The Air Arabia flight from the Sardar Vallabhbhai International Airport, Ahmedabad took off 20 minutes behind schedule, close to 5.30 am. The only concern I had was the sharp connection from Sharjah. And that too, about transfer of the luggage. On my trip to Manila a couple of years back, with transfer in Kuala Lumpur, the luggage arrived a couple of days later. I struggled those two days with not even bare necessities available. The airline was absolutely unmoved. Neither did they deliver the luggage to my hotel, nor did they compensate me for the delayed delivery.
Anyway, in the present case, eventually I had a clear one-hour gap after landing in Sharjah. The boarding gate for Yerevan was not far from the one I disembarked from. The security check was incredibly quick, and I was at the Yerevan gate with much to spare. The Sharjah airport is a no-frills airport with barely adequate moving space for the passengers waiting to board. Multiple gates clashed and a sea of humanity swarmed the detention center like waiting area.
Air Arabia hubs in six locations, namely, Sharjah, Morocco, Abu Dhabi, Ras al Khaimah, Alexandria and Pakistan. It carried 5.1 million passengers last year across 221 routes, flying 77 aircraft. The leg space on board is very limited and one fears the passenger in front reclining her seat. It cost me nearly Rs. 10,000 extra for the 20 kgs of extra baggage, seat selection and a meal on board the flights, as the tariff only includes 10 kgs of cabin baggage. The round trip cost me Rs. 55,000.
While awaiting boarding in Sharjah, a shiver ran down my spine when I saw the weather information at the gate. It said -6.5°C in Yerevan! The sights of the mountains and the landscape as I neared Yerevan further reinforced the belief that it was going to be one hell of a cold vacation. The cold blast that treated me on landing did no better. The immigration was done by officers who looked stern and reticent. However, after stamping the passport, he said "Welcome to Armenia. Have a pleasant stay." It sounded more of a trained piece of monologue than what came from the heart.
That done, I collected the luggage and went to the Viva kiosk to buy a local SIM card. I was more than pleasantly surprised that for AMD 3000 I could get 20 GB data and 1500 minutes of calls, that included India too! Next was currency exchange, which was a rip-off - though the girl said that they didn't take a commission, the exchange was at almost 20% discount. So, I exchanged only what I need for the trip to the city. Once outside the airport the full impact of the wintry day hit me, as well clothed as I was.
I had three options to get to the city - taxi (AMD 1800, the fastest, though the costliest option), the luxury bus (AMD 500, one had to buy a ticket for it) and the minibus (AMD 300, the cheapest option, though not necessarily the comfortable option). My hotel was only 300 meters from the Republic Square, the most well-known place in Yerevan. The minibus dropped me almost a km from the Republic Square, and that was a surprise. I found a currency exchange on the way to the hotel and changed at the online rate of 1 USD for AMD 393.
I had to walk gingerly as there was ice on the pavement and numerous puddles formed by melting ice. A feature I noticed was pedestrians sticking fiercely to pavements and sidewalks, no jay walkers could be seen. I had to, a couple of times, retrace my steps to find pedestrian crossing. The other thing that struck my mind was the ubiquitous presence of policemen and their vehicles with warning lights turned on.
Finally, I reached the cozy confines of the modest Hotel Tigran Mets. The check in for three nights was done by a young girl, assisted by Sergei, a Russian, who seemed like he had seen many hard battles. The comfortable and neat small room with attached bathroom and clean linen suited my requirement. The room was overheated and I got the heating turned off!
After a bath and arranging my things in the room, I ventured out for a bit of sightseeing. I had planned a long walk to cover five attractions. However, in a short while I realized that I would have to tone down my itinerary. Walking in the biting cold was tedious and tiring. The insurmountable obstacle though was my creaking bones and withering muscles.
The central square of Yerevan, the Republic Square, is only 300 meters from the hotels and most main roads radiate from there. The square has two main sections, the oval roundabout and another that contains a pool with a musical fountain known as the singing fountain. Of course, the fountains and all other water elements were non-functional due to the frozen pipes.
During the Russian era the square was known as Lenin Square, with a prominent statue of Lenin placed there. After independence, the square was renamed, and the statue was removed. The oval section includes five prominent buildings in pink and yellow tuff, namely the Government House, the History Museum, the National Gallery, the Marriott Hotel and two buildings that formerly housed the ministries of foreign affairs and transport and communication.
The chief architect of the square was Alexander Tamanian, who designed it in 1924. During summer, I could surmise, the square must surely be bustling with locals and tourists. The 3-hectare architectural highlight of the city is maintained by the Yerevan municipality. Workers could be seen clearing up the melting ice. Walking on the ice was tricky, one could slip and fall, especially if one didn't have the right kind of footwear.
I made laborious progress from the Republic Square to the Matenadaran. I took the road behind the History Museum, the Northern Avenue to the Freedom Square. Northern Avenue is 450 meters long and mainly houses luxury residential apartments, high-end branded stores, coffee shops, restaurants, commercial buildings and nightclubs. At the start of the Northern Avenue is the symbolic key of Yerevan. The avenue has two floors of underground parking. The Northern Avenue ends at the Armenian opera and ballet theatre in the Freedom Square.
The Freedom Square has been variously known as Liberty Square, Opera Square and Theatre Square during its long history. The highlights of the square are the imposing Opera and Ballet Theatre, the Freedom Park and the swan lake, the last named is an ice rink in winter. Bare trees adorned by icicles are a sight common in this season. The huge statues of writer Hovhannes Tumanyan and composer Alexander Spendiaryan are located in the square.
Going past the Freedom Square I walked along the main Mesrop Mashtots Avenue, past the busy Grand Candy store, to the massive building of Matenadaran, which is a compound of two words meaning book and repository. It is officially the Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts, named after the inventor of the Armenian Alphabet. His statue graces the entrance to the Matenadaran.
It is officially the largest museum in the world of Armenian manuscripts. The building established in 1959 holds more than 23,000 manuscripts and fragments that was originally the collection of the Armenian church housed in Echmiadzin. Besides manuscripts, the Matenadaran holds a copy of the Urbatagirk, the first published Armenian book in Venice in 1512, and all issues of the first Armenian magazine Azdarar ("Herald"), published in Madras from 1794 to 1796. The first map printed in Armenian—in Amsterdam in 1695—is also kept at the Matenadaran.
After touring the awesomely maintained three storeyed museum with an entrance fee of AMD 2000 per adult, I walked pass the 'Eternal Alphabet' wall, an art relief project honoring the invention of the Armenian alphabet. Creation of the alphabet in 405–406 became one of the key events in Armenian history.
A short walk through a set of residential buildings brought me to the Cafesjian Center for the Arts (CCA), which is dedicated to bringing the best of contemporary art to Armenia and presenting the best of Armenian culture to the world. CCA, established in 2009, continues to exhibit unique works of modern and contemporary art. The CCA is at the base of the Cascade Complex, a major attraction in Yerevan. The original idea of cascading waterfalls and terraced gardens was the brainchild of Alexander Tamanian, whose statue greets the visitor to the Cascade Complex.
The Cascade consists of five hillside terraces built of yellow tuff connected with nearly 600 steep steps. The uppermost platform is called the Monumental Terrace. It houses the 40th Anniversary of Soviet Armenia monument, standing 118 meters tall. The terrace overlooks the main avenue of Yerevan and is within earshot of the Victory Park which houses the Mother of Armenia monument. The climb from the CCA to the Monumental Terrace was a test of determination and grit, as far as my body was concerned. The hips almost fell apart. However, the climb down to the CCA was a relief.
I walked back to the hotel; the cold was biting and I had to find some refuge from it. I pared into a supermarket on Northern Avenue and bought a couple of bottles of Armenian beer, Kilikia. It is the most popular beer in Armenia. A 500 ml costs AMD 540, about INR 120. It did not take much time to polish off the two bottles. Armed with a liter of the lager beer inside the protuberance, I walked the short distance to the Tashir Pizza, recommended by Sergei in the hotel.
The comfortable diner had an array of options of soup, pasta, pizza, drinks, salads, local delicacies, deserts, juices, cocktails and cocktails. I settled for broccoli soup, veg risotto, mushroom spaghetti and kievian cake. You can imagine how famished I was; I had not had a single full meal since 6 pm on 28 February when I left Gandhidham. The food was excellent and the service more so. The spread cost me just Rs. 800!
After the massive feast I took a short walk in the Republic Square to see the lit-up buildings. Possibly because of the weather, I didn't find it all that much impressive. That rounded up the first day of the Lenten vacation and I made haste to the comfort room in Hotel Tigran Mets.
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