Day 7. Part 2. Wings of Tatev

On Google and Yandex maps.

We went back to Goris to eat and wait out the peak heat.

Anton tries dolma for the first time:

Didn’t vibe with it.

I tried the local coffee:

There’s sediment at the bottom — seems it’s brewed like Turkish coffee.

I couldn’t pick up any roast notes in the taste. The aftertaste was like I’d smoked a cigarette — and it lingered.

Totally get that some people might like it, but to me it felt a bit rough.

We rested and moved on.

We arrived at Wings of Tatev (the Tatev cable car). It’s considered the longest passenger aerial tramway (whatever that exactly means). The line is almost 6 km long and it’s in the Guinness World Records. Surprised me — I thought all the “longest-ever” stuff was in China :-)

One-way takes 12 minutes. Two cabins run every 15 minutes.

Video from March 9:

March view:

Riding and watching the views.

Anton seemed a bit scared :-) He kept asking, “It definitely won’t snap, right?”

Views:

Midway point:

In March:

Anton’s happy!

On the other side of the cable car is Tatev Monastery, founded in the early 9th century. By the way, the cable car was built as part of the monastery’s restoration project, and all revenue goes to that restoration.

Candles are set in sand (like back home), but here there’s also water poured in.

Anton approved:

We walked around the grounds.

Pigeons chilling on a column:

Walls:

I think this is a restroom:

There were lots of bees by one of the walls:

These are the views from the monastery:

Anton’s rating:

This was the only monastery we visited together. I figured the rest would feel similar to Anton, so we skipped them. We came to this one because I wanted to show him the cable car and the views from it.

Filming roses just for mom:

We headed back at sunset.

It gets dark fast. I don’t think I’ve seen the kind of colorful sunsets here that we have back home. I guess it’s because Armenia sits 1–2 km above sea level.

23 August 2024