Through the Caucasian mountains to Yerevan

After having a great time in Tbilisi we decided to take a mini bus to Yerevan. The drive did lead through the beautiful mountain area. Unfortunately the driver was driving like crazy, as being in a race driving as fast as possible, passing everywhere and it not all the holes in the street. Bernd was scared to death and several times was about to though up. Up until the mountains we did have a great view, especially due to the sun.

At the end we both survived and arrived after several hours of driving.
We were lucky quickly finding a good place to stay at so we did not have to waste much time searching for a room and begin making plans for the next days.
The first thing we decided to do is visiting the blue mosque. We both still remembered the blue mosque from Istanbul we visited years ago. This here is much smaller and not as much decorated but still very nice.

As you can see the weather was not as nice as the last days anymore. We had a mix of rain, snow and in the afternoon sun. Bad weather did not stop us from exploring and Bernd did make sure that he won't get wet, he always hid below the umbrella and let me stay in the rain/snow.
Our feet did take us through the rain to the opera where we started thinking of maybe going to an event inside.

From the opera we headed to the cascade complex climbing up millions of stairs. Which remind me on of my best friends birthday we celebrated in Kitzbühel. We did climb up the Hahnenkamm. Before we could get up there I needed to talk the girls into doing it, at the end they agreed but threatened me that I would need get along with their complaints, there were non at all.
And with Bernd ... well ... it was sort of surprising that my ears did not start bleeding. So different.

In our way back down we arrived at Matenadaran, a museum close by. We also went in and did take a look at many old books there. One of the most interesting parts were the languages in there, for example books from Italy printed in Armenian and also other combinations. And there have been a lot of books.

All this walking did make us hungry so we went to an Armenian restaurant to get some local disses and have a short break. The food was great and gave us back some energy. From the restaurant we headed to the place of the republic. Which we already saw at night when we arrived in Yerevan.

Despite of getting much energy back from our lunch Bernd started complaining and wanted to go back to our hostel, I could at least get him to visit Saint Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral. He did not regret going there, especially since the weather was much nicer and he could by some ice cream.

The next day we decided to go together with some other travellers to Etschmiadsin a town close by to Yerevan. We did build an international group making the conversations much more interesting. Japanese, Russian, Indonesian and us German guys.
During the night it got colder and it was snowing the howl day.

We did first take a look at some churches at the center of the town. What was new for us to see an open air church (you want to know more ?).

Bernd did hear some rumors about a treasure being around there so we started searching for it. We did not need that much time to find the treasure but some other people did get there before us and put it into a museum.

Since we did walk around in the cold weather we did decide to take a break at a restaurant or coffee, to not walk too far we just picked the one inside the church area and were positively surprised about the appearance. A nice medieval looking restaurant with much space in the basement.

Later that day we did get back to Yerevan and headed to the opera to join an event there. We both have never been there before so it was a new experience for us.

And this is how the story begins / continues

After telling you that we go again together on a longer journey we did still take some time to decide where to go first. The decision was not easy and we discussed for hours, finally we found or first destination the capital of Georgia (not this Georgia). The Georgia in Caucasus we picked, which we both think is much nicer. No offense please, its just our opinion.

To get from the airport into town we took a brand new awesome car and Bernd did insist to drive it, what at the end turned out not to be such a good idea. At first everything went we'll but then ... you know pictures say more than thousand words.

Of course the way to our guest house was still long, do we just left the car behind and did trap our stuff and started our long long walk. Bernd got really mad and grumbled all the time and was willing to beat something. And as usually he found something, it was very close but I could convince him to not destroy the bridge. So reason that it would be a big detour for is did make the point.

To get a break from all this walking and relax our feet we decided to take the cable car up the mountain and visit an old strange looking building.

Up there we met with the mother of Georgia and did have a very good conversation with the old lady. We wanted to take some pictures together with her for the blog but all the time something did prevent us from taking a good picture e.g. light, angle or blinking. If you want to know how she looks like click here or not.

Hours later we did take a zip line to quickly get down again, it was a short but amazing ride. I never heard Bernd screaming so loud before. Unfortunately again no pictures or even videos. Bernd did drop his phone in the ride so all got lost. But I still had my phone so a short while later we went to a water fall and enjoyed the scenery. It helped Bernd to calm down a little bit.

I know the waterfall is not as amazing as the ones we saw in Iceland, but it is still a waterfall. And we both love waterfalls.
Back in the center we also mad e a break in a small park where we found a strange looking statue. Bernd was joking around and came up with the strange joke of people getting hung with a bell so also the audience staying far away can realize by sound that the person is finally dead. The real story is a bit different, want to know more ?

Close to the point from where we went up we found a weird looking building. Looking like a big tube or even a cannon build out of glass. Later we got to know that it is a concept hall.

Since our car got broken we did have to walk a lot. We first did have the idea to take the metro but then we would not see what is between the stops and the bus routes seem not so easy to be understood. We did find another option, the biggest bicycle we have ever seen. Great to get quickly to the next interesting place.

Our plan with the bicycle did fail since we would try to get it going into different directions and we did not want to fight who's going to lead.

Later on we managed to find the underground. Not like the underground in London or the criminals. Just an interesting ancient bazaar located below the streets with a lot of interesting things.

Episode VI - The return of the travel buddies

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away  ... ok ok it is not so far away, more like the same planet. At least far away in meters and kilometers.
There have been two travel buddies who have been travelling around together for months, years ...

For a long time we did not travel together, what does not mean that we did have a fight or so, we only did go on our own ways. Bernd did take care of his TV career and I did go back to "normal" life.
So we both spent almost to much time working.
And trying not to be too busy.

To not bore you to much with telling every little detail about the last five years (feels like a different life already) we will provide a short overview and only make some small remarks about the things we were doing.
Bernd did meet in Prague with one of his not so famous friends.

Also he made some new extremely cool friends with whom he only spent together a few days.
So some stuff happening in Bernds life without his travel buddy.

For sure now you wonder what I did do in all this years. The answer is simple nothing at all.
Ok I did not only work I was also able to go on some good journeys with friends and also getting new friends.
I did visit some places in Germany like a small famous castle in the south of Bavaria.

Spent X-Mas in the Caribbean and having the best time of my life (and I'm a person barely using statements like this) with awesome people, good weather and much fun.
We did have our own special X-Mas tree there.

Also I did try to be at least a little bit creative and created my own travel map, which is not up to date anymore, at least the picture is already missing some markings for places I did visit.
The map is having a size of about two by one and a half meters and is a wooden board.

This is it. And now it is time for us to again travel together, see new places, make new experiences, end up at places we may never thougth of visiting.
Go and see the world is our current mission