weekend getaway in Armenia
Armenia has always been on my list. Initially, the idea was mostly for finishing the visits to three Caucasus countries as I've been to Georgia and Azerbaijan, I think somehow, there's this tendency in my mind to complete the loop, close the gap, even though there's no such rule in place at all.
I almost did it early this year in May but Air Arabia was always extra cautious compared to others as Armenia, unfortunately in this case, shares the border with Iran. Flights got cancelled when I finally made my mind but it didn't happen.
I started internalizing this philosophy that everything happens for a good reason. If you look at things from a longer and bigger perspective, what i'd say, look at yourself and your surroundings from afar (in distance and time), you'll realize you are actually blessed by those little hiccups in life that saved you from an unfortunate experience, or granted you with bigger blessings. So every experience is good experience.
That cancellation of flights back in early May was such a fortunate hiccup that I didn't end up wasting my time when the weather was still cold and not fit for hiking and embracing nature at Armenia. Since it's going to be my first visit there, I was glad to have the chance to give it full justice.
And this time, a four day long weekend but mostly I devoted my time and energy (both social and physical) for the Mt. Khustup overnight hike with Armenia Geo. Being the only non-Armenian in the group felt special, and I considered that as a great chance to actually mingle with people meaningfully as we went through the pain and the rewards all together. Luckily most people speak decent English and approached me easily and I immediately felt welcomed.
My first camping experience, the first 3AM hike(which i didn't feel like a struggle at all), and the first time i felt not being completely depleted afterwards and was almost always at the front of the group. My endurance improvement surprised me and i managed to use squats, core, hanmstring and other parts of the muscle to relieve the pressue from my knees.
The ascent was pretty manageable and i was for a while leading the group as the first two went too far ahead sometimes. The view on the way up was green, not the Abu Dhabi type of green where the color felt like being copy-and-paste in an overly organized and artificial manner. The green at Khustup was lively, you can see the green in slightly different color coding, and the wild flowers standing themselves out with strikingly distinctive orange, yellow, white, etc. It's an acrylic painting in nature with breathable color palette.
At the peak of Mt. Khustup, we went above the clouds watching it gradually climb up. Goats, the wild kings in the region, running around from one rock to another. Everything felt so real and surreally magical at the same time. It was beyond everything I've asked for, and as I recalled it, the timing couldn't be better either, as if we were to start an hour later, we could barely see the view above the clouds.
Now the people, as I always say, it's the company that makes the place even more memorable. David owns one of the largest grape winery yard in the country, and is experimenting AI-made wine (I assumed it's the AI-guided distillation process). Tigran, CTO of a LA based robotics delivery firm while advises the government in civil engineering, met his partner in a science fair in Armenia (geeky romantic). Alex, post-doc in theoretic physics in a university based in Stockholm (and i jokingly compared him with "Sheldon Cooper" from The Big Bang Theory). Surprisingly, the main guide in the hike Jora speaks fantastic English and conversed me the most. In the end, he told me he could feel people really love me in the trip and i felt super warm and almost welled up.
Me and Alex actually grew something in the trip (at least from my perspective) but quickily dismissed itself, he was with me during the hardest part of the ascent and descent. And I felt tremendously safer when he held my hands firmly and always looked back to find me if I was behind. He is a very reserved and shy boy and for a moment I wish I could stay longer in Armenia and get to know him better. But c'est la vie, in a trip, we experience things on a double speed, life was accelerated and feelings amplified. When life returns to its routine, we carefully put those lovely memories in a vault somewhere in our mind and open it whenever we want to remind ourselves that life is more than a routine but occasional excitement awaiting.