Dilijan Dilijan

Saturday in Dilijan,

This ended up being one crazy day. We got a taxi to Goshavank from the bed and breakfast this morning. Now I am not in the best mood because I have had stomache problems and squirrels have been doing their rendition of West Side story on our roof everynight. I thought they were rats trying to barg in but it turns out they are just squirrels who, in my opinion, could stand to lose a few pounds. I have been up all night scared hoping they wouldn't burst through the walls.

We had the taxi for a few hours which was nice, our own personal driver. We decided to try the hike to the lake from the monastary. Now apparently this is something tourists do all the time and we found the sign saying that we are about to go on the path. We also had a written description of how to get up to the lake so we thought we were set. Well I am sure I don't have to tell anyone who would be reading this (mom and dad) but I am not a hiker. I decided to do it because Ashley likes it and I wanted to be a good sport, do something different. I was dying. Dying! Out of breath and sweaty and I wasn't even at the 15 minute mark. On top of that we kept encountering stray dogs and had to tread lightly not knowing if they were biters. Even passing a horse (tied up) randomly in the middle of a field. The whole time consulting with the map and asking locals which direction. We thought we were in good shape when all of a sudden we saw it. Exactly where we started. Sans Lake. We were so upset we went through all that just to go around in a pointless circle. The cab was only supposed to wait for an hour and a half and anything over would be more money so we decided to head back and just remember what a lake looks like and live with that.

We hung out at our favorite spot one last time and had beer and ice cream and battled wasps who wanted what we had. After that we walked around then headed to this Peace Corps couples' for dinner. They were from North Carolina and had awesome accents and cool stories. We ended up being there so late we had a hard time calling a taxi who would come. I was so tired I felt my eyes droop... little did I know what was awaiting us at the bed and breakfast.

Have any of you met an Estonian? Well they are basically Russians who like to party. The owner of the B&B was there in full swing making us come to the table and forcing us to drink Cognac and Apricot Vodka. The Estonian guests were loud and fun and ready to sing (Don't Cry For Me Argentina. Really?) Normally all this would be great but I was tired and not felling good and had to get up at 7 the next day to travel. I have video evidence but there was singing and dancing and accordian playing. I was finally able to sneak away to many groans and tsks but what are you going to do. I think the Apricot Vodka did the trick because I missed the squirrel performance that night.