After a long, strange flight in an antiquated airplane, Alan and I found ourselves in Armenia, a place that I have been curious about for a long time. Noone in my family has ever visited the country, and my grandmother warned us that it would be very depressing and impovershed. Well, although it was not the easiest place to visit, we were both very pleased with the amount of music, art, and cleanliness the city had to offer.
We studied up, and followed the lead of our Lonely Planet to an inn called Parev (for "Friendship"). Alan and I, fresh out of the airport and still in our Dahab-wear (sandles), managed to get ourselves locked outside, standing in the snowy freezing cold in this soviet styled neighborhood. It seems the Parev Inn is seasonal, as in tourist seasonal, and our English speaking cab driver from the airport had made a speedy departure, leaving us in the cold, literally. With backpacks in tow, we slipped our way down an icy hill to the main road to hail a different taxi. Well, it seems NOBODY speaks English, except in the business district, including taxi drivers. Even the word "Marriot" was like a foreign language to our driver. Thankfully, the Lonely Planet translates some works into the Armenian alphabet, and we got our message across.
Staying in the Marriot was a real treat. Firm mattress, thermostats, beautiful clean bathtub with good water pressure. It is funny how we would have taken that for granted months ago.
Alan and I were somewhat limited travel-wise because of the temperature, so we spent much of our time visiting the beautiful historic churches nearby. Echniadzn, Garni, and Geghardt, some of these were built around 303AD. Echniadzn and Geghardt were the most impressive. Echniadzin , the Holy See, had some remnants from the thorn corn worn by Jesus, as well as the roman spear used to pierce his ribs at the time of hte crucifiction. Geghardt was another church of marvel, and has been recently decared by Unesco as a world heritage. To see the church, one has to make their way well out of the city, but that is what is so magical. This church, hidden in a gorge, was once a pagan temple, has been carved out of the mountain side. In other words, all four walls and the ceiling are made of all one stone. There were many refrences to their pagan ways hidden in the relief work. There was even an alter for making sacrafices in the back, a practice that continues there today.
The genocide museum was an important part of our visit, and it made a deep impression on us both. During our visit, we were met by loads of visitors, and TV anchor people. It seems that earlier in the week, and Armenian reporter had been killed in Turkey for speaking and writing of that horrible period in histosry. It is forbidden to speak of it in Turkey, and the hisrory books have all been changed. It has been nearly 90 years since it happened, and they believe that with the passing of another generation, it will be as if it never happened. It was only until recent times (like the last 15 years) that even Armenians were able to speak about it openly.
The rest of our short time there was spent just wandering around Yerevan, tasting the delicacies, looking at the beautiful sculptures and architecture, and shopping. We even bought a rug or two. We also had two opportunities to hear original Armenia folk music. They play it on oddly named instruments with many strings or reeds. One of them looked like an oboe, but sounded more lyrical, with deep vibrato like an eery singing voice. I think it would be a great idea if travel blog sites included the ability to upload audio clips so y'all could have a listen. When we get back, ask me and I'll play some that are in my iPod.
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