After a short stay in Yerevan, we rented a car and began our road trip to explore the country. Driving in Armenia is quite safe mainly because there is not so much traffic outside of the capital. In most places the roads are in good condition, but English road signs became rare to find in remote areas. We relied mostly on our GPS to get around.
Our first destination is in the north in an area called the Debed Canyon. We stopped by a local eatery and tried their sour milk (Alex loved it) and freshly made bread for lunch. We then drove through large areas of forests, passed by a Soviet era mine, and experienced sudden change in weather (including a brief ice storm).
Within Debed Canyon, there are two UNESCO sites, the Haghpat monastery and Sanahin monastery. They are fairly close to each other, and you can actually hike from one monastery to another. As we approach the two monasteries from our road which is at the bottom of the canyon, huge cliffs rise from both sides of the road with flat plateaus on top of them. Our car climbed a pretty steep road and finally arrived at the Sanahin monastery.
Sanahin is a very pretty little church. It is very quiet, and we are the only visitors of that day. The style of the architecture is very simple so is the decoration. I especially liked the inside of the monastery with its very high ceiling and many arches. If you look up, there is a small opening at the end of the ceiling to give lights into the room.
After Sanahin, we drove a bit more and visited Haghpat, its sister monastery. Haghapat is constructed with a very similar style, but it looks slightly more preserved. As the monastery is built on a high ground, we stayed around to enjoy the view of the villages nearby. There is a stray dog who eagerly played with all the visitors.
We found a simple hotel near Haghpat and stayed for the night. From the hotel, we can see Sanahin from far away on the other side of the cliff. The hotel manager made us a full feast for dinner and we rested well.
0 comments:
Post a Comment