From Yerevan to Tatev

I woke up quite excited. The Tatev Monastery, in the Syniuk province, close to the Autonomous Republic of Naxçivan (an Azerbaijani exclave), to the West, to Iran to the South and to Nagorno-Karabakh to the East. It's a long ride, and I planned to take a marshrutka, but destiny was there again to stick its tongue at me.

Me and Anna walked through her neighbourhood to meet some colleagues who would drive her to work (incidentally close to the bus station). I took the chance to snap a few pictures. Wow... And people complain of Lambrate or Viale Monza.

So, we joined her colleagues, but their car seemed unable to start. The engine seemed to fail every time. The driver was tinkering in the bonnet, with seemingly no result. We tried to push it once, nothing. More tinkering. We (well, they) tried to push it again and this time it worked. But the brief delay was enough to make me miss the marshrutka But Anna (I'll never stress enough the importance of having a native speaker with you in those moments) found another solution. Taxi!

(Yes, you read this good: a circa 250 Km taxi ride. Wanna know how much? 38€, you probably wouldn't get from Milan to Malpensa with that amount. And this just 'cause I happened to be alone. Sharing it would have been even cheaper)

The ride from Yerevan to Tatev was by and large uneventful, if we exclude the tendency of the driver to stay on the left lane, for no apparent reason. Maybe he lived in England and missed the place? He only shifted to the right lane whenever a vehicle approached, but we (almost) never risked anything, so that was basically all. He did not speak English or Italian, I did not speak Armenian of Russian, this time there was no awkward attempt at conversation.

And the landscape. Oh, the landscape... Armenia, let me tell you this, you are damn painting.

The weather wasn't spectacular, but we encountered sun, drizzle, snow and wind.

Also, a damn stargate.

The arrival was in Halidzor, a location connected to Tatev by the Wings of Tatev, the longest reversible aerial tramway built in only one section. It's 5.7 Km long and It's a blast, as long as you don't travel with the usual tourists who go "whoooo!" every time it goes from a high point to a low one. I had plenty, of course.

That one above is Satan's Bridge, a natural stone bridge on the Vorotan river.

The landscape, again, was something incredible, rugged, wild and colorful. The cable car ride took roughly 15 minutes, and left me within walking distance from today's destination, the fabled Tatev Monastery.