Visiting Armenia

[Arsen_]

A young family from Russia left their hometown Chelyabinsk and settled in Armenia. Now they lived about a year in Armenia and told about their life there.

Some quotations below:

Я работаю программистом в армянской компании. В Ереване очень развита IT-индустрия, много работы для программистов. На эту отрасль здесь делают высокие ставки. Многие мои коллеги — армяне, конечно. Я успел подружиться с ними, в выходные мы командой айтишников играем в футбол.

В интернете существует статистика, которая называет Ереван одним из самых безопасных городов в мире. Да, это действительно подтверждается тем, что я могу выйти на улицу в любое время суток, и я не увижу пьяных компаний или агрессивно настроенной молодёжи. В Челябинске после 11 вечера ходить по городу небезопасно. Особенно в Металлургическом районе, где мы жили.

Ещё живя в Челябинске, с 2014 года я начал увлекаться бегом. Сперва принял участие в челябинском полумарафоне, потом в римском. В Ереване отличные условия для занятия бегом. Тут есть Разданское ущелье, там можно бегать, как и в многочисленных парках и аллеях. В отличие от Челябинска я могу в любое время пробежаться, не задумываясь о том, чистое ли сегодня небо, не было ли выбросов сегодня.

Во время проживания в Ереване познакомились с ребятами из Tri Club Yerevan — движением триатлонцев. Мы вступили в это сообщество, где отличный коллектив, почти семья. Проходим вместе тренировки разного рода, проводим мероприятия. Из последних таких соревнований — зимний триатлон. Моя жена тоже увлеклась бегом и осенью прошлого года поучаствовала в ереванском марафоне.

Для нас как для челябинцев главным фактором при переезде, повторюсь, была экология. В Ереване она по сравнению с Челябинском великолепная. У нас прошли болячки: дочь перестала кашлять, у жены прошли все виды аллергии, которые её беспокоили раньше. Мы живём на 14 этаже и, просыпаясь, из окна видим чистое небо и слышим пение птиц.

Местные товары и продукты очень дешёвые. В сезон овощей и фруктов примерно за 120 рублей я могу купить 20-литровое ведро местных абрикосов. Фруктов и овощей здесь очень много, это витамины, и это дёшево — тоже плюс страны.

Кстати, армянский драм — одна из самых стабильных валют. За тот год, что мы здесь живём, его курс к доллару практически не менялся.

Если вам не нравится человек, вы ему в открытую можете сказать. У армян такого нет, они будут ко всем настроены доброжелательно, даже если ты этому человеку не интересен. Это, скорее, европейское поведение.

Спустя примерно полгода жизни в Ереване я уже начал понимать жизнь местных и армянский менталитет. Мне после Челябинска было странно увидеть картину, когда ты просто идёшь по улице, и люди тебе улыбаются. Если такое увидишь в России, то подумаешь, что человек либо сумасшедший, либо что-то хочет от тебя. В Армении это норма.

https://74.ru/text/world/65983961/

English translation:

I work as a programmer in an Armenian company. The IT industry is very developed in Yerevan, a lot of work for programmers. There are high stakes for this industry. Many of my colleagues are Armenians, of course. I managed to make friends with them, at the weekend we play football with a team of IT specialists.

There are statistics on the Internet that call Yerevan one of the safest cities in the world. Yes, this is indeed confirmed by the fact that I can go outside at any time of the day, and I will not see drunken companies or aggressive young people. In Chelyabinsk, after 11 pm, walking around the city is not safe. Especially in the Metallurgical district where we lived.

While still living in Chelyabinsk, in 2014 I began to get involved in running. First I took part in the Chelyabinsk half marathon, then in the Roman one. Yerevan has excellent conditions for jogging. There is the Hrazdan gorge, you can run there, as well as in numerous parks and avenues. Unlike Chelyabinsk, I can run at any time, without thinking about whether the sky is clear today, if there were no emissions today.

During our stay in Yerevan, we got acquainted with the guys from Tri Club Yerevan - the movement of triathletes. We joined this community, where a great team, almost family. We go through training of various kinds, we hold events. Of the last such competitions - winter triathlon. My wife was also fascinated by running and in the autumn of last year participated in the Yerevan marathon.

For us as for Chelyabinsk, the main factor when moving, I repeat, was ecology. In Yerevan, it is magnificent compared to Chelyabinsk. Our sores and diseases disappeared: the daughter stopped coughing, my wife lost all kinds of allergies that had bothered her before. We live on the 14th floor and, waking up, we see a clear sky from the window and hear birds singing.

Local products and products are very cheap. In the season of vegetables and fruits for about 120 rubles, I can buy a 20-liter bucket of local apricots. There are a lot of fruits and vegetables here, these are vitamins, and this is cheap - also a plus of the country.

By the way, the Armenian Dram is one of the most stable currencies. During the year that we live here, its course to the dollar has not changed.

(In Russia) If you do not like a person, you openly tell him it. Armenians do not have this, they will be friendly towards everyone, even if they are not interested in this person. It is rather European behavior.

After about six months of living in Yerevan, I began to understand the life of the locals and Armenian mentality. After Chelyabinsk, it was strange for me to see a picture when you just walk down the street and people smile to you. If you see this in Russia, then you will think that a person is either crazy or wants something from you. In Armenia, this is the norm.

[Arsen_]

Russian tourists in Tsakhkadzor. Armenia. Ski resort

[Arsen_]

Journalist from Kyrgyzstan visited Armenia and shared her impressions, here are below some excerpts:

Город, в котором хочется бродить сутками – Ереван глазами журналиста из Кыргызстана


Ереван – город, который может влюбить в себя с первого взгляда. Столицу Армении можно отнести к тем типам городов, где можно бродить целыми днями и наслаждаться строениями, площадями, магазинами и людьми. По выходным здесь выступают уличные музыканты, организовываются ярмарки. Мне довелось пожить здесь две недели и эта самая долгая поездка в моей жизни.

Первое впечатление, которое производит Ереван для журналиста из Кыргызстана – это чистота. Город «вылизан» до блеска, да и армянину не придет и в голову бросить на улице мусор. Помимо чистоты, здесь наведен абсолютный порядок. Никакой стихийной торговли или некрасивых ларьков, обклеенных объявлениями. Водители соблюдают правила дорожного движения, могут пропустить пешехода, переходящего не в положенном месте. Я каждый день перехожу дорогу через двойную сплошную, и не было дня, чтобы машины не остановились и не пропустили меня.

К моему удивлению, продукты питания в Ереване стоят дешевле, чем в Кыргызстане почти в 1,5 раза.

http://kabar.kg/news/gorod-v-kotorom...z-kyrgyzstana/

The city where you want to wander for days - Yerevan through the eyes of a journalist from Kyrgyzstan


Yerevan is a city that one can fall in love at first sight. The capital of Armenia can be attributed to those types of cities where you can wander all day and enjoy the buildings, squares, shops and people. On weekends, street musicians perform here, fairs are organized. I happened to live here for two weeks and this is the longest trip in my life.

The first impression Yerevan makes for a journalist from Kyrgyzstan is cleanliness. The city is “licked” to the brilliance, and it would not even occur to an Armenian and throw a garbage on the street. In addition to cleanliness, absolute order is imposed here. No spontaneous trade or ugly stalls, pasted advertisements. Drivers follow the rules of the road, they can miss a pedestrian crossing the wrong place. Every day I cross the road through a double solid, and there was no day that the cars would not stop and not let me through.

To my surprise, food in Yerevan is cheaper than in Kyrgyzstan by almost 1.5 times.

[FinalFlash]

Journalist from Kyrgyzstan visited Armenia and shared her impressions, here are below some excerpts:

Город, в котором хочется бродить сутками – Ереван глазами журналиста из Кыргызстана


Ереван – город, который может влюбить в себя с первого взгляда. Столицу Армении можно отнести к тем типам городов, где можно бродить целыми днями и наслаждаться строениями, площадями, магазинами и людьми. По выходным здесь выступают уличные музыканты, организовываются ярмарки. Мне довелось пожить здесь две недели и эта самая долгая поездка в моей жизни.

Первое впечатление, которое производит Ереван для журналиста из Кыргызстана – это чистота. Город «вылизан» до блеска, да и армянину не придет и в голову бросить на улице мусор. Помимо чистоты, здесь наведен абсолютный порядок. Никакой стихийной торговли или некрасивых ларьков, обклеенных объявлениями. Водители соблюдают правила дорожного движения, могут пропустить пешехода, переходящего не в положенном месте. Я каждый день перехожу дорогу через двойную сплошную, и не было дня, чтобы машины не остановились и не пропустили меня.

К моему удивлению, продукты питания в Ереване стоят дешевле, чем в Кыргызстане почти в 1,5 раза.

http://kabar.kg/news/gorod-v-kotorom...z-kyrgyzstana/

The city where you want to wander for days - Yerevan through the eyes of a journalist from Kyrgyzstan


Yerevan is a city that one can fall in love at first sight. The capital of Armenia can be attributed to those types of cities where you can wander all day and enjoy the buildings, squares, shops and people. On weekends, street musicians perform here, fairs are organized. I happened to live here for two weeks and this is the longest trip in my life.

The first impression Yerevan makes for a journalist from Kyrgyzstan is cleanliness. The city is “licked” to the brilliance, and it would not even occur to an Armenian and throw a garbage on the street. In addition to cleanliness, absolute order is imposed here. No spontaneous trade or ugly stalls, pasted advertisements. Drivers follow the rules of the road, they can miss a pedestrian crossing the wrong place. Every day I cross the road through a double solid, and there was no day that the cars would not stop and not let me through.

To my surprise, food in Yerevan is cheaper than in Kyrgyzstan by almost 1.5 times.

Translate the full story man.

[Tigranes]

Translate the full story man.

One of the big advantages of the journalistic profession is travel. Traveling journalists are not like traveling simple tourists. Because, firstly, most often we travel not at our own expense, which is not the case with tourists. As a rule, travel journalist associated with professional activities. And our profession at the same time gives us the opportunity to develop, learn something new, meet people and see other countries, cities, culture and traditions.

Secondly, arriving in a different country, the journalist begins to study it. That is, we look at how well the airport is arranged, which roads are in this country. While we are going from the airport to the city, we study the standard of living of the population for homes and cars, and from the window of the airplane window we estimate the level of pollution of the ecology of the host country. While other tourists view and admire the sights, I observe the driving culture of the city, the cleanliness of the city and the behavior of the locals.

Yerevan is a city that can fall in love at first sight. The capital of Armenia can be attributed to those types of cities where you can wander all day and enjoy the buildings, squares, shops and people. On weekends, street musicians perform here, fairs are organized. I happened to live here for two weeks and this is the longest trip of my life.

Yerevan is considered one of the oldest cities in the world. According to official information, Yerevan is older than Rome by 29 years. Armenia, like many other countries, has something to show to a foreigner. In Yerevan, there are echoes of the past, which can be seen in old, but well-kept buildings, temples and churches, or feel the bitter and bitter past of Armenians in museums and monuments.

The first impression Yerevan makes for a journalist from Kyrgyzstan is cleanliness. The city is “licked” to the brilliance, and it would not even occur to an Armenian and throw a garbage on the street. In addition to cleanliness, absolute order is imposed here. No spontaneous trade or ugly stalls, pasted advertisements. Drivers follow the rules of the road, they can miss a pedestrian crossing the wrong place. Every day I cross the road through a double solid, and there was no day that the cars would not stop and not let me through.

In addition, not so much historical buildings that are the highlight of the city and give Yerevan a special charm, but also new buildings are striking. Armenians do not build boxed buildings. Trading houses or business centers here correspond to the historical appearance of the city.

Of course, it is necessary to focus on restaurants and cafes. Here you can not just eat and drink wine or brandy, but also learn the special traditions or culture of the Armenians. The waiter can make a tour of the Armenian cuisine, recommend a tasty and inexpensive dish and leave an indelible impression of the hospitality of this country. Armenians joke that every waiter in a restaurant is a sommelier. Drinking wine or brandy is of particular importance here, so the choice of this product is a whole procession and deepening in history.

Separately, I would like to mention the monuments. The city has a lot of monuments erected to prominent people with an unusual life history. For example, on the main street of the capital of Armenia is a monument to Karabala. The story of a ruined rich man who, with grief, became a drunkard in order to survive, he sold flowers or simply gave them to lovers and girls. Also very interesting is the monument to the outstanding Armenian composer Komitas, who could not come to normal consciousness after seeing with his own eyes the murder of more than 200 Armenians. At that time it was decided to destroy the Armenian intelligentsia, Komitas miraculously managed to escape. But he ended his life in a psychiatric hospital in France, never having managed to recover from what he saw. Such sights cast the past and do not forget about the difficult history of the people.

In addition to famous people, the monuments are set to the heroes of films from their favorite scenes. For example, the Soviet film “Men” was shot in Yerevan. The plot of the film is that four friends - Vazgen, Sako, Suren and Aram - live in Yerevan and work as taxi drivers. Then one day Aram, the most modest and shy of the whole company, hopelessly falls in love with a girl named Karine. Seeing the suffering of a friend, the trinity uses all its resourcefulness and ingenuity to make the beauty pay attention to Aram. Four heroes erected a monument by the window of the house where the girl lived in the film. A monument to the famous Soviet troika can also be found on Yerevan Street: Yuri Nikulin, Georgy Vitsinu and Yevgeny Morgunov from the movie “The Caucasian Captive”.

Only in the center of Yerevan we counted dozens of monuments with an interesting history and recall the past.

Observations from everyday life: transportation here, the same as in Bishkek. There are buses and minibuses, the latter only for sedentary passengers. There are practically no traffic jams. This is probably due to the small population of the country - only 3.5 million inhabitants.

To my surprise, food in Yerevan is cheaper than in Kyrgyzstan by almost 1.5 times.

Also my attention was attracted by the fact that in Yerevan most people speak English. Often it is easier for them to explain in English than in Russian. And the Russian language without the need here is not used.

[Arsen_]

Extreme tourists from Russia made a multi-day ski trip in the mountains of Armenia across the Gegham Range. The altitude is about three thousand meters above sea level. There you can prepare for trips beyond the Arctic Circle.

[Arsen_]

[Arsen_]

Every summer the Watermelon Festival takes place in Yerevan

[Arsen_]

I found my happiness in Yerevan and I am not going to leave here

Almost ten years ago, an Italian Federico Tarabella from Tuscan arrived in Yerevan and could not leave Armenia anymore. He told about what kept him in Armenia.

"I found my happiness in Yerevan and am not going to leave here. I moved to Armenia in June 2010, I was then 27 years old. I just returned to Italy from Australia, where I was on the program "Work and travel". I came to homeland on business, with the intention to return to Australia, but quite unexpectedly I received a job offer in Armenia from an Italian company...

Armenia is a fantastic country. There is something very special here ... I never thought that I would stay here, marry and that my child would be born here... There is something in the air, something that makes me feel at home like in a song "Սա Երևանն է, այստեղ դու տանն ես…" (" This is Yerevan, and here you are at home ".) Armenia is the place where I would like my son to grow up. The concept of family has a very solid foundation here. I admire the relationship in the Armenian family. In addition, Armenia is safe for children - no kidnapping, no drugs, etc.

When I arrived in Armenia, I was pleasantly surprised at how beautiful and feminine the girls were here. But I did not plan to marry. I was just starting my career, but for marriage, stability is needed ... With my future wife we worked together, she was so cute, but I couldn’t take care of her, we were colleagues. When she left work, we started dating, and four years later we got married.

Traditions are very strong in the family of my spouse, and from the very beginning I was very attracted to it. I come from a country that has completely forgotten its foundations. Armenia seemed to take me back in time.

I like a lot of things here, especially safety. That is why I really want my son to grow up and get an education in Armenia, away from everything unnecessary, from harmful acquaintances. I see a great future for him and I will do my best to make his dreams come true".

[Arsen_]