The original plan for the second leg of my trip included a Black See boat cross. Due to 2,5 days delay of the boat, compared to what was announced one month before, I had to change plans. Here is how it looked like before starting the trip:
The long line is the boat trip. On 29th November I still took the train direction Batumi but soon saw it was not realistic to be back on time without too much stress. I got out in Kutaisi and took a bus back to Tbilisi.
The line was replaced by a vertical line of my stay in Tbilisi (thanks Tamo!), plus a last minute night train to Yerevan. I had to leave land and fly to Vienna to recover distance/time. At the end, and unexpectedly the night train trip from Vienna to Zurich finished in Innsbruck due to snow. It followed by several train changed and I end up to arrive Bern only 30 minutes before the initial plan.
I can’t sleep more, for me it is already 9:40. The night was quite bad, I had hard time sleeping. There was a constant ventilation noise and the air was very dry. I really prefer Russian trains. When I look at the phone, I find out the train was rerouted and we will have 90 minutes delay. I look at my watch and it shows the end of a race.
Outside it snows. I ask the conductor for my breakfast, he says the bread will only come in Innsbruck. I request to fold the upper bed, so that I can seat correctly. This wagon is not made to be seated.
Soon after I see we are in Innsbruck and the train is 3h20 late already. Nothing happens from now on. The panel outside says “Undefined delay”. I wait. And wait.
08:30
The train is canceled, all should get out. “A replacement bus to Zurich will be provided”. I dress up warm, ask again for my breakfast which I get partially on a bag and go out to where the replacement bus leave. More and more people come, but no news. I use my small Swiss knife to prepare the two bread I’ve got. A while after a person comes and says she got the information that no bus is planned and we should wait inside the station until more information comes.
09:50
I decide to take a regional train to Landeck, with the hope maybe from there I can go further. Half way there is a replacement bus. At 11h I arrive to Landeck and there are no more trains or buses. Fortunately in Austria there are bakeries in every train station with tables and nice things to eat. I get a café latte and a cake.
Finally a train direction Zurich left Innsbruck at 11:46 and should arrive here at 12:56. I hope so. I see now that I missed a bus connection from here to the Swiss border. The next one is at 12:55, but is much slower than the train. I’ll wait for the train.
14:40
I’m on the train direction Zurich, but they just said that “because of the huge delay”, it will end at Buchs SG, the first station inside Switzerland. Next connection to Zurich is 25 minutes later, with change in Sargans. The platform gets full of people. I’m happy that since 1st December (yesterday) I’ve a first class pass paid by my new job.
I take the train to Sargans, then wait for the connection to Zurich. In Zurich I finally take the train to Bern.
18:05
It is 18:05 when I arrive. Just 30 minutes later as my initial plan from one month (without the flight).
I’m tired, there is beautiful snow everywhere. Eva is on the way home from Geneva.
I woke up at 8:30 and went for breakfast, which was in the hotel next to mine. It was the best breakfast apart from couchsurfing that I had in this trip.
Against the initial plans, I will have to take a plane. I fly to Vienna with Wizzair. I fear discussion about my backpack size. There was also a problem with the booking and was done twice, for the same flight, with the same name, which I need to resolve once home. More and more I’m allergic to airports.
There are two buses from the centre of Yeveran to the airport. The 201 bus with timetable and possibility to follow real-time on the phone, and since last year the 100 bus, that leaves “every 45 minutes”. It happened to take the latter one. I asked the driver for the timetable and he confirmed “every 45 minutes”.
14:00 (17:00 Armenian time)
I landed in Vienna. The flight was quiet. I almost took off with the laptop open, they did not check my row. No problem with the backpack. Now I’ve to make time until the evening. I take a train to the centre, to the Kunsthalle in the MuseumQuartier. There is an exhibition about Skopje and with Macedonian artists. It is a bit like a come back to my first days of the trip.
For dinner I see the bad power of Google Maps. When one searches for a schnitzel restaurant, it proposes first a certain one. Arrive there and a huge queue at the door. I go back to a brassiere I saw before. It is huge and many people arriving at same time. I manage still to get a table before it is full. In less than 3 minutes is my wiener schnitzel on the table with a big beer. I finish with an äpfel strudel and go to the train station.
21:20
My cabin is closed. I go to the conductor, who assigns me to another one (already with a paper prepared for my bed number). It is a double docker train, with cabins three stairs up and others three stairs down. I’m alone in a two-bed cabin. There is a lavabo inside and toilets in the corridor. I was expecting a better wagon, with shower. I see my wagon was not the one expected. I wonder if it would be better normally.
I brush my teeth and go to bed, breakfast will be served at 7:00. I’ll be at home at 09:30.
The lights go on. We are 30 minutes away from Yerevan. I did not sleep much, but well. I believe better than my Bulgarian colleague who I saw seated during the night. I need to discover what is there to see in Yerevan, look for an hotel, where I can leave my backpack and a “free” tour.
07:00
Yerevan sleeps. Only a few taxi drivers are at the station asking if I need a ride, but they do not insist. The public lights are off, the streets are illuminated by the closed shops lights. It is cold. I walk towards the centre. Some buses go by and leave passengers. In the centre I finally find a “Paul” café open. The prices are tourist prices. I warm up with a coffee and reserve the hotel.
Yeveran morning, without any street lights
09:00
After leaving the backpack at the hotel I go to discover the city. It is completely different from Tbilisi. Smaller, much less confusion. Large sidewalks and comfortable. Only the pedestrian lights take very long to change. I go up the “Cascade” via the Contemporary Art Museum. The timetable outside says it opens at 10:00, it is in 4 minutes. I wait and then when I go inside they say there is no exhibition per se, but a set of mechanical stairs and next to it many pieces of art. It is an interesting building. At the “Mother of Armenia” – again a big statue of a woman -, the door downstairs have a sign clearly saying “open”. Inside is the Military Museum. The lady seated at the desk at the entrance turn on the lights for me. The exhibits are about the Armenia-Azerbeijan conflicts. When I go to the other floor, another lady working there follows me at the 2/3 meter distance for the whole circuit. At the end both came to say that the museum is free but accepts donations. I don’t have dirhams, I say. No problem, we accept any currency. I give 5 Lari which I understand will be a direct tip to the ladies.
Yeveran CascadeInside the “Cascade”Mother of ArmeniaLittle important sign saying “Open”
I walk down to the magnificent Matenadaran Museum, which is also a repository and research institute of ancient manuscripts. Mostly are in Armenian, but many also in other languages and alphabets. I like alphabets and this trip was rich on it.
Manuscript from 1232
13:00
I eat in a pizza restaurant with an interesting concept: one chooses on the menu slices of the pizzas one wants and they make a tray with the desired mix. I taste the Armenian red wine, served fresh.
The afternoon I visit the “Vernissage”, kind of souvenirs market, where there is no pressure to buy anything. So far in Armenia no one insists to sell anything to the tourist. I exchange my remaining Laris and then visit the Blue Mosque.
At the supermarket it is possible to fill bottles of beer from tap. Also coffee there is a large ‘vrac’ choice
There are many water points, which is welcoming.
16:30
After resting for a while in the hotel, I go visit the old Yeveran neighbourhood. It is on a hill and basically where the poor people now live. There is a try to bring some live and art to the quarter, which is nice.
Kond neighborhood in YerevanKond neighborhood in Yerevan
At the end I try to go to the Ararat brandy museum, but it is only with guided tours. I go for an early dinner instead, with Armenian specialities. There are influences of the middle-east and I manage to have a nice vegetarian choice.
Armenian “Paklava” dessert with Ararat local brandy
I walked already 26km today, says my watch.
20:15
I still go to a bar. On the Portwine/Jerez section they listed only a Jerez and a Madeira wine. I tell them while I drink an Ararat brandy with honey.
During this trip I come across five different alphabets – Latin, Cyrillic, Greek, Georgian and Armenian. Being able to decipher what is written has been very useful in several trips. When reading timetables, menus in the restaurant, addresses in maps, or buttons in different machines. Apart of Latin/Roman alphabet, I manage well the Cyrillic.
I learned it during the first world trip we spent almost 3 months in Russia and that remained and has been useful occasionally.
Greek has some similarities to Cyrillic plus is useful to remember the mathematical symbols learned at university.
The Georgian is supposed to be easy to learn, and will be a task for the next visit. The Armenian is a bit larger (38 letters), and somehow it seemed to me that several people writes in Cyrillic. SMSes are sometimes sent using a Latin transcription.
Georgian alphabetArmenian alphabet
Other alphabets I tried was in South Korea, where I learned how to read Hangul. In that language each symbol is a syllable with two to four letters and each letter try to imitate the mouth movements.
I tried to learn to read Hebrew and some Japanese, but without success.
Recently just saw this map of Turkey, which shows it is surrounded by countries with different alphabets.
I get up after a third night on the sofa at Tamo’s apartment. I take a showed and redo the backpack before she appears from her room. While she prepares the breakfast, I take again the dog for a walk, still using the stairs. On the way back the dog gets with full confidence in the building block door number 2. We climb the stairs and only at the top floor I realize we are in the wrong place. Go down again and climb the 8 floors up via the door number 1. Good morning exercise.
09:45
I say goodbye to Tamo. It was a really nice stay as I feel she is used to couchsurfers. I want to keep contact and look forward to having her visiting us in Switzerland.
10:25
I’m on the train direction Batumi. I go for the boat. A big uncertainty fills my spirit. Is this the best choice? Would not be better the night train to Yerevan and from there go home? When will the boat arrive Bulgaria? Will I have time to catch the last train Saturday afternoon to Sofia? I’ve already accepted that I will get home on Sunday morning, beyond the my self-imposed limit.
The train this time is half empty, I move to a place where I can see better outside and in the same direction as the train.
11:00
My calculations say that the boat will leave Batumi, the best case, tomorrow at 11:00 and will get to Burgas after 50 hours, midday Saturday. I hope disembarking will be fast to take the 14:30 train to Sofia.
13:30
I decide to get out of the train on the first stop, 3h away from Tbilisi. It is Kutaisi Airport. Using marine websites, I can see that the boat is stopped in front of Batumi and I don’t know when it will go inside the port. The risk to miss the train on Saturday is too big and I will be the whole boat trip full of stress.
Now I want to take the 20:20 train from Tbilisi to Yerevan.
I take the shuttle from the train station to the airport and there I see a bus to Tbilisi. The agent says it will leave in 25 minutes and trip time is 3h30, 4h max. I buy the ticket and get in. The bus leaves 35 minutes later. Google Maps says a trip time of 3h30. Little time after it stops for 20 minutes at a gas station. Again, I’m stressed and unpowerful. I know there will be crazy traffic getting in the city. After 3h30 travel time we are in the outskirts blocked in the traffic. The bus stops to let people out, but I see it is same time to walk to the metro or go to the centre. I was wrong. The last 20km take 2h.
Traffic to get into Tbilissi
19:30
The bus arrived to Liberty Square in the centre of Tbilisi. I run to the metro to get to the train station. The night train will leave in 40 minutes, and I still do not have a ticket neither food. Luckily the metro is very fast. At the ticket office they do not accept cards and I need to get money out. The next ATM does not allow to choose the amount, I’m obliged to get 100 Lari. With the ticket in the hand, I go down to the station’ supermarket looking for food. There is nothing that I could call dinner food. I get some biscuits and a can of beer. In front of the supermarket, I see a bakery kiosk and get a pastry and a hotdog. It will be my meal of the day. The train does not have a wagon-restaurant. I go back to the station, look for the platform – in the soviet countries the directions are always a problem.
I’m back to a Russian train. I’ve a 3rd class ticket: an open wagon. There are not so many passengers and I share my 6-person space only with an old Bulgarian tourist traveling to Yeveran to take a flight back home. I feel much better now, I’m back to my comfort zone.
Next Stop: YeveranRelatively new Russian train (Armenian Railways are subsidiary of Russian railways)Third class in Russian trainsMy sea, ready to prepare the bed
22:30
We stop at the Georgian border. We need to get out of the train. I should not forget that I’m travelling with the Swiss passport and cannot say that I’m from Portugal. People get confused when someone has two nationalities.
23:30
Armenian border. We don’t need to leave the train this time. Three police enter, check the passport first by hand and then on a computer with a reader. Later come the customs officers and they go directly to the people in the space next to mine. It looks like the ladies there have goods far beyond the allowed limits. The discussion in Armenian is quite loud and takes long. Only at 00:50 the train moves again and with the help of the wagon personnel it calms down. I fall asleep.
Today I will make an excursion to an old city made from caves and carved in stone, then to Stalin Museum in Gori and two Unesco heritage monasteries. I go out early, Tamo is still sleeping. She lives near Didube metro and mashrukta station. It is a big confusion: van drivers shouting the name of the destination, street market, shops and one narrow entrance to the metro. There is added road construction (basically, they did holes, removed some asphalt but nothing is going on), no sidewalks and no crossings. I take the metro to the centre. The metro in Tbilisi is like in Russia: the tunnels are very deep, one metro comes every 2/3 minutes, and they travel fast.
The meeting point is the travel agency. There is a young, party spirit. The excursion group has an American girl teaching English in Georgia, a South African couple and a Egyptian, the three living in Dubai. Our guide is nice, speaks very fast. We drive direction Gori, few dozen kilometres out of Tbilisi.
The Stalin Museum is old, done in Soviet style with many photos and maps but very few explanations. The house where he grew up and his personal train carriage are in the garden of the museum – the museum building was already built by Stalin, other houses were destroyed. Later we visit the monasteries. One of them I find impressing. In the old capital of Georgia, Mtskheta, it is the second most important Georgian Orthodox church after the one in Jerusalem. Several people are praying inside.
After one hour in traffic, we are back to the travel agency office. They offer us wine (home made, so it is served from plastic water bottles). I drink two glasses and say goodbye.
19:00
I meet Tamo for dinner at a modern nice café/restaurant with windowed walls, not typical in this country. She tells me to try Khachapuri Adjaruli. A dough dish like Balkans Pide, with an egg in the middle. After dinner we go for a walk. She takes me to the “Mother of Georgia”, a big statue on a hilltop of a female with a cup of wine on one hand and sword in the other – to receive the good and bad guests. Eva sends me a message with an article about the snowstorm that touched Bulgaria and Romania. From that moment on I cannot stop thinking about the best option for the end of my trip.
I wake up and look for a towel to use after shower. The bathtub is small with preformed seat for half of it. The boiler is over the taps and there is no place to stand. I shower seated. When Tamo wakes up, she prepares breakfast with cheese and eggs, and accepts that I take Sisi, the dog, for a walk. The lift does not work, meaning 8 floors down and up. She works from 10 to 19h, it is somehow the office working hours here.
12:00
I’m at the meeting point of a walking tour, but nobody shows up. I see there is another tour starting on the other side of the Liberty square – the center point of Tbilisi. This time the tour guide is there. The tour is ok, going around the old town Tbilisi. Like in Skopje, stray dogs follow the group and bark to other people getting nearby. The weather is not cozy at all: windy, rainy and cold. The tour ends at the sulfur baths and as I’m freezing, I go inside to the public bath.
Upstairs I pay to an unfriendly woman at an old guichet while she is on the phone. She gives me a paper receipt to give downstairs. I enter the men’s section and two dunk guys in front of a table with a mess of food and empty glasses are there. I give my ticket and 3 Lari to rent a sheet that will be to cover and also serve as towel at the end. Inside the baths the people are naked. There are several showers in the middle to clean oneself – I don’t have soap or scrubbing glove… -, the sauna is next to the toilet (which is hot like a sauna), there is a small pool of very hot sulfur water and few marble beds to lay down. It is a mix of Turkish hammam with Japanese onsen in a Soviet environment and state of degradation. I do circuit from one element to another. Some people try to talk in Georgian to me. When I go back to the changing room, as my sheet is completely wet, I wait to naturally dry. The drunk guys offer glass of tea to other people. After a while they also offer me (they have only 3 glasses that rotate). It is not tea, it is schnapps – Chacha, I learn. I say I’m from Portugal and he makes me a canapé with some paté. A bit later another glass, this time with sprite. I ask for a photo and they want I do with one of them.
17:30
The cold is much more bearable after the bath. I stop in a café, take banana shake I quickly go to see the cathedral before heading back home. Tamo is doing some home work and cooking. I try to decide about the rest of the trip and the options to return home.
21:30
After diner I do the dishes and then we play Codenames. It is not easy to play this English word game, with some ‘lost in translation’, as each of us has a difference reference for words definitions.
