Day 47 – 23rd May 2014 leave 8.30am Miles rode 251 Ardahan – Yerevan

What a day!

The women in Yerevan are beautiful.

I left early today, nervous about the bike, I was heading for Armenia. Nobody had spoken to me about the country and I hadn’t read anything about it but it was on the map and I was intrigued.

I rode out of Ardahan and the sat nav played up as it had for the past few days so I turned it off and followed the signs, I rode over another mountain and loved it, I was above the clouds and snow to my side, the bike was perfect, she purred along, no, she sounded great like a thumper would with a scorpion exhaust! As I came down the mountain I knew Georgia wasn’t far away and I was like a child on Christmas Eve, so excited! I roared towards the boarder, I just wanted to experience a new land.

The boarder was easy, 10 minutes out of Turkey and 15 minutes into Georgia, the boarder guards said enjoy your travels and encourage me to roar away as they waved.

It’s all about the people.

Another 30 minutes and I was passing through Akhaltsikhe, I saw a castle above me so I visited. It was a beautiful fully restored castle with The Georgian National Museum inside. I stayed for an hour as I thought I was making good time but I hadn’t realised I had passed into another time zone!

The roads were perfect to this point but they soon deteriorated and for the rest of the day were the worst ever, pot holes everywhere. Riding a bike is like snowboarding you look ahead at where your going in the distance and keep going. This wasn’t possible on this road as I have to look 10 metres in front as the massive pot holes cannot be seen otherwise, it’s so draining!

Georgia and then Armenia looked as I imagined, poor with apartment blocks from the former USSR. They were in such poor condition, it wasn’t shabby chic, it was very shabby! I rode all day and at about 7.00pm I arrived in Yerevan and automatically everything changed, money was in ‘the air’ and the women, wow I may have been knackered but my senses were quickly alerted to the most beautiful women. As I rode to the hostel I could hardly concentrate.

The hostel is great, clean and many travellers here. I chose a dorm as it’s cheap, I entered the room and two drunk Czech guys offered me brandy! Maybe it was a mistake them visiting the local cognac factory earlier in the day.

I tried to get a bed on ‘Couchsurfing.com’ without any joy but Nelly a Yerevan girl said she would show me the city, I called her and we’ll meet over the weekend.

I walked around and I’m in the middle of the city, so many bars, very lively. I’m going to love it here:)