Haghpat

Very big drive from the furthest northern point of Georgia into Armenia. Left around 9am, stopped for food around 11am, got stuck for an hour trying to get through tbilisi and took a good hour to get through the border crossing. Didn't arrive at our hotel until 7pm.

The border crossing was a bit more involved than i thought. Raquel had to exit the car and go through the customs buildings on foot while i drove the car through both the georgia exit and the armenia entry. Tons of paperwork involved and car searches. And i was forced to purchase car insurance on the armenian side but that was a fun experience too with locals and their curiosity of me.

Beautiful drive into the huge mountains very shortly after entering Armenia and all the way to Haghpat - which is an ancient monestary atop a mountain. After checking out the monestary, drove another 30 minutes to our hotel in the middle of tight mountains and a river. Definitely the nicest stay of the trip. Had a multi course meal and great wine sitting by the river. Just as we were finishing up, we got invited to join a table of 8 armenians who were having a huge feast, so we joined them. Hilarious, nice group of guys.Read more