DESCRIBING ARMENIA IN ONE WORD

I’m disappointed that I’m missing the 2026 UK heatwave;

don’t get many of those, do you ?

Meanwhile in Yerevan;

Oh. On our tours this week all that visitors from the Netherlands, Sweden and Kaliningrad wanted to talk about was the World Cup the weather, yet another thing the UK cultural export. Can we blame global warming on Keir Starmer ? Or A.I. ?

There was some sort of party going on in Yerevan,

but we clearly hadn’t been invited, so after just one night we set off for the train to Guemri, and I bet you can’t wait to hear about Armenia’s second city.

We got a quick look at Yerevan, a city of statues,

swan boats,

“but that’s a Canadian goose” screams A. Reader, and other stuff we’ll come back to, but if I had to describe a country in one word it would be COFFEE.

On every corner, a machine taking your 100 dram coin, often with Hi-Vis maintenance staff on hand, and once you work out how to tell the machine YOU DON’T WANT SUGAR you can have a quality (hot and chewy) espresso for twenty pence (20p).

OK, a cappucino is 50p, but what fool orders a cappucino from a machine ?

I’ve never seen so much strong coffee drunk, long into the evening. That 100 dram espresso is as much a human right as the 1 euro equivalent in Naples.

Except it’s just gone up to 150 drams in the newer machines in the city centre. The main difference between Yereven and the rest of Armenia is 10p on an espresso.

We never tried the tea machine*

Of course, some folk like an artisanal flat white at a table, and in Yereven’s many, many, cafes you could pay more than 10 times the price of that portable cup.

At Marush, an Armenian version of Pollen in Manchester, a coffee and posh lemonade cost £7.

But they did bring out a little table for my rucksack to rest on, so that’s OK.

*Yes, I know I raved about Bulgarian machines that produced Irish coffees, too.

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Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

14 thoughts on “DESCRIBING ARMENIA IN ONE WORD”

  1. Are coffee shops fewer in number since there are so many coffee machines? The chair for your bag is a new one for me. Wow! You must have been looking pretty sharp.

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  2. We found a place in Yerevan called Dargett. It was ok but expensive. Also a long way from our accommodation up the hill.
    Enjoyed the city. Felt much safer than walking round Manchester

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    1. Expensive? Interesting, Robin.

      We had Dargett in their Tap room yesterday and it was £26 for a lot of good food and drink. I guess exchange rates fluctuate. Was this a while ago ?

      Interested to know where you stayed, and agree how safe it felt.

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      1. We were in the Felinger Concept Hotel. It was really good. This was October 2025 and we had just come over the border from Georgia. I really was amazed by the underground commerce in the Yerevan subways. Lots to be learnt from their use of space.

        When I say expensive, I guess I usually expect craft beer to be so much cheaper than the UK. But in reality, when you factor in the smaller measures you often get abroad, that’s seldom the case.

        Very enjoyable city to visit.

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  3. Looking forward to seeing more of your Armenia exploits Martin, somewhere I’ve wanted to visit for a while. I’ve taken a leaf out of your & Mrs RM’s book and taking my first Luton flight to a novel locale later this week.

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      1. visiting the Baltic states. Once upon a time Manchester did £60 flights to Tallinn, but those days are over…

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  4. Well, I find that most of what I say these days should be a Daily Mash headline, e.g.:

    The words that boyfriends dread” “No, I don’t want to eat in a pub. And no, I don’t want a curry either. I want to go to somewhere nice.

    Try Armenia, love.

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  5. Armenia, City in the Sky – track one, side one of The Who’s magnificent Sell Out album from 1967. The guy who wrote it was thinking “I’m an ear, sitting in the sky” – lord knows what he was on – but that would never have caught on.

    Sadly, neither did Armenia…

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