Another wonderfully strange day here in the capital. After following the Wimbledon Final (HOW AMAZING WAS THAT GAME??? What champions those two are!!), I went out for an iced coffee. There are no 'happy' bars in Yerevan...only friendly places for happy people. Met two Iranian guys in town last night, one was happy, the other was only half happy if you know what I mean. They both spoke Farsi which was cool and I was able to impress them when I guessed the year they were born using the Persian calendar. Thomas: Ahmed, I think you were born in 1384! Ahmed: NO! I wasn't born until 1388, are you saying I look old?
Hot. Lovely as they were, I ditched both of them for the waiter Mato. 22, eyebrows like the Sherwood Forest and a gold tooth! I was helpless...
This morning I had to switch hotels from the luxiourious Golden Tulip Hotel Yerevan to the more earthy Villa Delenda. More on them later, but I love love love them! They took an old mansion, use some of it for the Italian-Armenia Counsel and the other half is a socially conscious B&B benefiting a charity working with orphans from the earthquakes here. The kids in the art school make ceramic arts to sell in the shop next to the breakfast room. Its gorgeous stuff too.
Was collected by Miro and Lusine, friends of a friend in Dublin, who took me to an outdoor cafe for an iced coffee and I got to see a group of men (the groups here are always either men or women) buying passports to get them somewhere. It was quite normal and open...very strange. We then took a trip to Holy Etchmiadzin. This is the seat of the Armenian Orthodox Church and the Catholicos lives there. Its like their Vatican only without the money. Armenia, being the first country to adopt Christianity as their state religion have some strong customs and churches are not only everywhere, they're also being built everywhere too.
I haven't found my way back to the B&B because the street its on isn't on any of my maps. Yeznik Koghbatsi is the street, but the street signs are no in English, they are in Armenia...which I don't read. I asked two officers of the law to assist me but they didn't know either. Bummer. Alas, a happy person popped out of a restaurant door to give us a map with my street on it. So now, its off to finally try some proper Armenian food for dinner (its 8pm right now) and then find the B&B.
I wish I would learned at least how to recognize my name in Armenian because all of the churches have the 12 apostles in big presentation but I couldn't tell which one was Thomas...something I always enjoy doing.
Last thing...I laid my eyes on biblical Mount Ararat today. Did anyone else other than my brother Danny and I see "In Search of Noah's Ark" in the 70's? Mount Ararat has been in my psyche for about 30 years now and to see it today...well it was just a lovely thing.
Now, I'm off for some proper Armenian barbecued pork! Oh, the apricots are in season and I've had 5 today. No mess and delicious! Highly recommened.
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