6th week: Surrounding South-Ossetia, Hiking in Caucasus Mountains, Tblisi, Crossing border to Armenia, Enjoying Sewan Lake

[Susanne writing ...]

When we left Borjomi National Park heat had us back and we realized how nice and cool it had been up there.

Borjomi: I hit accidentally a switch, which uncharged the starter battery
Luckily we can jump start with our bord batteries.

Borjomi: sign says 3,5m max height at this bridge - we are 3,6m

Borjomi: Susanne is checking - must have been a typo,
since there is plenty of space

After some refilling of stock we decided again to follow one of “our documentaries”. On ARTE we had seen a nice little film about an old manganese mining town close to South-Ossetia, with steep hills surrounding the city and therefore cablecars being public transport (!). We want to ride one of them! After some wild Georgian driving on the main road towards Batumi we turn north and reach Chiatura, a city of 18000 people . What we see is poverty, very old cars still being used in daily life, grey houses, people sitting in front of their houses as if they had been sitting there their whole life, all very strange, a blanket of depression seems to lie over that little town. And when we reach the center of town and ask people about the cablecars we experience something we haven’t had on the whole trip yet, we are treated very hostile and it is very clear that people want us to leave. We don’t know if the cablecars are still running; we saw only one sliding down a hill when we left town sometime later. Being pretty impressed by our experiences we tried to find some more information. Chiatura literally went through all possible difficulties after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Being integrated until the early 90s' into an overall infrastructure for electricity and gas, both could not be paid to Russia, due to economical difficulties of newly independent Georgia. Chiatura, being back than a city of 35.000 inhabitants was therefore cut-off from both gas and electricity for about 10 years until 2004. The manganese mine was closed down, supplying once 90% of the world demand on manganese. People lost their job. During that time the population was halved.

Chiatura: old cablecar station, not running, just hanging

Chiatura: some work needed

Chiatura: Manganese Mines

Chiatura: the only running cablecar we saw, looking back on Chiatura

We flee the heat and humidity and stay overnight next to a little village some km from Chiatura. Torsten asked some locals for advise where to park, while we were received very friendly again - Torsten barely escaped the invitation to get drunk indicated by snipping with the finger against the throat.

The next morning is Kids-TV for Paul: all the cows, sheep, swines and dogs of the little village pass our car and he can see it all from the open windows of the car, yelling happily “muuuuhhhhs” and “maaaeeeehhhhs” and “wouwouw”. ;-) Torsten chats with the friendly people of the village.

Kids-TV in the morning: all kinds of animals passing by

We drive on on the road next to the South-Ossetian Border, newly established since 2008 and as we will learn later mediated by a EU-monitoring mission. We will see all the EUMM cars with their huge antennas later on more often.

Today we will visit Stalin. It is a whole day of history and philosophy lessons for the kids, continuing previous discussions on capitalism, socialism and communism when crossing the former iron curtain. They have thousands of questions that we try to answer.

In Gori the town where Stalin was born there are two things to see: the Stalin Museum and the War Museum. The latter now also includes a documentation of the Russian bomb raids of 2008.

In the Museum for Stalin time stands still since 1957 (4 years after Stalins' death). While Paul and me enjoy a running baths in the sprinklers of the park around the castle, Torsten and the kids follow a tour in English by a young staff member and learn that Stalin is still considered a hero fighting against all evil in the world. If it wasn’t so strange it would have been to laugh. We explore the train next to the museum that Stalin used because he was afraid of flying. His birth house is hidden underneath an enormous temple-like building and can be visited with a guided tour. Stalin cult alive and ongoing.

Gori: on our way Stalin Museum
(background: Stalins' wagon he used for travelling)

Gori: Interior of Stalins' waggon

Gori: Stalins' waggon

Gori: House of Stalins' birth

We need a break and find the Sport Cafe where we have a great lunch with a whole table filled with delicious Georgian food, really great.

Gori: Georgian Food - simply delicious!

The War Museum hosts a big collection of documentation staring from World War II and all other wars that followed where people, mostly men from Gori where involved: Afghanistan, and two wars against Russia. Fresh memory can still be found about the fights in 2008, when the Russians bombed Gori before going back behind historical borders of South-Ossetia, which is independent but internationally not recognized today. What a sad shit, all these wars going on, pictures show injured civilians and so much grieve.

Gori: War Museum - Antonia looks at the exhibits of 2008's war

Gori: War Museum

Gori: War Museum

Gori: Director points to the famous Berlin-Picture
when Soviet troops raised the flag on teh Reichstag

Gori: pitures from bombing in 2008

Heat, heat, heat, we are up to 42 degrees and decide to flee the low area and go to the mountains. On the old Russian military road we stay in Ananuri, so to say on the front page of our Lonely Planet. An old castle with churches at the shore of a lake, with a great possibility to swim. We swim also in the dark and enjoy the wonderful panorama under the clear starry sky. Next to us park Mathias and Claudia from Regensburg with their Camper travelling Turkey, Georgia and Armenia, they are experienced travellers and we are happy to hear a lot of stories, get explanations for some things we saw (Why are so many Iranian petrol cars driving around in Turkey?: In Iran diesel is very cheap so apparently the stuff is being sold just across the border, because in Turkey diesel prices are really high…)

Ananuri: beautiful place next to a lake

Ananuri: inscriptions

Ananuri: Inside

Ananuri: placing some candles

Ananuri: inscriptions

Ananuri: Beautiful ornaments

Ananuri: from the top

Ananuri: walls of old monastery

Ananuri: remaining walls 

Ananuri: nice view on the lake

Ananuri: rooftops

The old Russian military road is a dead end road for us, not only because we do not have a visa, but the border is only open for Russians and Georgians. We drive the steep curves up in the mountains and see avalange safety tunnels and a big mosaic built up there in 1983 showing Georgian history. The landscape of the high Caucasus is breathtaking, but traffic is heavy, cows enjoying the sun on pavement and hundreds of trucks driving the way up to the mountains on their way to Russia. The last town in the valley Stepantsminda at the foot of the snowwhite Mount Kazbek (5000 m) is filled with mountaineers, hikers and other tourists. We fill up stocks and even find bananas we had forgotten to buy before. Paul is happy! ;)

on our way to Kazbek: panoramic view

on our way to Kazbek: mosaic showing history of Georgia

on our way to Kazbek: mosaic showing history of Georgia

on our way to Kazbek: view into a valley

on our way to Kazbek: mosaic showing history of Georgia

on our way to Kazbek: view into the Caucasus Mountains

on our way to Kazbek: Avalanche shelters

100s of trucks waiting at the border to Russia

Minerals from a waterfall: do you find Johann & Antonia?

Minerals from a waterfall: somebody had to climb to the very top - guess who!

The town is famous for its basilica crowning the town at a height of 2900 m. We have heard that up there must be great places to camp, so we start driving up the hill. But the trail gets too narrow and steep, that we have to turn around and park half way. Torsten manages to turn our car “on a penny” ;). We hike up the rest of the way to the church and when we arrive the view is breath taking and now we are on the front page of the second travel book about Georgia we have with us… ;)
What a nice hike, what a wonderful landscape in the evening. There are campers up there, but with tents… ;-)

Gergeti Trinity Church: hiking up to the monastary

Gergeti Trinity Church: awesome panoramic view

Gergeti Trinity Church: old walls of the monastery

Gergeti Trinity Church: ornaments

Gergeti Trinity Church: a priest is joking around with Antonia

(7 priests still live up here)

Gergeti Trinity Church: interior

Gergeti Trinity Church: enjoying teh scene

Gergeti Trinity Church: one of the buildings

Gergeti Trinity Church: chatting with the priests

Gergeti Trinity Church: on our way down

Mathias and Claudia are already there when we come back from our hike, they have found the perfect place for the night, with view on Kasbegi AND the church, all perfect. ;)

Mount Kazbek (>5000m): One of the highest in Caucasus Mountains

Gergeti Trinity Church

Emma & Mount Kazbek

We enjoy the great views and cool air, we all need our blankets up there during the night, wonderful!

Tbilisi is of course also on our list to be visited. We hear that there are about 45 to 50 degrees, since the city lies in a river valley in low lands. Pouh, moods are not too high… We decide to stay in Mtskheta close to the capital for the night. We find a nice place next to the EUMM-building, nice guards allowing us to park there. It will be the worst night of heat we ever had on our trip. I can only sleep with a wet sheet on my face, Paul is awake very often, poor Baby not being able to sleep.

Mskheta: Field office of EU Monitoring Mission (EUMM)
We were allowed to stay for the night on their parking.

In the morning we find out that we also parked next to the house of a nice German pensioner-EU-Commission-official who stayed in Georgia after his last job finished. He invites us to go to the market of the town and we have breakfast together. The kids are allowed to use the pool of the house, what a nice thing after the hot night.

Mskheta: Local market

We want to visit Tbilisi today, but no one of us is in the mood to walk through 45 degrees looking left and right for churches and old houses… First we hide in the big mall of Tbilisi, a cool place equipped with internet and a nice place for some shopping. ;-) Finally we drive through the city in unbearable heat and decide to flee once again towards the mountains. We leave Georgia the same evening passing the border to Armenia.

Men drinking çay near the border of Georgia

Good bye Georgia.

[begin Torstens' insert ...]
The Georgian-Armenian border was really an experience. After Georgians let us pass very friendly, the chaotic bureaucracy run started. I entered a one-storage-building, which had probably seen better times. 6 tables lined up in front of me, behind customs officials. In front of the tables people waiting in little crowds to get their documents done. Where to start? I approached the 300 pound official who seemed to be the boss. He forwarded me to a committed colleague, who explained me some steps. First get the car registration. With a paper slip where the officer noted down an amount, I went to the cashier (joking around with me, whether I'm a spy) and voila: I received my stamped form.
Then the officer passed my documents (passport, car documents) behind the desks to the left while I tried to follow them with my eyes. Now its getting emotional. Two young Russians behind me complaining that there is no visible structure. Armenian officials did not appreciate these comments too much and next to me starts an intense battle of words and even some poking. Finally it was my turn (before the Russians ;) ) and everything went very smooth. I received another paper slip with an amount, back to the cashier, while the guy kept joking with me). Done? No! Now getting third party liability for Armenia. A teenager was sent with the copies of my documents to an insurance agency and a while later he returned with the papers. After about 1,5 hrs in total and €50 less in our pockets (one amount of €3,80 nobody could explain to me and was declared as 'some kind of tax ... but not really a tax') we were ready to enter Armenia.
At the time when I left the office Johann approached me followed by two young Austrian women asking me how the process works ;) Well I explained them what I understood and brought them in contact with my personal customs officer.
... surreal ...

customs service at Georgian-Armenian border

[end Torstens' insert ...]

Behind the border we have the choice to turn left or right. To the left we find road M 16 close to the border to Azerbaijdjan. As the German Foreign Ministry warns about border shootings going on recently we turned right. Here we find a great canyon, endless abandoned industry buildings back from soviet times but for all beautiful Armenian monasteries, all of them being listed as UN world heritage. And again we cross a border and notice a sudden change: very old cars still being used in daily life, small houses, a really rough road that is actually supposed to be the main link between Tbilisi and Yerevan, the whole appearance is much poorer than in Georgia.

In Haghpat we arrive late in the evening. Paul is always up early in the morning, being happy to have some time alone with his dad. And Torsten decides that morning to go for blackberries that grow everywhere, when we wake up Paul has already eaten a great amount of the berries. Toni happily presents a whole bucket!

This happens very often, we wake up and Paul and Torsten have already explored the area where we are, often Toni joining them.

Outcome of a morning walk @Haghpat (Armenia): Blackberries for the whole day!

Haghpat is our first Armenian monastery to visit, a lot of others will follow. It is over 1000 years old and we are impressed by the architecture and the old cross stones. The day we arrive it is Assumption of Mary and in Armenian tradition grapes are blessed by the priests and visitors are allowed to take and eat them. The carvings in the cross stones are fantastic and apparently monks loved to carve texts into stones wherever there was one, church walls are covered with texts.

Strange enough there is no entrance fee and tourists just walk across everything, with little respect to the heritage. That leaves us a bit stunned behind. People from the village try to sell self made things to the tourists, but who will buy all the self-knitted baby shoes? It seems all a bit “living from hand to mouth” as we say in German. Tourists to make money with are in any case present, we even saw a group of six or seven Italian Mobile Homes driving up to the monastery.
So despite the great historical resource the locals keep living in very poor conditions, not leveraging their treasure.

Haghpat: A local invites us to check out his GAZ from 1951- still working!

Haghpat: unbelievable

Haghpat: litting a candle

Haghpat: Assumption of Mary - Invitation to have some blessed grapes 

Haghpat: Assumption of Mary - Pauli ate all my grapes!

Haghpat: Chandelier with pomegranate ornaments
(click on the picture to see all the beauty)

Haghpat: beautiful chapel with typical massive colons with squared capitals and ceiling light

Haghpat: ceiling light

Haghpat: old ornaments

Haghpats: barrels in the floor

Haghpat

Haghpat: cross stones

Haghpat

Haghpat: Main Chapel

Haghpat: ornaments

Haghpat: enjoying ice cream

Haghpat: enjoying coffee

Haghpat: Coca Cola in Armenian

Still no selfie stick ;)

We also visit Sanahin and its monastery where we “run into” a wedding, something that happened every weekend during our travelling. This time the couple has spent tons of money for the wedding, flowers on the ground everywhere, a filming crew and to make the boys happy a drone that films the whole thing from the air. Torsten: “Wow a wedding with the sound of a vacuum cleaner!”… ;-) What I remember is, that I have never seen a bride and a groom looking so pissed during the whole ceremony, the groom asking for Vodka right after the handshakes were done (it is that sign that we know from Russia, a man snipping at his throat…). … ;-) Well, who knows... Later on we park next to a river, where we are happy to cool off swimming. When trying to refill our stock locals shared with us their provisions, which became the ingredients for our dinner. People are very hospitable and friendly.
Quote of the day: "In Armenia even the greatest things are for free, since nobody has money ..."
Sanahin is also the home of a MiG Museum, since one of the ingeneers, Artem Mikoyan (thats were the Mi comes from) of the fast russian airplane comes from here. Paul is impressed by the airplane in the yard.

Sanahin: wedding recorded with a drone
The ceremony was accompanied by the sounds of vacuum cleaner

Sanahin: Paul & Antonia help cleaning up the church after the wedding

Sanahin: Paul & Antonia help cleaning up the church after the wedding

Sanahin: not easy to walk for Pauli

Sanahin: huge steps challenge Pauli

Sanahin: Johann & Antonia watching a backgammon game

Sanahin: monument for here born Artem Ivanovich Mikoyan - one of the
two developing engineers of the famous Soviet military aircraft MiG

Sanahin: @MiG monument, airplanes make a wooosh sound...

Sanahin: look at us

close to Dzoraget: place to stay for the night - nice place at the canyon

close to Dzoraget: cooling down in the river

close to Dzoraget: Johann cliff jumping

close to Dzoraget: Johann cliff jumping

close to Dzoraget: boys returning from the river

In every country we have to check how we can get water for the car. In Turkey there were water tabs everywhere next to the road. Usually they were built with tiles around and a little sink, very handy. Here in Armenia it becomes a bit more difficult, it feels a bit like the search for an oasis in the desert. When we see a lot of cars and trucks parked at the road side, this is usually not a sign for a good restaurant, but for a spring equipped with a water tab, where everyone refills his bottles of drinking water. A lot of farms and houses apparently do not have drinking water, so people arrive at the ‘oasis’ with dozens of empty plastic bottles to refill. We queue to get our water refilled too and to wash our clothes. In the meantime we have bought a sort of a 20 l plastic container with a lid that we fill with the dirty clothes, water and soap, let it soak and shake in the car for about a day then rinse and dry and voila that’s our washing machine. ;-)

Water place to refill our repository

Tunnel at the main transit road Tbilisi-Yerevan - scary thing to drive

@Vanadzor: Shop for sectional steel.

This is art!

To learn more about Armenia I had bought a book called “Reportage Armenien”, a nice little book with travel stories and background information. When we approach Dilijan in the mountains Torsten suddenly points to someone selling “kapusta” (a sort of cold Sauerkraut) on the side of the street and then I see the sign “Fioletovo” and a bell rings. We are again driving through the middle of one of my books. We visit the village of the so called Molokanes a Baptist sect from Russia that has been expelled from Russia to the outskirts of the big empire, who still live here today. And suddenly we are surrounded by blond, long skirt-, or long bearded people… They are very friendly, sell us their kapusta, varenje (marmelade) and show us their local school. One of the men at the school asks us to give him a ride to the next city. It turns out that he is one of the directors of the Armenian Railways supervising the construction work at the school financed by a philanthropist. Very interesting chat about Armenia, the conflict with Azerbaijan about Berg-Karabach and the future of the country.

Fioletovo: Russian community of Molokanes

Fioletovo: asking for direction

Fioletovo: typical long beards of Molokane Men - I like that!

Fioletovo: chat with one of the people in the village

Fioletovo: 'let's get back to the car - a thunderstorm is coming'

Fioletovo: typical Russian-style houses
(unlike Armenian houses, they are fettled)

Fioletovo: cabbage field

Fioletovo: another car got stuck and needs to be pulled out

Fioletovo: school visit - at the walls
explanations on the WWII and Karabakh War

Fioletovo: locals selling their famous sauerkraut

In Dilijan we buy a sim-card for mobile internet access (€0,40 per day), yeah we are back! And we follow again the reportage book to another strange and interesting place. Dilijan used to be THE place for all the different artists etc of the Soviet Union for vacation and “regaining force to build on the great project of communism”. As you can imagine nowadays this is old day’s glory and that is what it looks like. All the unions e.g. of the moviemakers, writers etc had their own sanatorium up here in Dilijan. We find the old resort that had been built in 1963 for the composers! So this is the place where Shostakovitch, Rostropovich, Benjamin Britten and others went on vacation. It is a big area on a lovely wooded mountain hill, with 25 separate houses, pool and a big concert hall for 600 people. All of this (except concert hall) still being used for regular tourists, but still in the state of the 60ties. Every house is equipped with a piano and a room especially made for the composer. We are received very friendly by the manager of the resort, wearing a shiny red CCCP-baseball cap playing a fugue by Bach when Torsten entered the former canteen. We are allowed to stay in front of the building for the night, where breakfast is served the next day. What a lovely place, great quiet nature, cool air, I can imagine why they choose Dilijan. What is really sad today that apparently there is no money to run the resort, the state of the buildings is not good and if no repair works are done nature will reconquer the place. Torsten was very enthusiastic, the old charm should be preserved. The kids enjoy the pool in the morning! ;)

Dilijan: Composers' village - kitchen

Dilijan: Composers' village - canteen

Dilijan: Composers' village - mans' world

Dilijan: Composers' village - entry hall to the canteen

Dilijan: Composers' village - entry hall to the canteen

Dilijan: Composers' village - I got invited for a morning coffee

Dilijan: Composers' village - one of the 25 cottages

Dilijan: Composers' village - Benjamin Britten stayed here in 1965

Dilijan: Composers' village - concert hall and pool

Dilijan: Composers' village - concert hall

Dilijan: Composers' village - visitors' home

Dilijan: Composers' village - facility building which is almost gone

Dilijan: Composers' village - canteen

playtime

Johann rescuing a salamander

Dilijan: Composers' village - swimming in the pool

Dilijan: Composers' village - taking a bath in the morning

Dilijan: Composers' village - concert hall

Dilijan: Composers' village 

Dilijan: Composers' village - grid at the port of the concert hall

Dilijan: Composers' village - place to relax

Dilijan: Composers' village - chilling like composers years ago

Dilijan: Composers' village - soviet breakfast

Dilijan: Composers' village - getting some hot water from the samovar

Dilijan: Composers' village - canteen

Dilijan: Composers' village - canteen

Dilijan: Composers' village - Soviet ornaments

Dilijan: Composers' village - inside of a cottage

Dilijan: Composers' village - inside of a cottage
(letter of Benjamin Britten)

Dilijan: Composers' village - inside of a cottage

Dilijan: Composers' village - inside of a cottage

Dilijan: Composers' village - inside of a cottage

Dilijan: Composers' village - inside of a cottage

Dilijan: Composers' village

Dilijan: Composers' village - Pauli exploring the installations

In Armenia no one wants money from us for overnight parking and a lot of times we get things we want to buy for free. People are really friendly and their hospitality is great. On our way to Dilijan we meet a family that turns out to live in Neustadt a.d. Weinstrasse, when they are not on vacation with their family in Armenia. After some nice chatting they give us an Ararat-Brandy as a present (Torsten had been looking at the different bottles… ;-) because “Germany has done so much for us”. We toast on their health with every sip we take from the bottle… ;)

So far we have met almost every day someone speaking German, telling us to be on vacation for the summer. Somewhere I have read that Armenians are people of “professional exilians”, the number of Armenians living elsewhere is huge.

Hey and its my birthday!
Sunshine, cool air, good food and the kids promise to give me one hour of loneliness as a present. What else do you want? ;-)

In Dilijan we find out that there is one little road with old stone houses and their traditional wooden balconies. All newly renovated, this road is made for tourists and their money and we are very willing to spend some, since it is also my birthday. But then we look at prizes for nice little jewellery for above 200 Euros and we decide to refrain…

We visit the monastery of Haghatsin. This has been renovated entirely in 2011 and shines with bright white rocks. A lot of other tourists have found the way with us to this remote place; we meet a young Armenian women who speaks perfect German. She tells us that she studies law (!) in Regensburg and we start to exchange experiences on how to pass law state exams, she will take hers in spring. ;-) At the end she asks us to pray for her, what we of course do in one of the magnificent chapels, I know that every help is needed for law exams in Bavaria… We light candles and watch a baptising of a little boy, the whole family wears white clothes for the ceremony, very beautiful. The friendly priest also speaks German, joining us in our conversation with the young lady; he studied in Eichstätt. ;)

Haghatsin: renovated monastery

Haghatsin: impressive stone work

Haghatsin: litting candles

Haghatsin: impressive cross stone

Haghatsin:burned tree net to teh monastary

Haghatsin: cross stones

Haghatsin: picknick time

It is always the same open and friendly atmosphere: people hear us talking German and without hesitating they approach us and voila we are in the middle of a nice chat.

We decide to drive on to Lake Parz some km further. There is nothing about this lake in any of my travel books, but apparently marketing in Dilijan is working well, because we see everywhere in town posters of nice sightseeing attractions around Dilijan. Though almost all signs for private hotels, food, caffees etc. are written in Armenian, so if there aren’t any pictures to it, we have no chance to identify what is being sold (Armenian Alphabet). Apparently the majority of tourists coming are Armenians themselves.

Lake Parz is at a height of 1300 m and seems to be very beautiful. We want to stay there for a couple of days to relax. When we arrive we see a lot of road works going on, the parking place newly carved into the woods. Some rangers of the park tell us that there will be more works during the night and offer us a place to park near a river further in the woods. They also show us a forgotten old graveyard with cross stones from around the 12 century lying around. Apparently this graveyard had been destroyed by a Turkish invasion beginning 20th century, something we are told but we can not verify this information.

@Lake Parz: remote place in the woods

@Lake Parz: destroyed cross stones on former cemetery

@Lake Parz: destroyed cross stones on former cemetary

@Lake Parz: destroyed cross stones on former cemetary

@Lake Parz: destroyed cross stones on former cemetary

@Lake Parz: destroyed cross stones on former cemetary

It is so strange this hate between the Turks and Armenians, actually they rely on each other: in both countries we have found great hospitality, relaxed and friendly people. They could get along really well, I find.

The place at the river is really nice, but at night Johann started vomiting heavily, having terrible cramps and that at the most remote place we have ever parked on our whole trip… We manage to get him through the night, but decide to leave the next day. In the morning things are a bit better and we even take a little tour on a paddle boat on the lake.

@Lake Parz: some paddling to relax

@Lake Parz: still a little weak

@Dilijan; visit of a military sanatorium (today partly hotel)

Following the main route we drive towards Lake Sevan, from where Yerevan would not be far. We pass the Sevan heights through a very long tunnel. I am not scared easily but this tunnel was really frightening: just a small two-lane tube carved in the rocks, with little lights or reflectors around 2 km through the mountains and in the middle suddenly a truck of road works with almost no security measures around this thing. What a strange place, trucks ride through really fast and I just hope that we get out of this thing as fast as possible. There have been other tunnels in Armenia before, all of them in the same state, usually without any light, but much shorter.
The lake is 2000 m above sea level and around 80 m deep, but the blue crystal clear water is nice and warm.

Sevan Lake: Writers' house

Sevan Lake: Writers' house - spacy architecture 

Sevan Lake: Writers' house - nostalgia inside

Sevan Lake: Writers' house

Sevan Lake: Famous Sevanavank monastery
on the hill top of the peninsula

Sevan lake: Villa of Armenian president 

Sevan Lake: boat tour

When cramps and pain are back in the evening and we worry that Johann could maybe have an appendicitis, since he always points to his lower belly when describing the pain, we decide to drive to the next hospital. A nice doctor and his team take care of Johann, testing, taking blood tests and at the end we are released with the advice to give him soup, what we do immediately. After that visit to the hospital Johann feels better and eats again. We use the occasion and let also ask for a blood test of Toni. Results are ready next day and jipppiiieh all looks good, all results on normal level.

Hospital of Sevan

Hospital of Sevan: check-up of Johann - everything is fine

We enjoy Lake Sevan and park at the shores, temperatures are great. We take a ship tour and try jetski.

Sevan Lake: Johann loves Jetski ...

Sevan Lake: ... so does Antonia

Sevan Lake: little boys' dreams

We find a restaurant where they serve other things than just always meat- or fish-shashlyk (Armenian Cuisine seems to offer less variants than Georgian cuisine); we have started to make a list with dishes from every country we pass, that we want to cook for you when we are back.

Armenian cuisine: homemade compote

Armenian cuisine: Variety of salads

In the meantime Torsten has caught some kind of one-day-flue-diarrea-bonepain-thing and we hang out at the lake to regain health and power.

As family we are fine, first signs of homesickness have started, one year is really long, we realize now… ;-)

Johann talks almost every day about his friends at home, he misses his friend Anton terribly and sends emails as often as he can. We miss you all too, the long talks and evenings in our kitchen or your gardens in Anderlecht. Now we have only us to talk and sometimes all the new impressions and things we see, people we meet are overwhelming. In the evening we are usually very tired and everyone sleeps the latest at ten, something we have never done in Brussels.

Johann and Antonia can keep themselves busy, but Paul needs of course a lot of attention and we have to manage better to leave some free time for everyone. Paul loves driving, he usually sits in the front with us. He loves tunnels: “Mama tunna, tunnaaaaaa!” and when we start in the morning he states: “Papa, auddo boum boum.”, when we arrive he shouts, clapping his little hands above his head “Fadddisss!” (DE: Fertig! EN: Ready!) ;) Papa is his hero, steering such a big car through all the difficult curves and holes. But when it gets too shaky he can get really mad at Torsten with an angry: “Papaaaa!”
This morning we leave the fabulous Sevan Lake heading towards Yerevan.

Pauli loves to cuddle - always and everywhere!

Sevan Lake: nice place to enjoy the rough water

Sevan Lake: Johann checks out the wild water

Sevan Lake: swimming in the storm

Sevan Lake: enjoying the waves

Sevan Lake: outside 15°C - water 22°C

Sevan Lake: clouds rolling over the surrounding high mountain ranges

We have made a list of things that make us feel pleased every day :-):
- water tank in the car are full
- toilet is clean and empty
- fridge cool and filled with fresh fruits and vegetables
- at least 6 bottles of drinking water stored in the car
- washing done and almost dry
- diesel for at least 300 km
- enough currency in the pocket

How life can change... ;-)

We will stay another week in Armenia and enter Iran around 31/8.

[P.S. by Torsten]
I tried to find a place to squeeze in some thoughts in Susannes' text, but did not find the right spot. When talking to people both in Georgia and Armenia everybody mentions the heavy consequences from the declining Russian economy due to Western sanctions. While Armenians profit from simplified procedures to obtain a working permit in Russia, Georgians mainly work without permission and were laid off first when Russian economy started to suffered . In both cases the money transfer from emigrant workers to their families has declined by over 20% within a year.
Something else which was mentioned by many people was the dependency from Russia and other countries. Both Georgia and Armenia have sold their infrastructure like gas, electricity, water and railways. So no matter about the political bias of an elected government, the implicit economic constraints are enormous.

Picture out of context:

Gyumri Beer: city of Gyumri suffered most from the earthquake in 1988

Armenian Dram: €1 = 540 Dram