of Tatev, which was also on the itinerary I had planned. It didn’t look all that great, and definitely not worth getting muddy over. So we skipped it. Also our driver didn’t seem to know about the site as a tourist attraction, maybe i was fooled by travel blogs with carefully cropped pics.
The last site I had included in the Tatev excursion was Old Khndzoresk, where old homes and churches were carved out of the soft rock. The 4km access road to get there was really muddy due to the melting snow and ice. We got about 2km in before turning back, you would need a Jeep or something like that to get through. We’ll see similar stuff in Turkey, just with more tourists.
Also you can see from the transliteration of Խնձորեսկ / Khndzoresk why that monk invented a new alphabet for Armenian. It’s pronounced sort of like schnor-esk.
On the way back to Goris, our driver stopped at viewpoint overlooking the town for some pics. Goris is built into a valley with houses reaching up both sides, just like La Paz. It looks cool and would make a better pic in the spring when things turn green.
We got back to our hotel and had lunch, we both had the chicken soup and then split a large dish of dolmas. Mmm good. We’ve been suitably impressed with the hotel, which punches far above its price point.
We went for a walk after lunch to check out the town. A stray dog followed us, initially trying to jump up on us with its muddy paws, while I frantically tried to get google to translate down boy into Armenian (just kidding). We walked down to Grigor Tatevatsi Square in old Goris, had a hot chocolate from a stall in the square, and walked back.
Dinner was excellent, we had three dishes that were really tasty: stufffed eggplant, grilled/smoked vegetables, and a beef dish with dried fruit and a mushroom pilaf.
Friday, March 13, 2026
Goris, Armenia
We had a bit of a slow start this morning, and were a few minutes late meeting our driver at 9am to start our excursion to Goris, with a couple stops at monasteries along the way.
It was the same driver that had picked us up at the airport. He gave us a warm welcome. We loaded our luggage and we were off! Not so fast to start, as we inched our way through rush hour traffic.
Once we got out of the city it was easy going. The highway is in great shape, and our driver liked to go fast (he was a safe driver though).
About 30 minutes outside of Yerevan is Khor Virap, a monastery near the base of Mt Ararat (5896m). Our driver stopped on the approach for the classic pic of the monastery with Mt Ararat in the background. We were lucky that it was a clear morning and that the mountains were visible. It’s a spectacular view, one of the reasons I wanted to visit Armenia.
I didn’t remember that Mt Ararat is where Noah’s Ark first ran aground. Per the story, Noah released a dove who came back with an olive leaf, and that’s how Noah determined that waters were receding.
In modern times, locals have trained doves and will rent them to tourists so that you can release them from the monastery, who then fly back to their owners. Anyways we declined.
We spent about 20 minutes exploring around the Khor Virap monastery. Took lots more pics, although the best view was on the initial approach.
Got back in the van and continued onto Noravank Monastery. It’s down a valley with steep rock faces on both sides. It reminded us a bit of the Todra Gorge in Morocco.
Noravank Monastery sits on the edge of the steep rock. There’s a couple churches in the complex. Luckily there were very few other tourists as its offseason. The setting is amazing with the tall rock faces all around, very peaceful. Another spectacular site in Armenia.
We spent about 20 minutes here too, and then were back in the road for the remaining two hour drive to Goris.
The road ascends through the Zangezur Mountains, which were still covered with snow at this time of year. The scenery was stunning. The high point along the route reaches about 1520m before descending down to Goris at 1250m.
Our driver was familiar with the town and drove directly to our hotel, the Mirhav Hotel. It reminded me of a mountain chalet, which I guess it is. Our room was one of the smaller doubles, based on the emergency exit map on the back of the door. We asked if we could switch to another room and the hotel accommodated us.
It was after 2pm and I was feeling a bit peckish, so we quickly cleaned up and went back down to the hotel restaurant. The food was excellent, the winner was the chicken soup that Heather ordered.
We didn’t have any get-up-and-go after lunch (maybe due to the elevation), so just relaxed and went through our pics from the day.
Went back later on for dinner, and more tasty food. It’s a cosy restaurant with lots of plants and local art.
It was the same driver that had picked us up at the airport. He gave us a warm welcome. We loaded our luggage and we were off! Not so fast to start, as we inched our way through rush hour traffic.
Once we got out of the city it was easy going. The highway is in great shape, and our driver liked to go fast (he was a safe driver though).
About 30 minutes outside of Yerevan is Khor Virap, a monastery near the base of Mt Ararat (5896m). Our driver stopped on the approach for the classic pic of the monastery with Mt Ararat in the background. We were lucky that it was a clear morning and that the mountains were visible. It’s a spectacular view, one of the reasons I wanted to visit Armenia.
I didn’t remember that Mt Ararat is where Noah’s Ark first ran aground. Per the story, Noah released a dove who came back with an olive leaf, and that’s how Noah determined that waters were receding.
In modern times, locals have trained doves and will rent them to tourists so that you can release them from the monastery, who then fly back to their owners. Anyways we declined.
We spent about 20 minutes exploring around the Khor Virap monastery. Took lots more pics, although the best view was on the initial approach.
Got back in the van and continued onto Noravank Monastery. It’s down a valley with steep rock faces on both sides. It reminded us a bit of the Todra Gorge in Morocco.
Noravank Monastery sits on the edge of the steep rock. There’s a couple churches in the complex. Luckily there were very few other tourists as its offseason. The setting is amazing with the tall rock faces all around, very peaceful. Another spectacular site in Armenia.
We spent about 20 minutes here too, and then were back in the road for the remaining two hour drive to Goris.
The road ascends through the Zangezur Mountains, which were still covered with snow at this time of year. The scenery was stunning. The high point along the route reaches about 1520m before descending down to Goris at 1250m.
Our driver was familiar with the town and drove directly to our hotel, the Mirhav Hotel. It reminded me of a mountain chalet, which I guess it is. Our room was one of the smaller doubles, based on the emergency exit map on the back of the door. We asked if we could switch to another room and the hotel accommodated us.
It was after 2pm and I was feeling a bit peckish, so we quickly cleaned up and went back down to the hotel restaurant. The food was excellent, the winner was the chicken soup that Heather ordered.
We didn’t have any get-up-and-go after lunch (maybe due to the elevation), so just relaxed and went through our pics from the day.
Went back later on for dinner, and more tasty food. It’s a cosy restaurant with lots of plants and local art.
Thursday, March 12, 2026
Yerevan, Armenia
This morning my phone said the temperature was 3C with a feels-like of 8C. I have never seen that before. We stepped outside the hotel, and yep, with the sun and lack of wind, it was definitely a warm 3C.
We walked up the pedestrian Northern Avenue towards the Cascades. The buildings in the centre are mostly built from the same pink-orange stones and give a nice look to the avenue (and the rest of the centre).
The Opera House sits in the middle of the pedestrian avenue, surrounded by busy road. Took a few crosswalks to get back on track (pedestrians tend to follow the signals here).
The Cascades is a ginormous marble staircase, 572 steps with five open terraces, ascending 78 metres. It includes the Cafesjian Center for the Arts, which has both external and internal art galleries. Most of it was built starting in 1971, the last 20% or so near the top is still under construction.
We walked up the stairs, admiring the art and the view. It was a clear day and we could see Mt Ararat in the distance. On the way back down, we took the escalators and checked out the interior art collection. It’s really well curated and presented.
We were ready for lunch by the time we got back down to the bottom. Ate at the Green Bean café, a student hangout (there’s a number of universities nearby). It hit the spot.
Next up was Matenadaran, a manuscript museum. This didn’t show up on any of the travel blogs I had read, but the Rough Guide raved about it. It sounded cool to us so there we were.
The Armenian written language was invented in 405 AD by the monk Mesrop Mashtots. Armenian didn’t have a written language at the time. He evaluated different alphabets and decided none of them worked for the Armenian language; and created a brand new alphabet (originally 36 letters, now 39).
The museum has both international ancient scripts, and historical scripts in Armenian. It’s quite well done, we both enjoyed it. There were a few school groups visiting while we were there, they seemed quite excited with the exhibits too.
Walked back into the centre towards the Puppet Theatre. We bought tickets to a show on Tuesday afternoon. Possibly we’ll be the only adults, surrounded by school kids.
Across the street is Katoghike Church, a 13th century church that survived various gentrification cycles. It’s okay for a pic.
We walked back to the hotel via a laundromat near the hotel. We sorted out the machines (it took tap) and I returned later to wash some stuff. I’m not sure why it took us this long to start using laundromats, it’s way easier.
That was it for our day. We had dinner at the hotel. I tried an Areni wine, a local Armenian varietal which was quite good. Armenia is one of the oldest wine producing regions in the world, going back as far as 5000 BC. As expected, it went well with all the dishes we had at dinner.
We walked up the pedestrian Northern Avenue towards the Cascades. The buildings in the centre are mostly built from the same pink-orange stones and give a nice look to the avenue (and the rest of the centre).
The Opera House sits in the middle of the pedestrian avenue, surrounded by busy road. Took a few crosswalks to get back on track (pedestrians tend to follow the signals here).
The Cascades is a ginormous marble staircase, 572 steps with five open terraces, ascending 78 metres. It includes the Cafesjian Center for the Arts, which has both external and internal art galleries. Most of it was built starting in 1971, the last 20% or so near the top is still under construction.
We walked up the stairs, admiring the art and the view. It was a clear day and we could see Mt Ararat in the distance. On the way back down, we took the escalators and checked out the interior art collection. It’s really well curated and presented.
We were ready for lunch by the time we got back down to the bottom. Ate at the Green Bean café, a student hangout (there’s a number of universities nearby). It hit the spot.
Next up was Matenadaran, a manuscript museum. This didn’t show up on any of the travel blogs I had read, but the Rough Guide raved about it. It sounded cool to us so there we were.
The Armenian written language was invented in 405 AD by the monk Mesrop Mashtots. Armenian didn’t have a written language at the time. He evaluated different alphabets and decided none of them worked for the Armenian language; and created a brand new alphabet (originally 36 letters, now 39).
The museum has both international ancient scripts, and historical scripts in Armenian. It’s quite well done, we both enjoyed it. There were a few school groups visiting while we were there, they seemed quite excited with the exhibits too.
Walked back into the centre towards the Puppet Theatre. We bought tickets to a show on Tuesday afternoon. Possibly we’ll be the only adults, surrounded by school kids.
Across the street is Katoghike Church, a 13th century church that survived various gentrification cycles. It’s okay for a pic.
We walked back to the hotel via a laundromat near the hotel. We sorted out the machines (it took tap) and I returned later to wash some stuff. I’m not sure why it took us this long to start using laundromats, it’s way easier.
That was it for our day. We had dinner at the hotel. I tried an Areni wine, a local Armenian varietal which was quite good. Armenia is one of the oldest wine producing regions in the world, going back as far as 5000 BC. As expected, it went well with all the dishes we had at dinner.
Wednesday, March 11, 2026
Yerevan, Armenia
There’s no good flight options to get from western Europe to Yerevan, the few flights that exist all arrive around 4am. It’s only 2h25 from Athens to Yerevan so it’s not really an overnight flight, just an inconvenient flight time.
We had a late checkout from our Athens hotel, so we did some more shopping for cooler weather clothes in the morning. We ate lunch at 72H again, this time in the restaurant. It was just as good as the previous day.
Got back to our hotel and packed up for the flight. It was just 100 CAD more to book business class, which meant we could have dinner at the lounge and hang out there until our flight at 23:50. Aegean Airlines has their premier lounge in Athens, it’s one of the nicer lounges we’ve been to. Not a bad place to spend a few hours waiting.
It was pretty easy to check in for the flight; the agents didn’t ask to see our Armenian visas which I found odd. The flight itself was good; we tried to nap unsuccessfully.
We arrived in Yerevan around 4:30am, two hours ahead of Athens. It’s the biggest time change we’ll have on this trip, the rest of it I’ve planned out so it’s just one hour at a time.
Another bonus of booking business class is that we were first in line for immigration. There were 20 booths, and agents at each. At 4:30am.
We had to go through immigration separately. I had no issues, the agent had more interest in my ancestry. Heather had a bit more scrutiny due to the Azerbaijan stamp in her passport. (I had to renew mine last year which cleared my stamp cache). The Armenian stamp is at the back of the passport, a vestigial practice from the Soviet days.
Our luggage came out quickly (yet another bonus of flying business). We wheeled our bags through the Nothing to Declare line and exited to the terminal. Quickly found our driver (prearranged through our hotel) and were whisked off to the hotel. The airport is close to the city centre, about 15 minutes by car. Total time from landing to the hotel might have been 45 minutes!
The nightwatch person at the front desk was in a deep sleep in his chair, and it took us a few minutes of loudly saying Hello and knocking on the desk to wake him up. He then woke the night manager who checked us in and we were off to our room.
We set our alarms for 9am, hoping to catch the end of breakfast. When it rang, we decided we could probably make it to lunch without eating and went back to bed.
…
We woke up around 11am, got ourselves together and went down for lunch. We had the lunch special of the day which was excellent - chicken soup, fresh breads, and a beef dish served on rice with a shredded carrot & black olive salad, followed by a muddy coffee.
After lunch we just went for a short walk to orient ourselves. Our hotel is right beside Vernissage Market, so we checked it out. It has really good arts and crafts, it might be the best market we’ve seen quality-wise. Men played backgammon throughout the market. Got some drams from an ATM and then went into the bank to change for small bills. Grabbed a coffee from the Coffee Time vending machine in the market to fit in. It wasn’t the best coffee ever, but when in Rome :)
Across the street is Khachkar Park. As its name suggests, it’s home to khachkars, a medieval Christian cross-stone. There’s a bunch in the park, almost like a museum, with placards of the history of each.
Right beside the park is Republic Square, a grand city square. It has a large fountain which is beautiful according to the Rough Guide, although it’s currently closed for the winter. On one side of the square is a building that houses both the History Museum of Armenia and National Gallery of Armenia. The panels hanging on the outside of the building gave a great summary of Armenian history starting from about 3000 BC.
Also I found interesting the public drinking fountains which are widely used - I’d say over 25% of folks passing by the fountain outside the museum had a sip.
I had no idea Armenia had such a rich history. Based on our little walk, we’re both excited about seeing more of Yerevan & Armenia over the next week.
The hotel’s owners actually got their start in the carpet industry, employing over 1,000 people. They have a gallery and store in the ground floor of the hotel. They also usually have a carpet master course on offer, except the loom is currently being refurbished :(
Got back to our room and planned out the stuff we wanted to see in Yerevan. There’s a puppet theatre which looks really cool and has midday shows.
We had dinner in the hotel restaurant, it was pretty good. We tried one of their salad specials - cabbage, soft crumbly cheese, pomegranate and walnut salad, served warm. We also had their manti - in Armenia, it’s made in smaller nibble-sized pieces, a little different than what we had in Uzbekistan.
For those counting, Armenia is country 108 for me and 69 for Heather.
We had a late checkout from our Athens hotel, so we did some more shopping for cooler weather clothes in the morning. We ate lunch at 72H again, this time in the restaurant. It was just as good as the previous day.
Got back to our hotel and packed up for the flight. It was just 100 CAD more to book business class, which meant we could have dinner at the lounge and hang out there until our flight at 23:50. Aegean Airlines has their premier lounge in Athens, it’s one of the nicer lounges we’ve been to. Not a bad place to spend a few hours waiting.
It was pretty easy to check in for the flight; the agents didn’t ask to see our Armenian visas which I found odd. The flight itself was good; we tried to nap unsuccessfully.
We arrived in Yerevan around 4:30am, two hours ahead of Athens. It’s the biggest time change we’ll have on this trip, the rest of it I’ve planned out so it’s just one hour at a time.
Another bonus of booking business class is that we were first in line for immigration. There were 20 booths, and agents at each. At 4:30am.
We had to go through immigration separately. I had no issues, the agent had more interest in my ancestry. Heather had a bit more scrutiny due to the Azerbaijan stamp in her passport. (I had to renew mine last year which cleared my stamp cache). The Armenian stamp is at the back of the passport, a vestigial practice from the Soviet days.
Our luggage came out quickly (yet another bonus of flying business). We wheeled our bags through the Nothing to Declare line and exited to the terminal. Quickly found our driver (prearranged through our hotel) and were whisked off to the hotel. The airport is close to the city centre, about 15 minutes by car. Total time from landing to the hotel might have been 45 minutes!
The nightwatch person at the front desk was in a deep sleep in his chair, and it took us a few minutes of loudly saying Hello and knocking on the desk to wake him up. He then woke the night manager who checked us in and we were off to our room.
We set our alarms for 9am, hoping to catch the end of breakfast. When it rang, we decided we could probably make it to lunch without eating and went back to bed.
…
We woke up around 11am, got ourselves together and went down for lunch. We had the lunch special of the day which was excellent - chicken soup, fresh breads, and a beef dish served on rice with a shredded carrot & black olive salad, followed by a muddy coffee.
After lunch we just went for a short walk to orient ourselves. Our hotel is right beside Vernissage Market, so we checked it out. It has really good arts and crafts, it might be the best market we’ve seen quality-wise. Men played backgammon throughout the market. Got some drams from an ATM and then went into the bank to change for small bills. Grabbed a coffee from the Coffee Time vending machine in the market to fit in. It wasn’t the best coffee ever, but when in Rome :)
Across the street is Khachkar Park. As its name suggests, it’s home to khachkars, a medieval Christian cross-stone. There’s a bunch in the park, almost like a museum, with placards of the history of each.
Right beside the park is Republic Square, a grand city square. It has a large fountain which is beautiful according to the Rough Guide, although it’s currently closed for the winter. On one side of the square is a building that houses both the History Museum of Armenia and National Gallery of Armenia. The panels hanging on the outside of the building gave a great summary of Armenian history starting from about 3000 BC.
Also I found interesting the public drinking fountains which are widely used - I’d say over 25% of folks passing by the fountain outside the museum had a sip.
I had no idea Armenia had such a rich history. Based on our little walk, we’re both excited about seeing more of Yerevan & Armenia over the next week.
The hotel’s owners actually got their start in the carpet industry, employing over 1,000 people. They have a gallery and store in the ground floor of the hotel. They also usually have a carpet master course on offer, except the loom is currently being refurbished :(
Got back to our room and planned out the stuff we wanted to see in Yerevan. There’s a puppet theatre which looks really cool and has midday shows.
We had dinner in the hotel restaurant, it was pretty good. We tried one of their salad specials - cabbage, soft crumbly cheese, pomegranate and walnut salad, served warm. We also had their manti - in Armenia, it’s made in smaller nibble-sized pieces, a little different than what we had in Uzbekistan.
For those counting, Armenia is country 108 for me and 69 for Heather.
Monday, March 09, 2026
Athens, Greece
We had tickets to the Acropolis Museum at 2pm today, so had the morning to tour around. We walked back up towards Varvakios Market, in search of the spice market on Evripidou. It was just a handful of stores, with proper lids over the spices, and not really photogenic. We also looked for the fruit and vegetable market, but didn’t see anything.
We shopped for some clothing suitable for 5-15C. Typically when we travel it’s in hot climates and we have appropriate travel gear; we’re not used to this spring weather. We dropped off our purchases at the hotel, and then zipped over to the museum.
Along the way we grabbed sandwiches at 72H, and walked a bit further to the parkette at the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates to eat. The sandwich was amazing, mortadella with pistachio pesto on a ciabatta. There was also a soft cheese, maybe burrata. Hard to tell with so many soft white Greek cheeses. (Maybe not so hard to tell if you know your cheeses, just hard for me).
Anyways finished our sandwiches and then walked over to the museum. We weren’t sure which side the entrance was; I chose poorly and we walked 270° to get there.
First we accidentally went through the Excavation Museum, ruins of an ancient Athenian neighbourhood from the Byzantine period. It’s included in the Acropolis Museum ticket but it’s a separate entrance, not connected to each other. We didn’t spend much time there cause we wanted to see the main event.
There was no line up to enter the museum proper (it was just after 2pm by now). Scanned our tickets, checked our bags, and we were in! There’s some smaller artefacts on the 1st floor as you enter; we skipped past these for later.
Had an espresso and cake at the café on the 2nd floor. It was self-seating. We chose a random table, and were berated by the waitstaff for not choosing a seat with an amazing view of the Acropolis. We hadn’t even noticed it until the waitstaff pointed it out! So we picked a better seat and enjoyed our espresso with a view.
Onto museum-ing! We had to show our tickets again to exit the café and reenter the museum (I think you can visit just the café). Luckily I hadn’t left my ticket in my checked backpack.
We walked up the stairs to the 3rd floor. This is the best part of the museum, and one of the best laid out I’ve seen in the world. The interior is built to the dimensions of the Parthenon, and contains 40 blocks of the actual Parthenon frieze. Another 56 blocks are in the British Museum, part of the Elgin Marbles. There’s an outer ring containing what remains of the metopes. (Here’s a good diagram from Wikipedia explaining friezes vs metopes).
Visible in the background is the actual Acropolis. There was hardly anyone else at the museum (maybe a couple dozen people on the floor) and it was amazing. One of the best museums I’ve seen.
We took our time checking out the friezes and metopes and other architectural features on display. Overall it took us a couple hours to get through.
Walked back to our hotel, relaxed, cleaned up, and went out for dinner at Karamanlidika. We had stopped by earlier in the day during our search for spices and made a reservation for 8pm. As we walked to dinner, other restaurants looked empty-ish, as would be expected on a Monday in off-season. However when we got to Karamanlidika, it was packed! We would not have got seated without the reservation. It’s a meat and cheese store by day, and a hopping restaurant by night. Our table was in a heated & covered alley between buildings. The food was excellent, homemade traditional Greek food. Another successful day in Athens!
We shopped for some clothing suitable for 5-15C. Typically when we travel it’s in hot climates and we have appropriate travel gear; we’re not used to this spring weather. We dropped off our purchases at the hotel, and then zipped over to the museum.
Along the way we grabbed sandwiches at 72H, and walked a bit further to the parkette at the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates to eat. The sandwich was amazing, mortadella with pistachio pesto on a ciabatta. There was also a soft cheese, maybe burrata. Hard to tell with so many soft white Greek cheeses. (Maybe not so hard to tell if you know your cheeses, just hard for me).
Anyways finished our sandwiches and then walked over to the museum. We weren’t sure which side the entrance was; I chose poorly and we walked 270° to get there.
First we accidentally went through the Excavation Museum, ruins of an ancient Athenian neighbourhood from the Byzantine period. It’s included in the Acropolis Museum ticket but it’s a separate entrance, not connected to each other. We didn’t spend much time there cause we wanted to see the main event.
There was no line up to enter the museum proper (it was just after 2pm by now). Scanned our tickets, checked our bags, and we were in! There’s some smaller artefacts on the 1st floor as you enter; we skipped past these for later.
Had an espresso and cake at the café on the 2nd floor. It was self-seating. We chose a random table, and were berated by the waitstaff for not choosing a seat with an amazing view of the Acropolis. We hadn’t even noticed it until the waitstaff pointed it out! So we picked a better seat and enjoyed our espresso with a view.
Onto museum-ing! We had to show our tickets again to exit the café and reenter the museum (I think you can visit just the café). Luckily I hadn’t left my ticket in my checked backpack.
We walked up the stairs to the 3rd floor. This is the best part of the museum, and one of the best laid out I’ve seen in the world. The interior is built to the dimensions of the Parthenon, and contains 40 blocks of the actual Parthenon frieze. Another 56 blocks are in the British Museum, part of the Elgin Marbles. There’s an outer ring containing what remains of the metopes. (Here’s a good diagram from Wikipedia explaining friezes vs metopes).
Visible in the background is the actual Acropolis. There was hardly anyone else at the museum (maybe a couple dozen people on the floor) and it was amazing. One of the best museums I’ve seen.
We took our time checking out the friezes and metopes and other architectural features on display. Overall it took us a couple hours to get through.
Walked back to our hotel, relaxed, cleaned up, and went out for dinner at Karamanlidika. We had stopped by earlier in the day during our search for spices and made a reservation for 8pm. As we walked to dinner, other restaurants looked empty-ish, as would be expected on a Monday in off-season. However when we got to Karamanlidika, it was packed! We would not have got seated without the reservation. It’s a meat and cheese store by day, and a hopping restaurant by night. Our table was in a heated & covered alley between buildings. The food was excellent, homemade traditional Greek food. Another successful day in Athens!
Sunday, March 08, 2026
Athens, Greece
We were up before our alarm rang at 8:30, the first time this trip. Maybe we’re starting to get over our jet lag? It was just as well, as the bells on the orthodox church next door started chiming at 9am for Sunday mass. I think the bells are literally right outside our window! At least, it sounds like they are. The singer (?) had an excellent voice. The incantations reminded us of call to prayers at mosques where it’s broadcast over speakers.
The Athens half marathon was today, with a few road closures. I had looked up the full marathon when planning to make sure we didn’t hit it (that’s a busier time here) but not every event. I suppose in a city as big as Athens there’s always some event or the other.
We walked over to the National Archaeological Museum, in the Exarcheia neighbourhood. It’s another up-and-coming neighbourhood. The recent opening of new subway stops has kicked-started the gentrification.
The museum is large. We spent about three hours visiting, and could probably return to see the remaining. It was pretty interesting and well-labelled in Greek and English.
I had read up about a sandwich place, The Black Salami, about ten minutes from the museum. It was excellent! It had a very local vibe to it. We had an espresso and a miso cookie after our sandwiches. Mmm good.
That was it for the day. We got home, did some laundry at the laundromat (we don’t trust hotels to not shrink our clothes), picked out a restaurant for dinner with indoor seating. We ate at Athinaikon near the Holy Metropolitan Cathedral. It was mostly tourists but had pretty good food.
The Athens half marathon was today, with a few road closures. I had looked up the full marathon when planning to make sure we didn’t hit it (that’s a busier time here) but not every event. I suppose in a city as big as Athens there’s always some event or the other.
We walked over to the National Archaeological Museum, in the Exarcheia neighbourhood. It’s another up-and-coming neighbourhood. The recent opening of new subway stops has kicked-started the gentrification.
The museum is large. We spent about three hours visiting, and could probably return to see the remaining. It was pretty interesting and well-labelled in Greek and English.
I had read up about a sandwich place, The Black Salami, about ten minutes from the museum. It was excellent! It had a very local vibe to it. We had an espresso and a miso cookie after our sandwiches. Mmm good.
That was it for the day. We got home, did some laundry at the laundromat (we don’t trust hotels to not shrink our clothes), picked out a restaurant for dinner with indoor seating. We ate at Athinaikon near the Holy Metropolitan Cathedral. It was mostly tourists but had pretty good food.
Saturday, March 07, 2026
Athens, Greece
Today was a couple standing itinerary items we have in big cities - visiting the market, and the museum of contemporary art.
Varvakios Central Municipal Market is a short ten minute walk north of our hotel. It’s one of the cleanest markets we’ve seen. First we walked through the meat market, took some pics of the butchers with their giant cleavers, almost as big as A4 paper. The fish market is in the middle, and had no fishy smell at all, pretty impressive given its size. The fishmongers were very artistic about n their fish displays, some even adding vegetables for colour.
There’s a fruit and vegetable market nearby which we missed seeing. Later I also read that there’s a spice market too! It’s close by our hotel so we can return to see it another day.
We then walked through the Monastiraki and Plaka neighbourhoods on our way to the National Museum of Contemporary Art (ΕΜΣΤ). The neighbourhoods are more gentrified than Psiri (where our hotel is) and are filled with pedestrian streets, cool cafés and restaurants, and clothing stores. We prefer our location for a hotel as it’s a little less touristy.
We wound our way through the non-grid streets using Google Maps. There were very few other visitors at ΕΜΣΤ, we had most of the exhibits to ourselves.
The theme of the current exhibition is about respect for animals, which was ironic given that we started our day at the fish and meat market. The exhibition was well-curated.
The bonus was the restaurant on the 5th floor of ΕΜΣΤ, with great views of the Acropolis. We split a club sandwich and a salad which was okay, but you’re really here for the view.
Our route home took us past Philopappos Hill, so we took the ten minute detour to walk up to the top. It’s a cobblestone road all the way up. The pic of the Acropolis from the viewpoint is the best one in my opinion, as you get the Parthenon, Propylaea and Odeon of Herodes Atticus all in the frame. We had the viewpoint to ourselves for part of the time we were up there!
Walked back home along the familiar route around the south side of the Acropolis.
We ate at Aesop Fables, very close to the hotel. It was okay, we much preferred the other places we had tried.
Varvakios Central Municipal Market is a short ten minute walk north of our hotel. It’s one of the cleanest markets we’ve seen. First we walked through the meat market, took some pics of the butchers with their giant cleavers, almost as big as A4 paper. The fish market is in the middle, and had no fishy smell at all, pretty impressive given its size. The fishmongers were very artistic about n their fish displays, some even adding vegetables for colour.
There’s a fruit and vegetable market nearby which we missed seeing. Later I also read that there’s a spice market too! It’s close by our hotel so we can return to see it another day.
We then walked through the Monastiraki and Plaka neighbourhoods on our way to the National Museum of Contemporary Art (ΕΜΣΤ). The neighbourhoods are more gentrified than Psiri (where our hotel is) and are filled with pedestrian streets, cool cafés and restaurants, and clothing stores. We prefer our location for a hotel as it’s a little less touristy.
We wound our way through the non-grid streets using Google Maps. There were very few other visitors at ΕΜΣΤ, we had most of the exhibits to ourselves.
The theme of the current exhibition is about respect for animals, which was ironic given that we started our day at the fish and meat market. The exhibition was well-curated.
The bonus was the restaurant on the 5th floor of ΕΜΣΤ, with great views of the Acropolis. We split a club sandwich and a salad which was okay, but you’re really here for the view.
Our route home took us past Philopappos Hill, so we took the ten minute detour to walk up to the top. It’s a cobblestone road all the way up. The pic of the Acropolis from the viewpoint is the best one in my opinion, as you get the Parthenon, Propylaea and Odeon of Herodes Atticus all in the frame. We had the viewpoint to ourselves for part of the time we were up there!
Walked back home along the familiar route around the south side of the Acropolis.
We ate at Aesop Fables, very close to the hotel. It was okay, we much preferred the other places we had tried.
Friday, March 06, 2026
Athens, Greece
Panathenaic Stadium is built entirely out of marble, and was used for the first modern Olympics in 1896. It’s possible to tour the stadium so that’s where we headed this morning, about a 25 minute walk from our hotel.
On the way there, we passed by the Holy Metropolitan Church of the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary, so stopped to check it out. It’s the preeminent church in Athens, used for state funerals and the like. It’s worth a stop to check out.
Carried on along the pedestrian street to the National Garden. We walked through the well-maintained park to reach the stadium. We could see the marble seating as we approached, it looked pretty cool.
Today was Melina Mercouri Day, where a lot of national sites are free. Unfortunately the stadium was not one of these :( We started by climbing up to the top of the stands. There’s a great view of the Acropolis from the midpoint of the stands. It was a bit breezy today so the flag was flying too. (Yesterday Heather waited a few minutes for the flag to show for her pic but there was no wind).
The marble bleachers made for great pics. There was a group of school kids on the field participating in relay races, they looked like they were having lots of fun.
We circled around the stands to the other side (it’s horseshoe-shaped, open on one end). Then we descended to field level, and explored the access tunnel, I guess this is where athletes would enter from. At the other end of the tunnel is a mini-museum of The Olympics, including relay torches and posters from every Olympics. It was pretty cool, and we didn’t even know it was there!
Next we walked over to the Arch of Hadrian. It’s close to the Acropolis Museum, and gets lots of spillover guided tour traffic. Right around the corner is the Temple of Olympian Zeus. It’s mostly under scaffolding, and right now not worth the 20 EUR entrance fee, except it was free today (see Melina Mercouri Day above). So we got our free tickets and entered. It will look nice once it’s restored.
We crossed over the street into Plaka, a trendy neighborhood, in search of a lunch place. Tried the souvlaki and gyros at The Greco’s Project, it was good. We get great Greek food at home in Toronto so maybe that’s why we’re not as excited :) it hit the spot though.
We got back to our hotel and relaxed until dinner. It was chillier this evening so preferred a restaurant with indoor seating (lots have only patio seating). Our hotel suggested Via Maris, about 100m around the corner from the hotel. It was a Friday night and a lot busier than the previous two nights, luckily we still got seated. We shared a number of small plates, they were all excellent. Our favourites included a Moroccan-inspired ceviche, a coppa dish and a sashimi dish.
After dinner we walked around Psiri (our neighbourhood). It was really hopping on a Friday night!
On the way there, we passed by the Holy Metropolitan Church of the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary, so stopped to check it out. It’s the preeminent church in Athens, used for state funerals and the like. It’s worth a stop to check out.
Carried on along the pedestrian street to the National Garden. We walked through the well-maintained park to reach the stadium. We could see the marble seating as we approached, it looked pretty cool.
Today was Melina Mercouri Day, where a lot of national sites are free. Unfortunately the stadium was not one of these :( We started by climbing up to the top of the stands. There’s a great view of the Acropolis from the midpoint of the stands. It was a bit breezy today so the flag was flying too. (Yesterday Heather waited a few minutes for the flag to show for her pic but there was no wind).
The marble bleachers made for great pics. There was a group of school kids on the field participating in relay races, they looked like they were having lots of fun.
We circled around the stands to the other side (it’s horseshoe-shaped, open on one end). Then we descended to field level, and explored the access tunnel, I guess this is where athletes would enter from. At the other end of the tunnel is a mini-museum of The Olympics, including relay torches and posters from every Olympics. It was pretty cool, and we didn’t even know it was there!
Next we walked over to the Arch of Hadrian. It’s close to the Acropolis Museum, and gets lots of spillover guided tour traffic. Right around the corner is the Temple of Olympian Zeus. It’s mostly under scaffolding, and right now not worth the 20 EUR entrance fee, except it was free today (see Melina Mercouri Day above). So we got our free tickets and entered. It will look nice once it’s restored.
We crossed over the street into Plaka, a trendy neighborhood, in search of a lunch place. Tried the souvlaki and gyros at The Greco’s Project, it was good. We get great Greek food at home in Toronto so maybe that’s why we’re not as excited :) it hit the spot though.
We got back to our hotel and relaxed until dinner. It was chillier this evening so preferred a restaurant with indoor seating (lots have only patio seating). Our hotel suggested Via Maris, about 100m around the corner from the hotel. It was a Friday night and a lot busier than the previous two nights, luckily we still got seated. We shared a number of small plates, they were all excellent. Our favourites included a Moroccan-inspired ceviche, a coppa dish and a sashimi dish.
After dinner we walked around Psiri (our neighbourhood). It was really hopping on a Friday night!
Thursday, March 05, 2026
Athens, Greece
I had just planned for us to see the Acropolis this afternoon, in case we were jet lagged and just wanting to relax. We had timed entry tickets to the Acropolis for 3pm, which according to the internet was the best time to beat the crowds.
We had breakfast and felt energized, so decided to head out in the morning to see Odeon of Herodes Atticus, the amphitheater on the south slope of the Acropolis.
The Acropolis sits about 70m above the city, a bit of an uphill walk. It was pleasant as the weather was perfect again, 17C and sunny.
It wasn’t clear where the entrance was to the amphitheater. We first walked to back of the stage, peering through the gates at the theatre seating inside. Walked back up to the ticket booth. Turns out the amphitheater is only open for performances in the offseason :(
So instead we walked along Apostolou Pavlou, the pedestrian street south of the Acropolis, to the Ancient Agora of Athens. We had seen the Agora yesterday from the outside on our random walks; today we bought tickets (20 EUR each) and entered the ruins.
First we checked out the Temple of Hephaestus, one of the better preserved temples in Athens. It’s not that big, about 14m x 32m, so that took us about five minutes.
We then went wandered through the agora, strewn with unrestored marble blocks. The ruins are impressive from their vastness. Probably they are super interesting if you’re into archaeology.
The ticket also includes entry into the Stoa of Attalos museum. It contains artefacts from every day life, arranged in chronological order from the Neolithic to the Post-byzantine and Ottoman periods. Probably super interesting if you’re into archaeology.
It was time for lunch, so we looked up a place on google maps. It was okay, they did have excellent espressos.
Walked back uphill to the Acropolis. The internet said we could enter up to 30 minutes before our timed entry, but the ticket folks were having none of me doing my own research. So we sat in the shade and people watched for a few minutes.
It wasn’t busy at all today at the Acropolis; if we hadn’t pre-booked, we could have just walked right up to the ticket booth, bought our tickets, and entered. Oh well.
Finally we were allowed to enter using our timed-entry tickets. We walked up through the Propylaea (monumental gateway). The limestone floor and steps are really slippery from the thousands of visitors. The main attraction, the Parthenon, is under scaffolding so my pics are all just partial views.
We spent about 30 minutes atop the Acropolis. It wasn’t crowded at all - it was even possible to get tourist-less pics!
We took care walking back down the steps towards the South Slope. There’s some stuff to see on the slopes, nothing to write home about.
Overall we were underwhelmed by the Acropolis and Parthenon. If you’re in Athens, you have to visit here, but I wouldn’t suggest planning a trip around it.
We walked back to our hotel, had a shower, and headed out for dinner. It was still early but we thought our jet lag would catch up to us if we didn’t keep going.
We tried Tavern Klimataria for dinner, another recommendation from the hotel. It was really busy. We had a Greek salad, a roasted red pepper dish, slow cooked leg of lamb, and baked halloumi. It was quite good.
We were both pretty tired so just got back to the hotel and crashed.
We had breakfast and felt energized, so decided to head out in the morning to see Odeon of Herodes Atticus, the amphitheater on the south slope of the Acropolis.
The Acropolis sits about 70m above the city, a bit of an uphill walk. It was pleasant as the weather was perfect again, 17C and sunny.
It wasn’t clear where the entrance was to the amphitheater. We first walked to back of the stage, peering through the gates at the theatre seating inside. Walked back up to the ticket booth. Turns out the amphitheater is only open for performances in the offseason :(
So instead we walked along Apostolou Pavlou, the pedestrian street south of the Acropolis, to the Ancient Agora of Athens. We had seen the Agora yesterday from the outside on our random walks; today we bought tickets (20 EUR each) and entered the ruins.
First we checked out the Temple of Hephaestus, one of the better preserved temples in Athens. It’s not that big, about 14m x 32m, so that took us about five minutes.
We then went wandered through the agora, strewn with unrestored marble blocks. The ruins are impressive from their vastness. Probably they are super interesting if you’re into archaeology.
The ticket also includes entry into the Stoa of Attalos museum. It contains artefacts from every day life, arranged in chronological order from the Neolithic to the Post-byzantine and Ottoman periods. Probably super interesting if you’re into archaeology.
It was time for lunch, so we looked up a place on google maps. It was okay, they did have excellent espressos.
Walked back uphill to the Acropolis. The internet said we could enter up to 30 minutes before our timed entry, but the ticket folks were having none of me doing my own research. So we sat in the shade and people watched for a few minutes.
It wasn’t busy at all today at the Acropolis; if we hadn’t pre-booked, we could have just walked right up to the ticket booth, bought our tickets, and entered. Oh well.
Finally we were allowed to enter using our timed-entry tickets. We walked up through the Propylaea (monumental gateway). The limestone floor and steps are really slippery from the thousands of visitors. The main attraction, the Parthenon, is under scaffolding so my pics are all just partial views.
We spent about 30 minutes atop the Acropolis. It wasn’t crowded at all - it was even possible to get tourist-less pics!
We took care walking back down the steps towards the South Slope. There’s some stuff to see on the slopes, nothing to write home about.
Overall we were underwhelmed by the Acropolis and Parthenon. If you’re in Athens, you have to visit here, but I wouldn’t suggest planning a trip around it.
We walked back to our hotel, had a shower, and headed out for dinner. It was still early but we thought our jet lag would catch up to us if we didn’t keep going.
We tried Tavern Klimataria for dinner, another recommendation from the hotel. It was really busy. We had a Greek salad, a roasted red pepper dish, slow cooked leg of lamb, and baked halloumi. It was quite good.
We were both pretty tired so just got back to the hotel and crashed.
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