What kind of a dog... a sheep dog it is? Hello! Hello everyone, and welcome to my new video! Today I will go to Armenia. My friend Alena, who is filming now, and I were
going to go to Armenia by a train, but it is impossible to buy tickets on
the website of the Armenian Railways, so I was like 'Let's go buy the marshrutka',
but at the same time I didn't know where to buy marshrutka tickets, so I asked a friend of a
friend and they recommended us this driver. Alena, can you share the purpose o
f us going to Armenia? Well, first of all I wanted to say that normally I would be scared of this amount of dogs, especially the big ones and the angry ones. But they're Georgian dogs so they're
not scary. And the purpose of our visit to Armenia is well, mostly for my visa run, because
I've been in Georgia for almost a year, can you believe that? Hello dog, and yeah, why not to visit Yerevan, which is the capital of Armenia, why not to drink coffee here, and this is the
second reason why I wan
t to go there. So let's start our journey So finally we arrived in Yerevan. What's your impressions? Considering the fact that other options
were train that is two times longer, or the plane that is... 40 minutes but
just scary.... yeah but gives me anxiety, So it's not an option. Well, 6 hours of Armenian music wasn't so fun
because I don't understand a word, but it gives me culture. What about the road itself, was it scary? It's different, like there ae parts of it that are
mountain roads, t
hat I would call, so that was fun. It wasn't fun. And there were parts where there
was just highway, so it was fine. The only thing I didn't like was when the driver was taking over other cars, he was doing it so fastly, and I was scared. It was somewhat uncomfortable just
to sit straight in a chair for 6 hours or so. Probably the best option we could find! Armenian cat! We know only Georgian cats so far. It's a boy. [Music] Armenia is a country in the South
Caucasus region in Western Asia.
It's quite a distance from where I am originally
from in Russia, but here is a fun fact: Armenia was one of the first foreign
countries I ever learned about. When I was growing up in Spassk, in my hometown
in my district there were many Armenians. So in front of our house there was a house of an
Armenian family, and to the other sides of our house. So I'm used to hearing Armenian speech since my childhood, and of course I knew that there are
countries like America, England, this is how I though
t they are officially called. It was the first foreign country that
I learned about, and now I'm finally here! So even in the Far East of Russia, there
is a significant number of Armenians. Interestingly, the Armenian diaspora is
much larger than Armenia's own population. Worldwide, there are approximately 11 million Armenians,
while only about 3 million live in the country itself. Armenians have had communities in various parts of the world
since ancient times, but the modern Armenian diaspo
ra was primarily shaped by the events of World War I
and the genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire Another wave of immigration occurred during
the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Now we are in the Republic Square in the city
center, and after Tbilisi, I'm not used to such large spaces, so what first comes to my mind is
comparison with Khabarovsk, Russia, where I lived. So in Khabarovsk we also have such a large square
with fountains, with administrative buildings. So comparing to Khabarovsk
, it seems that this is like
the building of the Khabarovsk Krai Administration, that is the university where my friend studies... It is interesting to imagine for a second, that now I'm in Khabarovsk. And when I do that, I immediately feel less stressed, it seems
to me that I'm in this familiar place, I know everything here. So yeah, it is a life hack, if you feel alien in this area. But anyway I want to show you this beautiful
building, again it's made with the tuff stone. and with different v
arieties of pink color, very beautiful. And now we are going to the underground. I see gay agenda here! This American gay propaganda, oh no! [Music] So, inTbilisi you can pay with Apple Pay,
but here you have to buy this "tickets". And you can only pay with cash here. This is how the station looks,
it looks fancier than in Tbilisi. That first station reminded me of, of course, stations
in Moscow, and also in Uzbekistan, because I like how now I have a collection of visited metro systems in diff
erent countries, so Russia, Uzbekistan, Georgia,
and now Armenia the fourth one. So that first station was beautiful,
with chandeliers and stuff. But here it's more modest, it has some spots on the wall... And the difference from Tbilisi is
that this metro is less developed. It has fewer lines, just one line, it has fewer stations. And yeah, this is my Armenian underground experience. And here's what the Republic Square
station looks from above. Then we went to the Armenian
Market, also known a
s GUM. This building reminded me of the market
that I visited in Uzbekistan, in Samarkand. After all, they were built under the USSR. It's fascinating how empires from the past expanded
and spread their cultures to entirely different regions. Long before the USSR, both usbekistan and
Armenia were part of the Persian Empire. In Samarkand, I visited Registan, and here in the
heart of Yerevan, there is a Blue Mosque which dates back to the 18th century, when
the city was under the Iranian influen
ce. In the '90s, it was restored with the
help of the Iranian government. There is a working mosque and a quiet garden. Souvenirs are sold in one of the buildings, and I was surprised to see the pumpkins that were there in anticipation of Halloween. Cashing out the money, the new kind of banknotes for me. So Russians eating Chinese food in Armenia, coming from Tbilisi... Globalization. Of course, I have no idea what they're talking about, but it's still interesting to see what channels and progr
ams this country has. The alphabet and sounds of the Armenian
language might remind you of Georgian. But the difference is that Armenian is part
of the Indo-European language family, and although distantly, it shares connections
with other languages of this family. Georgian however stands alone forming its own
language family, without any links to others. Another thing is that in the Georgian alphabet there is no distinction between uppercase and lowercase letters. While the Armenian alphabet d
oes have such a division. Personally, I find the Georgian letters more visually appealing. How about you? This is apparently a Russian fairy tale about
the Ryaba Chicken, but it's in Armenian. And this is a Red Riding Hood. In the book store, I was surprised to see so many books in Russian, because in all such stores I visited in Tbilisi, there might be a section of Russian literature, but there
are far more Georgian books in comparison. In general, here in Armenia I saw more,
connections to Rus
sian culture than in Georgia. This guy was singing in Russian in the center of Yerevan,
and nowadays I cannot imagine this in Tbilisi. This is Noize MC, a famous Russian rapper who
denounced the war, and he moved out of Russia. This is Liya Akhedzhakova, also a Russian
actress who denounced the war. As far as I know, she lives in Russia, but apparently
she also performs here, and it's great. This is a famous Russian rapper GUF, and I'm
so used to his name spelled in these letters, but here it
is also spelled in Armenian
letters and it was so funny. Not because letters are funny but
because how unexpected it was. I just spotted this air balloon, and I
knew that yesterday there was a festival of such balloons but we were not able to
make to it but here we just we see at least one. I ordered omelette with tomato and it
looks like pâté, I never saw it like this. And Bumble coffee, coffee with orange juice. I like to check out local like specialty
cafes, and this place was one of the
m. I took this omelette, although I didn't like it because...
because of the tomato juice there was too much water. Well, it sounds that I'm like this picky soy coffee lover, but yeah, I love such places, and also I assumed by
their appearance that many people there were Russian, and they were sitting with the laptops,
working, and it's interesting that walking in Yerevan, I imagine what if I moved
from Russia to Armenia, not to Georgia, so I kind of put on this Armenian life on myself. It's
just interesting to compare this place with Tbilisi. I enjoyed it, coffee was good, Bumble existed in
the menu, which is always a good sign. I also kind of liked and kind of hated the fact that everyone spoke Russian, and in general here just everyone speaks Russian. And why do you hate it, because
it should be comfortable for you? I don't know, it is convenient, I don't have to use any of my
brain capacity to talk to people, but at the same time, I kind of like the fact that nobody
really u
nderstands me in Georgia. I really like to use my English skills to like order
coffee or something and to practice. Yeah in that regard it feels that
Georgia is more like European... Even the street signs in Georgia are
written both in Georgian and in English. here it's only Armenian or Russian,
so it's inconvenient for tourists. And I mean, it feels that Georgia is more democratic, and by
that I mean the status of relationships with Russia. So the worse relationships with
Russia are, the bette
r the country for me is, I'm sorry. But at the same time, it's interesting to think about
the relationships between the countries, like why even though Georgia is located closer
to Russia, people there, they... like it's a taboo to go to a restaurant in Georgia or to
any other place, and speak Russian just right away without asking them like 'what language
is comfortable for you?'. In Armenia it's like everywhere they greet you
'zdravstvuite' (hello) in Russian, and it's interesting because G
eorgia is closer to Russia, so the closer the
country geographically, probably the better? but no, because the closer the country the more is a chance
that Russia did something bad to this country. Because Armenia doesn't have a border with Russia,
only through Georgia you can come to Armenia. Cat! Armenian cat! Well, when I talked about relationships with Russia, I meant the attitude of regular Georgian people towards the Russian government. Because if we're speaking about the Georgian governm
ent
and its connection to Russia, so they are quite connected. But I mean how people treat the Russian government in Georgia, and their attitude is quite hostile, and I
can understand that. While here in Yerevan it feels that you can speak
Russian everywhere, that is the big difference from Tbilisi. So we were walking along this street,
and I couldn't miss this unusual building it looks like wooden boards, and I first didn't understand,
are these real boards or they're like artificial? I also
noticed the pink color everywhere, it is some unusual kind
of stone, and almost all buildings here are made with it. Dogs here are chipped, the same
way as in Georgia, but at first we were surprised that there are
less stray dogs here than in Tbilisi. What's going on? When we first walked in the center of Yerevan,
I was surprised how wide the streets are. Because I tend to compare it with Tbilisi and I see that it is different, it looks like Khabarovsk in Russia. Also, wide streets, a lot of
trees, and I wondered why, and I found out that actually the city center was planned in the Soviet times to make an idealistic city Garden here,
and I mean it's quite visible because there are many trees. This the city plant, it looks like circles. And in that regard it reminds me of, Moscow
because Moscow also consists of circles. And it is so different from the city center in
Tbilisi, because in Tbilisi streets, especially in the old town, are narrower, and the
buildings are located closer to
each other. [Music] This place is called called The Cascade. If you go up the stairs, you will have a wonderful view of Mount Ararat, which according to legend, is where Noah's Ark came to rest. This mountain is a vital national symbol for
Armenia, revered as a sacred site. It is featured on the coat of
arms along with Noah's Ark, and even the renowned Armenian Brandy is named after it. That's why I used to think that Ararat is located on the
territory of Armenia, but in reality it is on the t
erritory of Turkey. We found a map of Yerevan city center, so this is the Cascade,
and now we are somewhere here, close to Moscow Street. Another unusual thing for me is this water fountain, in Georgia
they also are present, but in Russia it's not a thing. And I used to think that they are kind of scary,
but I see that people drink from here. And it is so great, I like this idea that whenever you
want to drink water you can find such a place. But the difference from Georgia is that there you ha
ve to push
the crane, but here the water flows all the time. And by the way, it doesn't taste like this irony water from tap. It's like mineral water sold in the stores. Oh my God, I knew that I would find
something like this here, and here it is. So this sticker 'BNE was here;, I saw it in Georgia, and
I knew that I would find something from Georgia. And another interesting thing, this is an ad,
but it's in Russian, and it says 'A Japanese language tutor. Come to me to study Japanese,
to not w
ait for the anime translation!' I found one more Georgian sticker, fish with legs.
I saw it in the Tbilisi, and now in Yerevan. It's unusual to see a Ukrainian flag here
because in Georgia there are more of them. Empty amusement parks, especially at
night, look creepy, but I'm here for it. Alena was filming a video in English near
The Cascade, and a guy approached us, and he was like, 'Oh, you have such a
good English, what's your name?' And as he said, he was from Nigeria, and we made
like a
small talk, and I immediately felt scared. I have this thing, when unfamiliar people approach
me on the street, I'm like... I'm frozen, I had a couple of unpleasant situations in Khabarovsk,
when, you know, beggars or some guy asked to take my phone to call someone, and there was a possibility that
he would run away with my phone, but I couldn't say 'no', and after that I always blame myself for
the fact that I am like numb in such situations, so I tried to work out a way how
to speak, to have
small talks. So with that guy today we were nice, and we talked a bit about Armenia, Georgia, he said that he noticed many Russians in Armenia, in Georgia, but not in
Azerbaijan, and he asked why. And I said, well Azerbaijan is kind of autocracy, more than
Armenia and Georgia, and he was like 'yes', he said that he was constantly stopped by the policemen in Azerbaijan, they asked for his documents. He also asked like whether we live in Armenia or not,
and we said like 'yeah, we live in Georgia',
and we talked about countries so it was kind of fine, but then
he was like 'Oh, you're so pretty, like let's go grab a beer' And I'm like 'Uh, no', I said like 'Sorry, no'.
But why would I say sorry, I don't know. But when we said 'no, we have other plans for
the evening', he did the wrong thing next, and he said 'Why, why not to go to the bar and like relax?'
I was again like 'No, thank you.' And then he said 'Okay, it was nice to talk to you, goodbye',
and we wished each other good luck and t
hat's it. I don't know why I get so triggered, again it was
unexpected, and my personal space was invaded. And it reminded me of some recent situation that happened
to me and Alena a couple of days ago, you remember, when we went to the gym, a Georgian guy approached Alena,
and first we thought that he recognized her from her channel, but he wanted to take her her Instagram. Well, that was weird too. We were already leaving the gym, and he's like 'Wait, what's your name, and are you married or
something?' And I'm like 'Well, no but I get it, like there's a tradition
to get married at like 16 in post Soviet countries'. But if you were straight, single, and if you liked that guy would you give your Instagram? I can't imagine being straight,
I don't know what this is. I feel like straight people are weird.
Don't mean to offend you but I don't know. Yeah, and again why I mentioned that Georgian guy,
because when he approached, us I didn't know what to say, and Alena also looked confused,
and I thought maybe I should jump in and say 'She is gay and she has a Georgian girlfriend' Do you think I should have said that to him? Well, in the world we're living in, saying 'Well I'm gay, I'm not interested in you in any way, and I can't be interested in you', Some guys might say,
'Oh, I will turn you straight or something ' Tr33some? - Eww. And I guess it's not an argument for a lot of people especially
if you're not in, oh my god, Gay Propaganda America, You are in Caucasus country. So
again, by these two stories I just wanted to tell you how
bad I feel when people approach me, because I had experience of stalking, even before my YouTube channel
there were some crazy stories. Also that guy who approached us today... The weirdest thing was probably the fact that he said,
'Well you're 20 but you look bigger'. He said that I look like a woman, like oh my God, I don't know what this means... I wouldn't say that it's a good thing to say to people. He told me I look my age, and
you
look older, so again it was... like partially the conversation was okay,
but still there were some red flags. Anyway, after such a busy day, how
not to try Armenian food? This is dolma, a dish associated with Ottoman Cuisine. It's meat, wrapped in grape leaves, and we also took pork kebab. It's so interesting to see things that
I already know, because I saw them in Georgia. For example, this churchkhela, it's nuts or dried fruits. I recently learned that in Georgia they sell Nutella
with the
design of Georgian cities. And we wondered if it's the same in Armenia, and
yes here they also designed one for this country. And it even says the location, s. Svarants,
probably it's like Svarants village. This is for Sevan Lake, and it's
spelled in Armenian and Russian. It's so unusual, only recently I got used to KFC, McDonald's, etc, with Georgian letters, and now it's with Armenian. Here you can switch to Russian and English,
in Georgia in KFC it's only English and Georgian. And also I want
to show you this interesting map
from the KFC birth place to Yerevan. And why I compare Armenia
to Georgia all the time? These two countries for me always stood in a row, well Azerbaijan as well, but it feels like something different from these two, so in my ignorant mind Georgia and Armenia were kind
of the same, with these intricate letters, people that maybe look alike, the Christianity. And when I was moving to Georgia,
I imagined it like one entity. And trying to understand and imagine w
hat Armenia is like, I just, sorry, duplicated Georgia in my mind and changed the letters. It's like Georgia changed by AI. And it's fascinating that such small countries are located
close to each other, but still they are different. Because coming from Russia, especially the Far East,
where there are big distances it seemed to me that if countries are so close to each other,
they are basically the same... And yeah, they have some connections but still
they are different, and especially centuri
es ago, when people traveled by horses, this five hours by car road
from Tbilisi to Yerevan probably seemed far for people. That's why, especially in Georgia, languages were preserved
in villages because they were isolated. I mean that's how I try to explain to myself how these countries managed to keep their identity,
their culture without mixing with each other. But of course, there were many wars, occupations, by Turkey,
I mean Ottoman Empire, Persia, Arab countries and so on. So it's all rea
lly interesting, and I'm not that knowledgeable
about this region, but I would love to learn more about it. Anyway, I want you to check out this storage of Soviet cars. And also this picture, it looks really
ambient, especially with this bicycle. I just love it here. Once again I realized, how unique the Caucasus region is, both its southern part and the northern part located in Russia. In such a relatively small territory, there live so many peoples with diverse ethnic backgrounds, languages, a
nd cultures. So this was my video about Armenia, I'm already back
in Tbilisi, and to film conclusion for this video, I purposely came to this district in Tbilisi, it's called Avlabari,
and I've been told that Armenian diaspora lives here. So I walked around this district, I wanted to find
some maybe Armenian inscriptions, road signs, but no, everything was in Georgian, except of this place,
it is some Armenian church, it's not that I know how different it is
from Georgian churches, but still...
there I saw signs in Georgian, Armenian,
and Russian, and English as well. And what I can say as a conclusion, I felt really comfortable in Yerevan, because there I didn't feel that pressure, that tension that I do feel here in Tbilisi, because here in Tbilisi, there are
many graffitis that say 'Russians go home', and so on, and I feel that people see by my appearance that
I am Russian, and that they don't like me being here. While in Yerevan I didn't feel that. It feels to me that everybody ha
tes me, I know it's not true. And also it made me to realize that actually a Caucasus
country can have good relationships with Russia. And probably if not for the occupation and the 2008 war,
Georgia and Russia relationships also could be like this now. But paradoxically, I still like life in Tbilisi more, because it
feels that there are more Russian speaking events. I like to go to English speaking clubs, or board games
or some lectures about Urban Studies, and on Instagram, on Telegram there
are many groups where
people make announcement of such events, and almost every day I can find activity like this in Russian in Tbilisi,
while in Yerevan it felt that there are fewer activities like this. So, once again I proved that I don't regret coming to
Georgia, choosing it over Armenia. And yeah, that's it. Write in the comments what is your opinion about Armenia, if you have been there. Maybe you also went to Georgia
and you can compare them. If you are from Armenia, please let me know
your opinion in the comments, was I correct in my assessments, or maybe I said something
wrong it it will be interesting to read your comments. So thanks for watching, like this video,
subscribe to my channel, and goodbye, poka-poka!
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