Jurmuk

And now back to my vacation!
Now one of the reasons that my group of friends and I decided to go on a vacation, besides the fact that we are all teachers and there was no school for a week, was to visit Jurmuk. Jurmuk is known to the Armenians as a healing resort town. People go there when they are sick to sit in the hot springs and be cured. Jurmuk was known to us Americans as a place where you can get a cheap massage! A spa resort, were words that were actually used. So my number one goal of vacation was to go to this resort town and have a massage, it’s been a stressful six months, I deserve it, I told myself.
So after about three days of being sick and stuck in Malishka, we woke up early one morning and headed out to the main street where we could catch the marshootni that would take us to Vyke so we could then catch the marshootni to Jurmuk. I know nothing is ever simple here. The five of us grumpily lined up on the side of the road, waiting to hop onto the marshootni. There was silence between us, none of us awake enough to talk. As we stood there and waited, and waited and waited, we got a phone call from our friend. “ Hey guys I forgot the marshootni goes into the village, not along the main road”. Crap! This meant no marshootni for us! Vyke wasn’t too far away so it wasn’t a big deal to take a taxi but, our problem was we had waited over 30 minutes, and were sure that the jurmuk marshootni would be gone by the time we got a cab. Sure enough we hitched a ride to Vyke but our marshootni was long gone. This meant forking out a lot of money we didn’t have to take a cab, but we had no choice, and there was no way I was going to go another day without my massage.
Once we got to Jurmuk we immediately realized it was well worth the money spent, as we walked along a path of golden, auburn, green, yellow and red trees. I was once again experiencing my fall envy all over again. The difference is this time I Got photos! The colors were unlike anything I had ever seen before. We walked in a pensive silence up to the hotel where the best massages were rumored to take place. Once there I learned it would be 4,000 dram for a full body massage, how could anyone say no to that?!? The hotel was beautiful and modern, it could have easily been a hotel from the U.S. The hostess walked us down to the bottom floor of hotel where the spa was. All of a sudden it felt as though we were in a soviet hospital… if you have read my blog since the beginning you know that I have expertise in this area, as a soviet hospital was the very first place I went to as soon as I got off the plane in Armenia with a dislocated jaw. The halls were lined with sick people coughing, dabbing their noses with tissues and making pathetic sick faces. Ok, ok I thought, this doesn’t mean anything, don’t judge a book by its cover.
As it happened, I was the first one to be called in for a massage. The Doctor, as they called him was a semi tall, stout, crossed eyed man. I’m not going to lie, the guy looked like a serial killer. Now I have been to a few spas in my life, some nice and expensive, some cheap and a lil dirty, but never in my life did I expect this place. With it’s hospital beds and hospital curtains, it creeped me out . Needless to say the so called massage I received was horrible! I can’t even describe it because I was too preoccupied with being weirded out.
Once that horrifying experience was over, us girls had a good laugh and went for a hike with the boys. We saw some beautiful sights in the woods and hiked down to the waterfall. It was stunning, something about the semi chilly weather, the leaves all over the ground and our hilarious massage experience turned us five grumps into young children again. We played in the leaves, talked to people, and even found a playground to take over. All in all in was a magical day! It’s must have been something in the water!