Jeff Arata

June 2nd marks 2 years from the day I quit my job. June 7th marks 2 years from the day I flew out to start my 6 month backpacking trip. June 8th marks 2 years from the day I actually landed and arrived at my start destination.

I just finally moved into my own place for the first time last month and have finally unpacked a bunch of things I had completely forgotten about over the past couple years since the trip. This is a collage of all the paper souvenirs I shoved in my bag and decided to keep for whatever reason along the way of that 2023 trip. Tickets, souvenirs, boarding passes, etc. This represents only a fraction of what I did through whatever paper things I happened to keep, but it more or less spans the entirety of my time backpacking from Italy to Armenia.

The top third of the left board starts with things I still have from studying abroad in Florence in 2014, then the 2023 trip begins below that. Left-to-right reading order roughly corresponds to chronological order here. Notable pieces of the collage include: the purple emergency passport I had to get after my normal one was stolen, as well as the stolen passport that I eventually got back near the end of the trip after the bar it was dumped in was able to ship it to me 🙃 (not before I had already gone through with the emergency passport, nullifying the real one of course lol)

Every piece here helps tell the story, and helps me to remember what I was fortunate enough to be able to do. Very glad I kept these things :)

I left Lori Province on November 10th looking for heat

I took a shared taxi to Vanadzor after being told there was no bus (which I’m pretty sure wasn’t true). Immediately, a local taxi man asked where I wanted to go. I literally hadn’t even gotten my bag out of the trunk. While I was going to another place that day, I said I was staying. He got my number if I needed a taxi.

I stumbled into 2 kids, white button downs, ties, sweaters, slacks. They asked if I was American, they were too. They were 18/19. Mormons on mission in dang ol’ Vanadzor, Armenia. I got the sense they hadn’t seen an American outside their mission group in 6 months. They very eagerly invited me to come hang with them and their friends. I asked them for a food rec that I never went to. I got a call from the taxi driver as I sat down on the bus to my next destination

I spent the night in Alaverdi, a small town with a historic monastery. Running on recommendations from Yerevan, I decided to do a day hike from one monastery to another. Sanahin, the first, was mostly cool besides a loud restoration crew. The hike took me down and up two creek valleys with some lovely views, an old mostly ruined castle lookout, and by some pasture animals. On my ascent to Haghpat, the 2nd, I ran into a couple guard dogs and pigs so decided to bail and take the car road. About 20 seconds into heading up, I got picked up by an Armenian guy (without me even trying to hitchhike) who was stoked to give me a ride and evidently was a big fan of the US (kinda a common sentiment I heard from folks). The next day I hiked again and also got picked up without me even trying to hitchhike. Again he loved the US. I was honestly very tired and appreciated the ride back.

The hostels I stayed in didn’t really have working heat. I was feeling very checked out and ready to be done travelling, as I related on with the only others staying at the Alaverdi hostel. It was even colder in Vanadzor, only briefly broken by the radiators coming on for a few hours. Didn’t really help my feelings of wanting to wrap up tbh

I’m currently in Austin posing as a golden retriever dad lol