My Trip to Armenia: The Lori Province and Gyumri

This weekend I was able to get out of the city of Yerevan and explore a bit more of Armenia. I started out taking a crowded Marshuka , which is a white van that shuttles people around the country. On the Marshuka, we headed to the Northern part of Armenia near the Georgian Border. After driving past some mountains and through a tunnel that looked more like a cave we reached Vanadzor.

I had the opportunity to explore Vanadzor a little before we traveled on to Alaverdi. In Alaverdi we took an old soviet cable car up the mountain into Sanahin. When asking one of the cable cars operators how old the cable car was he responded by saying that it had just always been there. When we got off the cable car, we headed to a church that was tucked away on the mountain side. On the way, we discovered we were at the Museum of the Brothers Mikoyan. As we walked towards it we saw an old Mig immortalized in the picturesque setting. Artem Mikoyan designed fighter jets for the Soviet Union.

From the museum we walked up a hill until we reached the Sanahin Monastery, which was founded in the 10^th century. Next, a short cab ride took us to Haghpat monastery.

On Sunday, we went to Gyumri, the second largest city in Armenia. In Gyumri, we went to the park there where I got to ride the ferris wheel. From Gyumri, I took the train for about 120km back to Yerevan.