Muts’pes

finally after what felt like an eternity, i left yerevan behind. the road to iran is the same as to areni, so i already knew how to get to the street and where to stand. i met stepan at a metro station after he got his visa done. we got picked up after like 5 minutes by a guy who got us out of the city. after dropping us off, it didn't take two minutes until we were going again. it seems that i really forgot how helpful sings are when you're hitchhiking.

the second guy was awesome. not only did he get us all the way to kapan (less than two hours from the border), but he also stopped in areni to show us around a wine factory, including a wine testing, after which he bought each of us a bottle of our favourite one. he also didn't accept our attempts to pay for our own food at the food court on the way. because alcohol is strictly forbidden in iran, it was now our honorable duty to get rid of the wine before reaching the border. we did a good job, i think.

also, if you ever plan an international road trip with a motorbike, i think the armenian mountain roads would be beautiful. we reached kapan in the afternoon and managed to stop a truck driver heading for iran, squeezed into the cabin somehow and laid eyes on the first iranian mountain beyong the heavily fortified border river just as the sun was setting.

we hiked uphill for an hour, and after a bit of looking around, managed to find a good camping spot near a big dam/mining area. had some dinner along with the rest of the wine and some good music. in the night, we were woken up multiple times by a wolves howling at us from the mountains around us. and sure enough, we woke up not only to a fantastic view, but also some canine tracks around out tents.Read more