Khertvisi Castle, Khertvisi, Georgia

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Spring Break Armenia, Day One

Around Georgian Easter, we got quite a nice break from school. Our schools were closed from Thursday through Tuesday, with an extra day off the Wednesday before for "spring cleaning."  Sam and I decided to take advantage of the break to use up the final vacation days we'd acquired and see a little bit more of Armenia.

We were planning to take one of the plethora of minibuses headed for Yerevan on Wednesday morning, only to make it to the station just as one bus was leaving and the next not yet arrived.  This sent the bus station taxi drivers into a frenzy, as they all swarmed around us trying to entice us to ride by taxi instead of waiting on the next marshrutka.  Once one driver finally agreed to charge us each the same price as a minibus ticket (20 lari, about $12), we climbed on in, shocked at our good fortune.  Of course, we should have realized that he wouldn't just take us, but would wait around for 2 more passengers to cram into his little hatchback, and we should have realized that he'd try to charge us more when we arrived in Yerevan.  We should have known this by now.  But, in a shocking twist on fortune, we got there quicker and with fewer bags of potatoes and cheese, and managed to haggle our way back to our initially agreed upon price, so all in all it was an auspicious start to the trip.

Armenia's weather is generally warmer than Georgia's (it being south and all), and Yerevan was in full swing spring.  Grass was growing (and green!), flowering trees and bushes were all starting to show there colors, and outdoor cafes were already up and bustling.  We checked into our homestay/hostel, shed a few layers and headed out into the city to do some walking around and site seeing.

Our previous trip to Yerevan took place in January, so we had already seen most of the museums and indoor attractions, but Sam was excited to check out the ruins of the Bronze Age Erebuni fortress just on the outskirts of Yerevan.  That was our first stop, along with the accompanying museum.

Day one was rounded out with some lachmajun, some tan, some other tasty treats, and some nice long walks along the pretty downtown pedestrian boulevards.  We had some nice conversations with our hostel/homestay host, Anahit, and called it a day.  Vacation success all around!

Remains of the Erebuni fortress wall

Me, getting excited about mud brick (and being super supportive of Sam's future academic pursuits)

There were some cool cuneiform slabs here and there throughout.  Once Sam's progressed a bit into learning cuneiform, I encourage everyone to take pictures like this and send them to him, asking "What does this say?"

A chariot found in the fortress excavation

One of the guys who did something with the fortress or something, I think.  Whatever, he's standing on a lion.

A model representation of Erebuni.  Sam really likes these kind of models and hopes to make some like this some day.  But preferably out of legos.

In the museum they had some more old cuneiform tablets...

Which were later repurposed by Armenian Christians into khachkars on the reverse sides

A very Soviet-inspired facade to the Bronze Age fortress museum, no? 

After our visit, maybe Sam could join the junior archaeologists' school!


2 comments:

  1. A) Your super supportive picture kind of looks like you are giving yourself half of "bunny ears"
    B) Are the Armenians really proud of Kim Kardashian? Have you heard that she is thinking about running for mayor of Glendale, CA because they have a huge Armenian population? Just curious!

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    1. Re: B) There was a moment last year when a whole group of women in Akhalkalaki (host family women included) were all watching an Armenian news broadcast together that showed the Kardashians visiting Yerevan. They were all asking, "Who is she? What is she famous for?" and then discussing what her last name was really (because the way they pronounce it isn't a name that any of them have ever heard, and they figured it was bastardized when the first of the lot moved to America). I got to have some very awkward conversations with my host grandmother (and all the others) of how Kim K. rose to fame. It was awesome. All the women then decided that she isn't really Armenian at all because Armenian girls are good and would never do such things.

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