You can't get here from there

I was talking to friends yesterday about overland routes to Armenia from India. I was not crazy about the prospect of crossing Pakistan, but even if I was to brave that, the roadblocks were just crazy...

I cannot count on crossing Iran, due to my US passport. They have told me before not even to bother apply for a visa.

I cannot cross Azerbaijan, due to the -ian at the end of my name. I have been rejected by them for a visa in the past.

I cannot even go around from Russia to Georgia. The Russian-Georgian border is closed.

The only way I can get here from India by "land" is to go through Central Asia to Russia (another difficult, time consuming, expensive visa) to Ukraine, take a ferry to Georgia, and then cross to Armenia. Or if I wanted to stick to land, From Ukraine to Romania to Bulgaria to Turkey to Georgia to Armenia.

When I can finally pick up a real Armenian passport, I can just cross through Iran without any problems, nor will I need a Russian visa. I can't wait!