So here I am again, in Yerevan, its been a year since I was here, but I’d say this time alot has changed. I am just going to write a few of my own personal observations, and please feel free to share yours!

The Biggest change I’ve ever seen has to be the opening of the new airport terminal. I arrived, hardly believing I was in Armenia, to a clean, fresh, air conditioned, brand new smelling terminal. It is fair to say it’s all been very tastefully done, and the arrivals process was absolutely perfect. I kind of missed the fights for visa, the bizarre “queuing” system. All of this was no more, I even had a bit of a joke with a customs person. It is no exaggeration that I was out of the airport in 15 minutes! This is a record for anywhere i’ve ever been! It seems everyone working there is young, and much more inclined to help. I think this is a perfect way to enter the country, and really does make a huge difference.

As for Yerevan ….. It’s a shameful mess. Dusty, smelly, reminding me of more of a middle eastern bazaar at the moment! It seems everywhere I look there is construction, but not even nice building, the kind of building which seems to involve digging up entire streets, throwing piles of bricks everywhere, and not cleaning up the dust. I guess we can’t complain. I arrived at our apartment to find the street is now dug up in 3 places, apparently to build a new subway. I guess this is neccessary, but it’s little things like putting the bins back on the stands which I think need to take priority. I don’t think Ive seen anywhere else in the world where brand new litter bins can fall off their stands and just lie on the floor, looking even worse than the rubbish itself! I would have thought the city may have prepared for tourist season by cleaning up a little, it seems not, I guess they know the numbers are guaranteed. But certainly, it is a mess, and I hope it cleans up in the next couple of years. Much of the lincy work on the sidewalks seems to have been wasted, as they are now dug up or littered once more.

Russian music seems to have taken the back seat to Armenian pop now, out of the random places I passed on my walk today, only one had the token Russian dance music blasting out. The rest was new generation Armenian pop, small observation, but if music is your sphere, this represents a decent shift in pop culture , before it was extremely rare to hear anything but rabiz on the streets if anything.

Prices? Up again, quite drastically. I am paying the same for fresh vegetables as I am in the UK, which is known for high prices. I don’t honestly know how the average Armenian family manages to make ends meet.

Other than that, it’s nice to be in Yerevan, to hear Armenian, and to smell the air! It’s going to be a good summer

I can’t really think of anything else….I’ll post some photos soon.