Day 5 - Sue had had a call after we had gone to bed asking us if we wanted to join a tour to Ani so we were up and out early for the journey there. Our travelling companions were diverse and interesting - Polish, American, German and a French Armenian. We had long wanted to visit Ani and it did not disappoint. Ani was once the Armenian capital but is now a series of ruins overlooking the Turkish-Armenian border. We could actually see the fence dividing the two countries but there was no sign of the military on either side. It is an incredibly atmospheric site and we felt the three hours we had there was just not enough. It is a place that I really hope to revisit and to spend a little more time without feeling that I had to run!

After a delicious of meat and eggplant at a Lokanta, we headed out to see Kars. It poured with rain on and off all afternoon and that combined with the mud and an overall slightly sinister feeling about the place, did not endear us to the place. It was obviously a place of importance in the past and was occupied by the Russians at one time so had some fine buildings, rather lovely Mosques and a castle that dominates the town but I still did not like the place even when some in-bred offered me seks! We found a bar and listened to music and whilst wandering around trying to find hotel again, we saw the French Armenian guy eating pide so joined him. He was making a documentary about the Armenian genocide and I was quite worried that the security police would rush in and arrest us all but I don't think anyone could understand his strong French accent!