Gyumri, Armenia: The Land of Water Fountains

My first snow of the year near the Georgia/Armenia border, ~7000 feet.

Rose and I went down to breakfast because Archer was still sleeping at 8 o’clock, and Katy was still upstairs. The last couple breakfasts the kids didn’t do a great job eating, but it turns out if you separate them and one parent can devote all their attention to one child, they tend to eat pretty well.

I was surprised to see that it was raining as we were walking down to breakfast, but since today is a transfer day, rain is not the worst thing. The rain did scramble our plans to go to the playground and run some energy out of the kiddos before we started our drive to the Georgia–Armenia border.

It was a rainy 2-hour drive to the border. I was sitting in the back with the kids on an incredibly uncomfortable seat. Plus, I could not see out the window of the Prius that my head was hitting the ceiling of. When we approached the border, the rain turned to snow, my first snow of the year (7,000 ft).

When we arrived at the border, we scampered out of the car in the cold air into the border facility and were stamped out of Georgia without any fanfare.

We then drove a bit to the Armenia border control. They immediately noticed our Azerbaijan passport stamps but did not ask us about them. They wanted all the details of our itinerary and flights out. By the time we finished with immigration, there was a nice line of 10 people behind us. We then took our bags from the car and put them through the X-ray machine in customs and got back into the taxi. It was cold outside. Then we drove through one more passport check, and we were in Armenia.

The scenery difference in Armenia was pretty treeless and more rolling hills compared with the mountains of Georgia with the changing fall leaves.

The orange and black brick are two stones that have nearby quarries.

We arrived in Gyumri, and the rain had stopped (luckily there wasn’t the Baku wind either), but it was cold and dreary out at the 5,000 ft of elevation Gyumri sits. We found our apartment, and it was also cold inside—actually, very cold. It appears that the radiators had not been turned on for long before we arrived. Our host showed us around the apartment and gave us a bowl of apples picked from the trees outside, which everyone quickly ate one of, signaling that we needed to order some late lunch.

After we ate our Uber Eats (we used Glovo), we decided to bundle the kids up and got Archer to consent to wearing a pair of pants over his leggings and Rose to wear her rain jacket over her sweater. I had shared a lot of dishes with Katy the past few days, and my body was craving meat, and I had a strong desire not for Georgian/Armenian food. I ordered a hamburger with local fried meat on top; it was exactly what I needed. They just think I am a slob/barbarian since they included latex gloves to wear while eating my burger, which I did not use.

Gyumri is located near a quarry where black stones and orange stones are mined. The city experienced a heyday during the 1800s when it was controlled by Russia (pre-USSR), and there were many grand building projects. In 1989 a 6.8 magnitude earthquake hit the city, destroying most of the city, and 25,000–50,000 people died. Since then, the city has been a constant rebuild. There are buildings all over that are being rebuilt and others that appear abandoned (who knows if rebuilding is in their future). It creates a moody city that has great architecture. It is known as an artist city, and you can tell.

Cake, tea, and hot chocolate time. Armenia produces herbal tea as an export, but doesn’t produce “tea tea” like Georgia and Azerbaijan

We went to Honey and Herb and complemented our late lunch with some cake for dinner. On our way home we stopped by a toy store, and Archer started to plot what 2 toys he wanted to pick out for his birthday.

Archer had a fall coming back from dinner with his hands in his pockets. The concrete won, and he demonstrated that faces bleed a lot, a lot. In the morning there were some scrapes and a fat lip, but less bruising than expected. Other than the hour after impact, it bothered him minimally.

After not a great night’s sleep on a bed where I could feel the mattress springs, I awoke when I heard Archer making noise. It was still chilly in the apartment, but it was much warmer than it was the night before.

We woke up to a very important day: the day before Archer’s birthday. It was cold outside, but it was sunny, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, which was much better than the rain that we had been seeing all day the previous day.

The night before, we had ordered delivery food to make breakfast and had a lazy morning, which was needed. The ability to order delivery food and delivery groceries is great while traveling with kids. It also leads to ordering one of every mineral carbonated water that the store carries to “compare.”

The house was warmer, and after breakfast, we let the kids watch a movie, and we did some of the final logistics planning for the last 10 days of our trip.

There seems to be a “viral tickle” going around the family, and the kids are a touch more volatile, coupled with the fact we have been traveling for 3 weeks, and Rose almost has one molar all the way in and the second is halfway through.

We got some pastries, walked around town, visited a church, found some playgrounds (Armenian playgrounds are nothing compared to Georgian ones), Katy bought some flowers, and we separated ways when it was Rose’s nap time, having already stumbled across 4 toy stores.

We bought some sweets from this stand. Walnuts are in season. The balls are fruit leather covering walnut and apricot.

We got some pears and strawberries here.

Archer and I stayed out and explored 5 more toy stores, getting ideas on what toys he wanted to get for his birthday. He is allowed to pick out 2 toys (plus the few things we brought for him from home) tomorrow. Archer and I then stumbled upon their market. This is one of the few great markets I have come across. What makes a great market is that the price of everything is labeled, and the vendors don’t talk to you unless you signal them. Archer and I bought some traditional sweets and stocked up on some pears and local strawberries.

One of the numerous toy stores around. I compare Gyumri is to Yerevan as Grenada is to Seville. The rent is just that much cheaper/less touristy

After nap we had some playground time and then went to the Gyumri Fish Restaurant, which is located next to a Russian military base. This restaurant is so “famous” that people drive 2 hours from the capital to eat, and apparently it is the center of some Russians’ trip to Armenia. They are a fish farm that does trout and Siberian sturgeon. BBQ Siberian sturgeon is what they are known for, and boy, was it delicious.

That is the Russian military base above. I didn’t take any pictures of the troops patrolling the fence line. It was interesting to see Russian military jets in the sky and not US ones.

We were feeling wild and had our Uber drop us off downtown, and we got the kids some cake at Herb and Honey (again, worthy of 2 visits!) before we called it a night.

Archer’s Birthday

Archer woke up and left his room and was greeted by some balloons and a scavenger hunt to find some Matchbox cars that I had brought. Katy wanted to hide all 4, but the truth was Rose picked out 2 of them, so she hid 3 and Rose got the purple one she picked out (not the pink one). Archer found them all, including the one in the freezer and behind the TV.

We then left the house to go to the grocery store, which had the remote-control tank (“tanker” in Archer speak) and train set. He picked those out rather quickly, but Rose was having a real moment deciding what toy she wanted, to the point that Katy and Archer left. Before they left, Archer picked out his chocolate cherry cake, which was a reasonable size. I had feared he was going to go for one of the $20 6–7 lb cakes.

We had a key mishap with me having the key, but needing to get wrapping paper (and tape since the wrapping paper store didn’t sell tape—it only took 3 stores to find it).

We then went home, and Archer played with his new toys, and we shortly put Rose down for a nap.

Rose was tired and wanted nothing to do with the rest of the world

Archer and I went out for a milkshake and beer. We brought his new “butt” card game, but it was so complicated I didn’t have the gumption to do a game.

We then went out to the restaurant Ani, which didn’t have a menu on Google, but I read online people liked it. They put us in a back room, and the kids could frolic and not disturb the front of the restaurant, which filled up. The food was really cheap and good (Katy’s huge stuffed trout was $11). Music started, and it was a touch too loud for Archer, but Rose was a fan, so we went out front and watched the 4-piece band.

Rose liked the music. Our room was in the back with the entrance near the band.

A little carriage ride around the block (literally)

We then stopped by a purse store that was “made in Armenia,” and Katy picked out a purse.

We stopped for cotton candy for the walk home ($0.75).

1 cotton candy for 2 children leads to zero drama…

We almost made it home when Archer noticed the Ferris wheel was lit up, so we went to do the Ferris wheel. It cost $2.50. It likely has not been updated since the fall of the USSR. It was kind of 4 lawn chairs welded to a metal plate with a central handle to hold on to. No sides. They did put a small chain over the “door.” It did not squeak as much as the one Katy wouldn’t let me ride in Tbilisi.