All mornings should begin this way; read Harry Potter and do yoga on a balcony while looking at Ararat! Armen, Noushig, Mikey, and I visited Garni (pagan temple) and Geghardt (church built INTO the mountain) yesterday. JP and Shaunt did not join us because JP has fallen in love with a Parskahye girl named Vegi, and wanted to make the most of his last couple of days of seeing her (wink wink). We keep teasing him that we're going to his wedding on Sunday. It's cute though, they can barely communicate with one another; she can barely speak English, and he can barely speak Armenian, but they seem to manage somehow. Anyway, back to siteseeing: "Raffo jan," Shaunt's relative, was our driver for the day, and boy, he is a character! The sites were wonderful and quite amazing. Noush and Armen, being the foozools that they are, overheard an Italian girl asking a worker at Garni to get her a taxi to get her Geghardt. We offered her a ride instead and she spent the rest of the day of us. Raffo's car turned into a clown car! We bought excellent gata (after being attacked by all of the ladies that worked there). From Geghardt, we returned to Yerevan for our Cafe Glases at Paplavok, dropped off Mara (our new Italian friend) at her hostel, and headed home for our afternoon naps. Everyone, parents and all, went to "Old Yerevan" for dinner, where we ate traditional food, listened to traditional Armenian with musicians wearing traditional Armenian clothes, and danced traditional Armenian dances (after two bottles of oghi, of course). Then we ended up at Opera Cafe, Magnolia, and finished the night off with more Cafe Glases and Budweiser (which is 17% proof!). Through the boys, we have made friends with three brothers that run the cafe, Arthur, Arman, and Arthur; yes, two brothers, both named Arthur. Because the boys have been such loyal customers of theirs, they bought them a bottle of Armenian wine to take back and open on Shaunt's birthday. The youngest (and shortest, you'll see in the pics!) Arthur gave Noush and me sugar flowers and a blue pineapple drink. Yummy. Cafe glases that late at night was probably not the best idea because Noush and I stayed awake yapping till 4AM, and then I woke up before 8AM. So I'm looking forward to our afternoon nap before we go to the Djanbazjian dance concert (yes Lilo, can't wait to see Arsineh, Ani, and Anoushik!) and celebrate the last night the boys are in Yerevan. Tomorrow, Noush and I will be traveling to the village she lived in for the month of July. Can't wait! Until next time...
4 comments:
You've done a lot in two days. Let me tell you, you've barely scratched the surface. If you want to go to an "americanized" place when you get tired of all the armenian food, there is a great cafe called "Art Bridge" which is owned by this Armenian lady from Boston that moved to Armenia couple of years ago. I hope it's still open. You can get nice american breakfast if you desire. Also, when you visit Echmiadzin, make sure that you ask them to give you a private tour. The locals told me that they had never been inside in all of their lives. So it's not something that they do all the time. They are going to take you to the "pop's" museum, which is gorgeous. They are also going to take you to an undergroud place where they are going to show you some ancient ruins. Don't miss this! It's really cool.
spoke w/ mom & Dad last night. Told me all about "heen yerevan" and how you all got crazy w/ oghi! My parents are getting a kick out of hanging out w/you jahels! cant wait to see photos!
bachiami
Mel!! What a great idea to blog! Keep 'em coming...I feel like i'm there! PS I can't believe two brothers are named arthur..beyond funny.
Arthur & Arthur...
Does anyone remember Pete & Pete on Nickelodeon ???
Sounds like you are having a blast and learning at the same time !
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