My first day in Yerevan, Armenia: lots of stairs, lots of apricots, and plenty of pictures

Jet lag has never been a huge issue for me. I’m usually so tired from traveling that I’ll crash as soon as I’m in bed that evening. With the 9-hour time difference, though, I was a little worried that I’d have a hard time falling asleep, or worse yet, waking up. That scene in Frances Ha where she sleeps through almost her entire weekend in Paris is my own personal nightmare.

I tried not to sleep too much on my second flight (five hours in the air, 2 on the ground, yikes). I arrived at my hostel around midnight, took a melatonin pill, read one page on my Kindle and crashed. I woke up a few times in the night, and slept about 45 minutes past my initial alarm this morning. I still made it to the free hostel breakfast early, made an instant coffee and fixed myself a plate of cucumbers, tomatoes, Armenian cheese and bread. I chatted briefly with a Norwegian-American journalist who regaled me with his Eastern European travels from 15 years ago when you could get a Belorussian visa at the train station in Vilnius, and from almost 30 years ago, when Estonia and Latvia were independent from the USSR but still had Russian border control officers and currency.

I eventually decided to head out into the world and had a few stops on my list for the day, the first being the Yerevan Cascade, a literal “cascade” of steps built in the 1970s and renovated in 2009. It didn’t disappoint, though it was already getting quite warm and sunny as I hiked up the steps to the top. I realized then that I am a little out of shape, though I think that will change in the weeks ahead.

First #sweatyselfie of the trip

I made it to the top of the cascade and decided to go a little further to the brutalist concrete structure farther up. You had to take stairs around a questionable pit of unfinished construction from decades ago, which I did, and made it up to the top of that.

I then checked my map and saw that “Victory Park”, whatever that meant, was close by, so I took one of those underground tunnels through under a busy street and went to the park. I could see “Mother Armenia”, common in so many former USSR cities, in the distance, and made my way over there. By now it was getting pretty toasty so I was thankful to see that the base of the statue had a small museum. I popped into the “donation-only” museum, gave the attendant a 500 dram coin (approx $1.05) and wandered around a bit.

I then headed back through the park, which started to look like an abandoned amusement park until I realized that it was just closed, and that these decades-old rides would be fired up later that day. So I played tourist and took some photos of these honestly frightening rides before I made my way out of the park and back down to the center.

I stopped at Hyur Service, a tour agency, to pay for the group tour I will be joining Saturday of several of the main monastic sites in Armenia. The tour will last 13-14 hours and costs $40, which seems like a deal to me given that we’re being whisked around half the country in a day.

Then, about an hour later that I had planned due to the Victory Park detour, I headed south of the center to GUM Market, which was recommended by Lonely Planet and generally the type of place I like to go on my trips. Armed with my notes from Artos, I wandered through the massive building, politely declining slices of meat that were offered to me, and trying other fare while assessing how much and what I should by. I ended up with 1.5 kilos of golden apricots, two giant juicy tomatoes, two cucumbers, a long light green pepper I got for free with my veggies, two half-kilos of different types of cheese, and a giant piece of bread. I had a hard time saying no. I spent about $12, half of that going towards the apricots, which seemed expensive to me but I paid the same price at two separate vendors. Regardless, those apricots are damn good and were totally worth it.

I trekked back to the hostel and checked my Fitbit, which I started wearing again for the trip. Eight miles and sixty four (!!) flights of stairs before 1pm. Not bad! After a long, drawn out meal of cheese and tomato sandwiches and cucumber salad, I retreated to my dorm room to blog and relax, where I still am now. I may read and take a nap. Later this evening I’ll meet up with a new friend, Lusine, who I haven’t met yet but went to the University of Minnesota to study architecture. A professor introduced us via email in the spring and we’ve been planning to meet up for a while.

I don’t feel obligated to be out and about the entire day, partially because it’s so hot, and partially because I have three full days here and feel like I can stretch out my sort-of planned itinerary without having to go go go all the time. I’m also still a little worn out from the trip. Regardless, so far it’s been a full day and I’m sure I’ll get out again before nightfall!