Armenia (all)

Translated from the original French version by Barbara Leonard.

Armenia, do you know it? Is Armenia a people or a religion? We forget about the strong sentimental or familial ties that unite us with this small, distant country (the size of Belgium) in the Caucasus, bordered by Europe and Asia. Who doesn't have, among friends and acquaintances, a good friend who is Armenian? Armenia is not well-known to western travelers, who lack sufficient information to discover this former Soviet republic whose population is 3 500 000. Armenia is a country of mountains, served on a high plateau, bristling with extinguished volcanoes, and circled on all sides by the powerful mountainous systems of Asia minor, Persia, and the Caucasus. It has its economic ``lung'', Erevan, the capital, whereas the rest of the country is a tangle of mountains higher than 3000 meters, notched with deep valleys. Who says ``mountains'' says ``passes'' (obviously), and the small area of the country allows us cross it from top to bottom. The program consists of 10 stages, the first week autonomously (totally by bicycle), and the second, climbing passes but travelling the long distances between them via auto; 14 passes, of which 12 are higher than 2000 meters.

[The author travels around the world and reviews hostels, and has built up a large hostel directory.]

What are hostels?

The quickest answer I can give to you is that hostels are budget accommodations where you share a room with other travelers. To be more specific though and to give you a better idea of what to expect I will say that a hostel room is like a hotel room but instead of being just one bed there are a couple (or a few) bunk beds. There are also (gasp!) other people. People you do not know! These other people are travelers who are most likely very much like you in the sense that they are exploring and traveling and doing it as absolutely cheaply as possible. Hostels have been around a long long time. There are over 20,000 of them around the world. Hostels are very much a part of the culture of Europe, and are starting to be known in the USA as well. Hostels are a cheaper way of staying in a city where you do not live.