Photo from when I hitchhiked from Vayk (Վայք) to Goris (Գորիս) in Armenia in one ride with a guy named Artur. That’s a good 100 kilometers closer to Iran! After taking a short break in Goris because of the rain, I’m continuing my hitchhiking trip to Kapan (Կապան). I had a nice cup of coffee with Artur at a place called Deluxe Lounge Cafe—a surprisingly fancy place in the center of Goris along the main thoroughfare. Then he left for business in town. From here, it’s very easy to walk 1.5 kilometers out of town to hitchhike south to Kapan and inching closer to Iran.

But… I made an oopsie! Apparently, it wasn’t necessary at all to hitchhike to Goris to go to Kapan. There’s another route that turns southwards before Goris, which is what Google Maps says is the road to take. My OSM map shows that the road that straddles Armenia’s eastern border is the main road, which is why I assumed I had to go here. Oh well, I guess we’ll see which route the next driver will take.

Is it too early to say this already? Well, goodbye Armenia! I’m going to try to put my very first visa to use.

I write my hitchhiking signs in Armenian wherever I can. Here, I used the Eastern Armenian script, which is the only one I know and the one used within Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and countries with Armenian people directly bordering Armenia. The Armenian diaspora uses Western Armenian, so I know nothing about that. Unlike the Georgian alphabet, the Armenian alphabet does have capital letters. So instead of writing Կապան, I chose to write ԿԱՊԱՆ. Perhaps it would look nicer if I used an initial capital letter and then small letters.

You can see my hitchhiking spot in Vayk here on Mapillary. Or if you like coordinates, they’re as such: 39.687703704990135, 45.47547053768548

Oof, at first the Google Streetview didn’t work. But now I found it there too.

#hitchhiking from Vayk, one ride to Goris, now on to Kapan and #Iran! Goodbye #Armenia! (at Goris Cafe De Louxe)

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