It was sometime in late August 2015 that we, my friends and I, hit the road early in the morning at five-ish. As a matter of fact, we were four fellows in the beginning.  We shall see how things will shape in the following days.

 

Departing from our hometown Krasnodar in southern Russia, the path shown in the navigator was about a day drive. According to this itinerary, 2 borders would be crossed on the way, namely Russian-Georgian and later Georgian-Armenian.  In total we had to make 1,100 kilometers to reach Yerevan, the Armenian capital. First checkpoint was at the city of Vladikavkaz, which took 8 hours to reach. From this point, Georgia was only 20 kilometers away. If we don’t count the first stop (where we rejoiced our stomachs somewhere near the city of Pyatigorsk), our stop at Vladikavkaz was only a visit of necessity. Having a rest, refilling our tank with petrol, we were heading to the first border pass point.

 

Once we approached to the border, the queue for the vehicles, as expected, was a real disaster. Unfortunately, most of the humanitarian services provided for people are very slow and ridiculous in Russia. In other words, it is easy to say that, empathy is a scarce commodity in Mother Russia. You should desperately wait for anything you want to buy and deal with the paperwork, etc. Thus, we had to wait for 3 hours to pass from the Russian to the Georgian side.  At the queue we also encountered rural irregulars who cut the queue shouting ‘’ Open our way! There is a woman on the bus who is giving birth  right now! ‘’ The bus driver was a great actor who could easily qualify for the Oscars. You can never imagine how I answered! Pretending to be a doctor, I offered to check the lady!. You should have seen his face. Yet, he, as a great actor, replied me in with great calmness. ‘’ If you don’t trust me, come in and have a look my brother’’. I had nothing else to say to him. I tried to neglect this incident turning to the other direction. The quarrel was growing bigger between other drivers and the bus driver, as well as his untamed crew.

 

Moving on from this unpleasant circumstance, we finally reached the checkpoint at the Russian customs. Formalities, a quick investigation, short and useless questions took another ten minutes. Eventually, we all cleared customs. The hardest part of the journey was over. Whilst driving to the Georgian border, we all knew that here in Georgia we would suffer far less. Georgian border officers stamped our passports within minutes. It was that quick! I even had a quick chat with the officer about the meaning of my name. The guy next to me, who was clearly from Armenia, confirmed that my name meant “brave” in Armenian. Although the border officer, while being Georgian, insisted that my name meant ‘’come here’’ in everyday Armenian, he was not totally right. Modern Armenian has two standardised forms, first being Eastern Armenian spoken all across Armenia and the second being Western Armenian. Therefore, while Ari means brave in Western dialect, it also has the meaning of “come here” in Eastern dialect. Other examples of this sort of conflict are abundant between the two dialects.

 

Going back to where we’ve left, we all passed the Georgian border quickly. Driving via the high mountains of Gudauri, passing by the outrageous valleys with surging roads, we were heading to Tbilisi. Once we made it to Tbilisi, we had a short stop to take some fresh air and to stretch., Gas pedal had felt the pressure on it recursively.  Drivers were also swapped. Having seen the sunset around 8pm, we still had a border to pass and approximately 400 kilometres to drive until we reach our final destination, Yerevan. 

 

By midnight, we reached Sadakhlo, the border between Georgia and Armenia. From then on, I was going to be treated as an Armenian citizen even though I had a Turkish passport. At the Armenian border, I tried my best to express myself in Armenian while completing the visa application form. The officer suggested that I could pay a bit less than the normal visa fee. It was really shocking, as well as relieving. It was less about the discount, but more about his attitude and hospitality that made me feel like I was at home. The paperwork took five minutes and I was in.  Yet, we still had 3 hours of drive. I was trying to do my best not to close my eyes. Listening to loud music and chewing a gum to give full attention to the road and to increase my concentration were the right things to do. We were passing by village roads without enough road lamps and signs. The route we had taken was via Stepanavan, which was full of mountain roads with valley and river crossings. Climbing up the mountain, we got stuck in a heavy fog with the visibility distance lower than 2-3 meters. For about 10 to 15 minutes we drove through this dense fog fearfully.  Completing this hard task, we started counting down the kilometers and the hours. It was 03:00 am local time in Yerevan when we arrived at our hostel located just at city-center. We settled down, got the room keys and went to sleep after a long and exhausting day on the roads.