So what’s up lately?, one might wonder when both me and Leo have been absent from this site for a while. Well, we have been busy living our not so ordinary everyday life here in Yerevan, which is filled with big and small adventures every day. Let me recap some of what has happened the last couple of days.

I have moved in to my new host stay and it is really nice. My host mom Anahit is very kind and takes care of me like I was 5 years old. She makes me breakfast every morning and it is something new every day so I get to try out as much as possible of the Armenian food. She puts food on my plate and when I’m halfway through it, she add some (read: a lot) more and looks at me with a determined face and says “Eat!”. It doesn’t help telling her that I’m “a light eater”, she just waves away my apologies with her hand as if they where flies and tells me that I can eat light when I’m in Sweden. Here in Armenia I must eat. But she says it with a laugh and I can’t help feeling that I want to eat all the food, just because she is so nice fixing it for me every morning. So I eat, smile, says “shat merci” (thank you very much) and ignore the stomach aches and the 10 kg added weight I will have before moving out.

Speaking of moving out, we have finally arranged an apartment for me and Leo to live in from 1st of October. A smaller apartment with 1 bedroom, combined kitchen and living room and a balcony facing the park just before the Cascade. Location is as good as it can be and we had a quick tour in the apartment on Saturday and it looks really nice, from an Armenian point of view. It feels so nice to have it all sorted out and I can barely wait. It has been a great experience living with host families but I’m longing for some privacy and normal sized portions.

Besides visiting our home to be, the Saturday was spent in the best possible way together with Leo. We touristed our way through Yerevan by ourselves without any guide, any time schedule, trying out local fast food and a ice cream restaurant, and ended the day relaxing in a hotel in the city centre. We had booked a normal room but for some reason we got upgraded to a Junior suite, a pleasant surprise. It that was the first suite I’ve ever stayed in, and the first I ever seen with two bathrooms. Because, why not? We seized the luxury and ordered room service which also turned out to be a pleasant surprise, with some of the most delicious dishes we have tasted so far.

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For Sunday we had signed up for a hike up mount Azhdahak, a dormant volcano about 3500 m high, and the hike started already 06.00 in the morning. It was too early for hotel breakfast, but we got something much better instead – the air was crystal clear and we were just in time to experience an amazing sunrise over mount Ararat. The hike couldn’t have started better, and the good weather accompanied us throughout the day giving us the perfect conditions for what proved to be a rather challenging hike. Leo was not feeling 100% and I am just in embarrassingly bad shape, so breathing while climbing on an altitude around 3000-3600 m was tough. However, it was all worth it – the feeling of reaching the top was incredible. Not to mention, the views throughout the whole day. It was just incredible.

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