Day 123 Gjumri - Aragatsavan

I knew there would not be any accomodation option between Gyumri and Yerevan. I also knew it was to far for one day. Camping might have been an option if I would get low enough. Fortunately
couchsurfing helped, yeah! Sam, an American Peace Corps volunteer answered me within one hour.
Knowing that I would have a safe & warm place to stay I started the day late and relaxed. Rolling out of Gyumri I spotted a huge statue on a nearby hill - probably Mother Armenia. I rode up there and enjoyed the view over Gyumri and the surrounding mountains. The ride went all along turkish border - still closed. When I was in Armenia 2 years ago there were talks about opening it, but it did not work out - most probably because of Azerbaijanian intervention - at least according to Wikileaks.
Somewhere on the way I found some great ruins beside the road, not signposted. There was a reconstructed church, another ruined church, and a half ruined structure which I interpreted as a caravanserai?
Shortly after I got very close to the border - to the Ani viewpoint. Ani was once the splendid capital of a great Armenian kingdom. Now it lies in ruins on Turkish territory just behind the border. If the coin would have decided for going to Eastern Turkey instead of Armenia I would certainly have visited Ani. Now I could only watch it in the distance - from about 6km away only few structures were recognisable. It was still a very nice place.
Back on the main road I saw the top of Ararat hovering above the nearby hills. This was very special to me: after all it was the first thing I had seen before since Budapest !
When I was about 1 hour from arriving in Aragatsavan I heard someone shouting my name and saw an American guy approaching me on a bicycle. Wow, I have never been picked up so far away on this trip. Sam and me rode together to his place. He lives in a typical soviet style block in a once splendid apartment which obviously was not taken care of for a decade or so before he moved in. It did not have running water - all the water had to be carried up in buckets from the downstairs neighbour. Sam is teaching english in a nearby school. He is now well into ther second half of his two year program - I really have to pay my respect to this guy for his endurance !