I head to Asia the day after tomorrow for the first time in nine years, ending five months of living in and traveling around nine countries in Eastern Europe. Here are my thoughts on the highlights of what I’ve seen.
The original plan before I got to Georgia was to spend a month in Armenia after the planned two months in Georgia. Once I got to Georgia, I shortened that planned month in Armenia to just a week, thinking that Armenia would pretty much just be the same thing as Georgia. I was wrong. […]
Khor Virap is one of Armenia’s treasures. It’s an old monastery that has extreme religious importance to the Armenian people, but it’s also stunningly located in front of the massive Mt. Ararat, the traditional resting place of Noah’s ark. […]
Echmiadzin is more or less the Armenian Orthodox version of the Vatican City. It’s where the most important churches are, and it’s where the head of the Armenian church is. Echmiadzin Cathedral is the oldest state-built church in the world, and it dates from the 4th—yes, 4th—century. It’s one of several ancient churches in the city. […]
You know the scenes with the knight at the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade? Indy goes inside a rock-hewn church and the inside is all dark and lit by candles. That’s exactly what Geghard—a monastery in the hills southeast of Yerevan, Armenia—reminded me of. […]
When researching what to see and do in Yerevan, I was surprised to find out that there was a Roman temple just 15 miles away. […]
It was time. My two months in Tbilisi had come to an end and it was time for me to leave Georgia and head to Armenia. […]