Day 17 Yerevan - Eat my dust !

Our less than amazing view from our Yerevan Hotel

No so well named Yerevan Hotel

Main Railway Stn

Needs a coat of paint 

Parliament Square 

It looked to be a theatrical performance by someone who'd had one too many but when I realised that he was holding a knife I knew that it was serious !
After our marathon journey from Paris and Warsaw we arrived at Yerevans "Smart Nuts" airport (it's actually called Zvartnots) at 4.40 a.m. absolutely stuffed from nearly 24 hours on the go !
Being so tired we weakened to the pressure of the local taxi touts one of which took our money but sent us to another driver before then demanding a tip ! At least the 2nd driver appeared honest enough, welcoming us to Armenia before taking us through the darkened back streets of Yerevan to what we thought would be our doom ! Thankfully though he must have thought we weren't worth kidnapping and dropped us off at our hotel where we were greeted by our hotel owner at 6a.m.
Henley who says he never sleeps during the day crashed as did I and it wasn't until 4 hours later that we awoke to see our first sight of Yerevan with its atypical older style Russian buildings. As usual though Kev's first priority was to fill his complaining stomach !
After breakfast we crashed again before finally going out mid afternoon to explore. This city is a real mix, clean but filled with austere buildings and heavy traffic and not so happy looking people. With a low average income though this place is really cheap. Our Hotel room with breakfast cost $50 a night, a meal taken on our 2nd night $10 for the two, a token for the ride on the Undergound 40 cents and most importantly a magnum style ice creams (our dinner for the first evening) only 0.25 cents each !
Walk we did, going to Yerevans main train station to try and book our sleeper to Tbilisi Georgia but I'd forgotten my passport ! A go on the metro with their plastic tokens , and a walk around President's Square (formerly Lenin Square) and its austere Parliamentary buildings added to our exercise.
It was here that the above mentioned drama unfolded before our eyes. An agitated person had been cornered by Police outside one of the Parliamentary buildings and it was obvious that the person was holding something against their chest, a knife ! Police were unsure of what to do until a bystander snuck up and disarmed the guy in military style. The still yelling person was then dragged off in a police car !
Stunned we continued our way home picking up dinner for the evening (a Magnum Ice cream) chewing through the amazing amount of rubberised dust that seems to circulate in Yerevans air. Time for another nights rest and some additional Temazapans to get Henley to sleep before midnight !

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