The bus station for Dilijan was 30mins away, on the northern outskirts of Yerevan. Okay, let’s see if Yandex drivers are good for long trips, and would take me the 2 hours all the way. I asked the reception at the hotel his thoughts, and he simply shrugged like it was nothing to worry about.
So buffering in 30mins to see if someone would take the ride, failing that I’d just get a ride to the bus terminal and bus it instead. Selecting a comfort ride, to my surprise it was accepted in less than a minute, and 5 minutes later a brand new BYD rocked up, and away we went.
The drive to Dilijan was drama free and a nice 1.5 hour drive. I’m sure the driver made as much in that trip than he’d make in a day battling the city centre of Yerevan, so we both were smiling at the end of the trip.
Dilijan has been called the Swiss Alps of Armenia. Never been to the Swiss Alps myself, I can say for certain this is a teeny overstatement. It sure is beautiful, though, surrounded by green forests and rising mountains with caps of white.
I ended up staying two nights here, in a great hotel with a huge balcony overlooking the green forested mountains. Most people take a day trip from Yerevan. I sat watching the world go by drinking my Armenian coffee, as tourist mini van and the next would arrive all morning, and take off after an hour. To be fair, unless you’re a hiking nerd, there’s no reason to stay here longer than a day. Personally, I just loved the mountains and greenery, and felt a wonderful calm sipping coffee and reading a book (finally reading Dune).
For breakfast I realised one thing I hadn’t embraced – apricots. This fruit is the symbol of Armenia, it’s farming of apricots was, and still is, famous through throughout the region. Sipping on some delicious apricot juice, I recalled a tour guide tell us the colours of the Armenian flag are the strips of red, blue, and orange. However it wasn’t orange, the colour is in fact apricot.
On the last night I decided I should actually eat at the family restaurant of the hotel. Their three teenage boys run the show, acting as waiters dressed like a 5 star establishment, even with lapel microphones to keep in comms with each other. It’s so out of place and unnecessary, it just became charming.
After a delicious serving of BBQ pork ribs and tenderloin, smokey and seasoned perfectly, with a bit of crackling, I paid up and the owner gave me a complimentary beer to take back to the room. See people, always be nice to you hospitality staff!
The next stop was Gyumri, and the bus situation was a bit tight. I’d need to take a mini bus from Dilijan to the town of Vanadzor, then there was only 20mins to get to the next minibus for Gyumri. And that was it, if the first bus was late I would miss the connecting one. And what if the Gyumri bus was already filled! I didn’t like my odds, so figured I’d just splurge again and see if a Yandex driver would take me the 2 hours to Gyumri.
Not disappointing, less than a minute after requesting the ride, I had a driver on the way, and soon enough I was on the glorious highway surrounded by emerald green hills on one side, and snow capped mountains on the other.
What a truly beautiful part of the world this is!