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Thursday, Sept. 25, 2014--Yerevan, Armenia

Although my flight is not until a few hours after midnight, today is my day to begin the departure.  There was no reason to try to sleep until midnight and then head to the airport.  Therefore, I told the man who owns the apartment that I will leave at 18:00.  That way, I can take the bus to the airport rather than a taxi.  Supposedly the airport has free wi-fi, and I have a novel I am reading.  I will also try to sleep there waiting for my 2:00 a.m. check-in time.

It's mid-afternoon now.  I have packed.  I bathed this morning, but I will shave around 16:00.  I was out walking for a while today and to buy some groceries.  I have food here to eat for dinner, so I will prepare that about 4:30 and be finished and have it cleaned up before the owner comes to the apartment.
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I'm at the airport, but it wasn't easy!  The owner of the apartment was not there at 18:00 as planned.  By 18:22, I became worried.  The office was already closed, but I sent an e-mail there in hopes someone would get it.  Ten minutes later, there was no reply.  I had been on the elevator with the next door lady who spoke English.  I rang her doorbell thinking maybe I could leave the key with them, but they didn't know George.  I asked her to dial his phone number.  There was no answer.  I asked her to dial his second phone number, and he answered.  He thought I was leaving tomorrow at 18:00, he said.  He didn't arrive at the apartment until 19:00.  I had plenty of time, but that now meant I would be traveling much of the time in the dark and if anything went wrong, I might have trouble getting local money for taking a taxi.

I walked to the nearest metro station and took it 3 stops to the intersection where Bus 107 was supposed to pass every 10 minutes or so.  I was told there was no Bus 107.  In fact, the first guys I asked said there was no bus to the airport.  I found a bus stop where lots of people were waiting and lots of buses were stopping.  A young man there confirmed that the airport was out that road, but he didn't know about Bus 107.  He disappeared and came back saying that Bus 17 would go to the airport.

Bus after bus passed without there being a 17.  The young man left when his bus came.  Many of the buses were crammed full with no room for a person with a suitcase and a backpack.  I worried about how I could get money for a taxi if Bus 17 didn't come.  But then one arrived, and I was lucky enough that I was the only one going for it rather than the crowds rushing for all the others.  There was no seat, but there was room for me to set my suitcase inside and then sit on it so I was only taking up the room of 1 person.

I couldn't see out the windows of the bus to tell whether the airport was anywhere near or not.  But we seemed to still be in town.  Then I remembered I could use the GPS on my phone.  I turned it on and found our location.  Then I zoomed out to try to find the airport.  When I found it, I was able to follow our route and to know when we were getting close.  Holding the phone, I tried to ask a young manwhether the bus actually went down the road into the airport or stopped at the highway, but he didn't understand what I wanted to know.  I asked a woman in front of me if she spoke English.  She didn't really respond.  I asked, "Airport?"  She said hesitatingly, "I go to airport," implying that I could just follow her.  What a relief.  When we got there, both she and the young man got off.  I asked him if he worked at the airport, and he pointed to an apartment building just to the side and said that he lived there.  But he insisted on lifting my bag down from the bus for me, then he walked inside the terminal with me.  He was really nice.

It was 20:30 by the time I was here at the terminal.  My flight is still now shown on the board, because it is 8 hours away at 4:25.  But I am now settled.  I have a seat, and the wi-fi is working for the computer, but not for the phone yet.  I will close this entry and see if I can get the phone to work.  I'll post as I go along tomorrow if I have wi-fi and the time between planes.  There will be 4 different flights!!