We spent a week getting to know Armenia — had a great time and learned a lot about the country. We’re leaving with tons of impressions and a few extra kilos of live weight 😅😂
I’ll write a bit about the things I didn’t find in the chat when I was preparing for the trip.
1. At the Matenadaran, you definitely need to take a guided tour, otherwise nothing is clear. There’s no need to book in advance. When buying tickets, just say that you want a tour. They immediately check which guides are available, and you go on the tour. We had an amazing woman, Lina Pirogova — she must be about 100 years old. But she tells the stories brilliantly! Two hours in one breath! She immediately asked how to present it: longer or shorter. There are no audio guides in the museum itself. People were listening to audio tours downloaded from the internet.
2. The Sergei Parajanov House-Museum. A guided tour is a must. We arrived at 13:00 (just happened that way) and joined a tour with Stepan Stepanyants. He explains everything excellently: lots of stories, anecdotes related to Parajanov, and overall a great command of the material — you can see that the person isn’t just working as a guide but is truly inspired by Parajanov. Audio guides are available in the museum.
3. The Art Gallery on Republic Square — 7 floors, Aivazovsky is on the 5th floor, not many paintings. A good collection of Russian artists.
4. We went on excursions with a group, the company Hyur on Nalbandyan 96. I studied everything at home, booked and paid from home as well. Good tours. Two out of three were in two languages, as the groups were mixed (Russian- and English-speaking), which wasn’t an issue.
5. We spent a long time thinking about how to get to Gyumri (transport). In the end, we ordered a Yandex intercity ride. One way costs 11,000–12,000 drams (≈ 2,600–2,900 RUB / ≈ $28–$32), depending on the time of booking. The driver turned out to be from Gyumri and happily told us everything, took us to the fortress, and recommended the café Ponchik-Monchik on Vardanants Square. Very tasty! You can have an inexpensive lunch there or drink coffee with amazing doughnuts. The café is packed, but seats free up quickly.
6. For walking around the center of Yerevan, we liked a free audio tour (download to your phone) called “Yerevan Kaleidoscope” on izi.Travel.