Dilijan is a lovely little town high up in the mountains, it is a wonderful escape from the city heat! The cool change has arrived! It was wonderful to actually be cold for a change! Glynis came to pick me up from the bus station. As we walked to her hotel we passed the museum, and of course we hopped in, as you do! It was surprisingly good! Some excellent contemporary art.

Glynis’ son, Joe and his friend Asya, joined us for lunch. There is a lovely arty-farty cafe In the Main street. The B&B was basic, but not too expensive. Two nights for the price of one! The old part of Dilijan has been renovated, and is rather delightful! Little fancy boutiques, and a wood carving shop, jewellery shop, and galleries. Very attractive.

After Glynis left the next day, I visited the monastery, Hagharts, 11-13th century. I saw some Khatchkar stones, scattered in the country site. ( from 996) the other monastery was not accessible, due to the heavy rain the last day and night, there were mud slides, and it looked like there was more rain coming! The taxi driver still charged me though, although he knew full well I wasn’t able to get to the actual monastery! Ah, well, such are the breaks!

Lake Sevan was only about an hour away! For the first time on this trip, I was yelled at! Three Polish hikers were on he marshrutka and carried their big packs on to the bus. One of the packs was dropped in front of me, and I just held it up, so it wouldn’t roll around on the bus! This young woman hopped on the bus and by the look on all the other passengers, I know she was not being polite at all! As she is yelling at me, I very politely and friendly pointed out that this was NOT my back pack, and that she could yell at me all she liked, I didn’t understand a word she said! The back pack was moved to be with the rightful owners in the back, and the woman grumpily sat down! Very unusual, the yelling I mean, as Armenian people were up to now so incredibly polite and welcoming towards tourists! May be Dilijan just has too many of them!

At Lake Sevan I found a lovely guest house, where I managed to book a taxi driver to visit the Hayravank Monastery. Afterwards I visited Sevanavank Monastery, Arakeslots Church (874 AD)
It was just so incredibly busy with tourists, that I decided to go back the next morning, without the crowds! The guest house had locked the gates! Hm! Now what? I use crawled underneath them, and walked the half hour to the top!

I was on my own for the first hour! Stunningly beautiful, quiet and peaceful. Lake Sevan is very, very blue, due to the moon stone that is found here!
I slept all the way back to Yerevan, so I have no idea how long the trip took! I caught the metro back to the hostel. One more day to go, before leaving Armenia! I was so fortunately that my cousin wrote to me about the fabulous museum of Sergey Parajanov’s, an Armenia artist, filmmaker and very famous person! It was a wonderful way to finish my visit to this amazing country. Five days of rest and relaxation in Oman, and another fabulous trip has finished. I am grateful and feel incredibly blessed.