The final few days!

Thursday was our first proper day off for a long time, but no lie in for us!! Simona had planned a trip to Khor Virap for us, an old monastery near the Turkish border. So we could get there before it was too hot, we were up, showered, had eaten and were ready for 9 o'clock! Oooft! There was no need to rush though, as the lovely Simona was late (groan!) so we could have had an extra 30 minutes in bed!! Haha! Gotta love you guys! :)

We hopped onto the metro and then got on a minibus. As we were there so early, we all managed to grab a seat, but we had to wait half an hour before the minibus left, all a bit hot and sweaty. Nice!! Just before we were about to go, in true Armenian fashion a load more people piled on the bus, so we had 5 of us squished along the back seat and a load of Armenians standing and laughing at the subsequent events...

Armenian minibuses are not designed for tall people. It has taken us a long time to fully realise this, but this morning we realised the full extent of it!! Cara was squished in the back corner with her long legs, and so we had a bit of shimmying and tried lots of very odd positions to try and accomodate her!! Legs in the air, bums against the window and the loss of Tina's ribs by Rachel squishing them! All this while singing along to our ipods...we did eventually get comfortable, just in time to get off!! Doh!

Mona then worked her charms on the local shop owner, who got his son's friend to come drive us the short distance to the monastery...in 2 trips as there were 7 of us. We spent the morning looking around the monastery and it was beautiful! First stop was a view over Mount Ararat which was so close! And we could also see the Turkish border with the lookout stations about 500km away!! Ooooh! Simona got a bit freaked out when the lady we had to pay for the toilet (100dram/20p) warned us about the snakes and scorpions by the rocks. Luckily for us, we didn't see any, although we definitely would have known from Simona and Tina's screams if there had been any!!!

We also had a look in the dungeons where Saint Gregory was imprisoned years ago...this meant climbing down a very steep ladder, and then went into the monatery itself where there was a christening going on... Finally we headed up to the top where we had even better views and posed for plenty of photos! Brilliant!

Now for the interesting bit, getting home...we managed to get a taxi to drive us back to the main road, again in 2 trips - we were amused by the state of the windscreen of the car, with so many cracks it would certainly not pass an MOT!! Some of us also got to watch the hilarious scene as a chicken escaped from a car and was chased around the car park by its owners! Simona told them the family were going to kill it at the top to get rid of their bad luck. When we got to the main road though, we hit a bit of an obstacle. We needed to get a taxi to the nearest town about 10 minutes drive away to catch the minibus, but there were no taxis willing to take us there, and Simona didn't have the number of a taxi company!!

We eventually managed to stop a taxi driver, who again did two trips to take us to the town (there was a moment where we were doubting he would come back for us!), and we walked through a local market to the "minibus station" (a rough car park area) where we jumped on the minibus home!

Today we also bumped into someone we knew - we were sitting on the metro when someone came over to say hi! It was one of the girls we had met along our travels - who would have thought we would bump into people we knew in Armenia?

Anyway, back at the hostel, we all go showered and dressed up for a night at Lilit's house. A bit of a rush as we only had one shower (who knows what the lady in the other was doing in there for over an hour?!), and we only had an hour before we were due to meet Simona at the metro. By now we have perfected getting on the metro ourselves! :)

We arrived at Lilit's house a little late, but hey we're just adopting the Armenian lifestyle! We weren't quite as late as Lina and Media Lilit though who joined us after. What we were presented with was a HUGE feast!! Lilit's mum had taken the day off work to prepare it for us and it was amazing. The best dolma we've had, some aubergine wraps, lots of salads, garlic matsoun (youghurty), lavash, salty cheese and more. Then out came some meatball type things - YUM! And then desert - a huge chocolate and cherry cake that media Lilit had bought, loads of melon and fruit and then ice cream! Phew!! Majorly stuffed by the end, but we had a lovely evening and post dinner enjoyed a bit of dancing and a trip to the roof of the block of flats. Well, what a view!! You could see the city by night, including the sports complex where there was a concert going on. By now it was late, so we said our thank yous and goodbyes and jumped in two taxis back to the hostel, very full but having had a brilliant night! :)

Friday we finally had a lie in! The hostel had asked us to move into a two other rooms, so we all packed up our bags. It was our last full day in Yerevan, so we decided to do some last minute shopping. Unfortunately, Lorraine felt ill so she stayed at home in bed, but the rest of us headed off to the food market. We bought some walnut things, some ararat and pomegranate wine. Yum! And such at bargain at only 900 dram for a bottle - that's less than £2!

This evening we were supposed to be going ten pin bowling with Simona, Lilit, Lilit and Lina, but we got a last minute text saying plans had changed...instead we were going to karaoke! Lorraine had to head back to the hostel shortly after we set off because she still felt unwell, but the rest of us went on to wow the karaoke bar with our brilliant singing! We all enjoyed some pizzas and had great fun singing hits including Mama Mia (went down well as it was the bars name!), Summer of 69 and YMCA (including dancing on the sofas!). The Armenians also sang us some tunes in English, Armenian and Russian! Wow! We also had a good go at the traditional Armenian dancing when happy birthday came on!

At 11:30 we headed off to republic square to watch the music fountains for one last time. It was such a lovely end to the night, and to the past 3 weeks! Such a lot has happened over our time in Armenia, from our paper plate saga, to breaking into a temple, to meeting such brilliant people! It was no surprise there were some tears from everyone as we sat and watched the fountains, with media Lilit capturing the moment on camera for us!

BUT...our night wasn't quite over yet! Although we had stopped to organise what time we would meet the Armenians at the airport tomorrow, and to say our tearful goodbyes, we had a random man following us for the rest of the journey home. Very odd - we pondered if he was drunk, but either way he followed us, but in front of us from the fountains!! No worries though, we managed to lose him by making a visit to vivacell, a shop on the way home. When we did get in, it was straight to bed!

Up early, queued for the shower as there was a load of French people at the hostel who had also got up early! We had our last breakfast of bread, apricot jam and salty cheese - not sure how Tina and Cara will cope without clearing 3 plates of cheese in the morning! Fingers crossed they don't get withdrawal symptoms!! We then grabbed our bags and jumped into two taxis to take us to the airport. Before we went, we got time to say goodbye to Gevorg, the hostel manager and give him some vodka - he's been fab to us, despite the fact we are "crazy girls". Job done, all we had to do was drop off our bags, say our goodbyes and jump onto the flight!

BUT...again that would be too easy! In true GOLD fashion, things were not so simple. Despite checking in online last night, we arrived at the check in desk to be told we couldn't check in!! The flight was overbooked by 17 people and we had to wait until all the other people had booked in first. We tried pointing out that Lorraine had a connecting flight to catch, that we had been doing project work, that it was crazy etc, but they weren't having any of it. Lilit even tried to help us out by talking in Armenian, but we simply had to sit and wait until check in closed at 11.30!

So we sat and we waited. No toilets, as the water to the airport had been cut off, but free calls to the UK courtesy of BMI! The team planned what to do if only some of us could get on the flight (Tina woke up Charlotte at about 6:30am!!)...and the Armenian's kept us entertained in the meantime. At 11:15, just before we found out if we were on the flight or not, Tina had to leave us to catch her flight to Moscow! Very sad times!!

At 11:30, when check in closed, we received THE best news! Not only were we on the flight, but we also had an upgrade to business class!! YAY! But no time to celebrate, our flight was now on the verge of leaving so we quickly checked in our bags, said very hurried goodbyes to our Armenian friends and ran the length of the airport to catch our flight. Flip flops off for our run and everything!! Although in true Armenian style, there was no hurry about checking our hand luggage/passports etc.

We managed to get on the flight, to be greeted with the most leg room you have ever seen and free champagne! We were even given a menu to choose our meal from. Definitely the most luxurious part of our trip! We finally landed back at Heathrow at 2, where we all said our goodbyes and headed our separate ways, and where Rachel was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by her parents! :)

Well that's the end of our GOLD adventure for now...and what a jam-packed 3 weeks it has been for all of us. To all those we have met along the way, THANK YOU for everything! Wherever we have gone, we have had such warm welcomes, lovely food and lots of fun and laughs. You have made it a truly amazing trip for us all! It's fair to say we miss you all already (and no Lina we won't forget you!), home just isn't the same!

In the famous (or not so famous) words of Tina - "That were well good that were!"

Roll on Edinburgh reunion and debrief!!

Lots of love
Team Armenia xxxx