The Lonely Planet mentionned how good the breakfast was at Nina’s B&B and good it certainly was! Home made strawberry conserve, fresh honey, generous hunks 0f bread, all washed down with tea or Armenian Coffee (similar to Turkish, albeit a little less sweet) sent us on our way under an overcast sky and decidedly chilly temperatures. First order of business this morning was the visit of 2 more Armenian monasteries, each tucked away in the heavily wooded mountains around Dilijan.
Similar to the monasteries of Haghpat and Sanahin which we visited yesterday, the Haghartsin & Goshavank monasteries are both picturesque to a fault, the bare, grey stone of the walls and reddish coloring of the tiles atop the dome set against the green of the surrounding trees:
In true early medieval architectural form, these edifices are low in comparaison to later churches and the massive stone walls define relatively modest indoor surface area (in other words, resembling romanesque architecture). However, most always, such monastic complexes are made up of a series of intermeshed buildings, including refectories, study halls, churches, belltowers etc. The sober interiors of these structures -little remains of the interior of refectories & study halls while it seems the Armenian Apostolic Church (part of the Eastern Orthodoxy) is much less given to the icons & ornate metals of the Georgian Orthodox Church (which follows the traditions of Western Orthodoxy)- force you to take in the simple grandeur of the architecture and contemplate the incredible feat that their erection between the 10th and 12th centuries must have taken:
Though my religious fervor was exhausted by the morning’s monastic double-header, today’s pilgrimage was far from being over. After crossing Dilijan again, the road began to climb. And it climbed, and climbed and climbed some more. By the time we had passed the 25th old man sitting next to what seemed to me was a shashlik grilling stand, the gaping mouth of a tunnel opened up. I hate tunnels… We hate tunnels! Sitting in the comfort of a car, with the stability provided by 4 wheels and the usually potent headlights, there is little need to fear; not so on 2 wheels! To our greatest relief, this tunnel had lights. Not only did it have lights, but they WORKED! Moreover, the tarmac had been recently resurfaced! It would have been tunnel-bliss had it not been for the idiot in the red van ahead of us, creeping at a snailsome 40kph while behind us an Iranian truck carrying some form of flamable liquid was impatiently waiting to tear ahead.
Best of all, having emerged from the tunnel, the clouds that had chilled our climb had evaporated, blue skies & sunshine duly taking their place. The road wound through alpine meadows, leading us around the shores of lake Sevan, the crystal blue expanse of water where the hot and bothered inhabitants of Yerevan come to cool off from mid-july to mid-september. From here, there was only one direction: down. The motorway plunged further and further towards the armenian capital.
Yerevan around noon is hot. Perhaps not the hottest we’ve seen, but hot enough that we were mighty glad to pull up in front of the Envoy Hostel, which has turned out to be a fantastic place to stay: fantastic bathrooms, free WIFI, all sorts of activities, including a daytime and nighttime walking tour of the city. And best of all, SERVICE WITH A SMILE!
Having settled in, off we went on the Lonely Planet’s walking tour of town, a bag of apricots hanging from our hands. It didn’t hang long! Apricots are definitely a local speciality. Some sources say that apricots have their origins in India in the 4th century BC, but the latin name for apricots is PRUNUS ARMENICUS, or armenian plum. Need I say more?
We meandered through the city, which, despite its ugly soviet looking buildings manages to exude a wonderfully modern & cosmopolitan vibe, with cafes lining the streets and elegant shops on many corners. Perhaps the most astounding for me was the unbelievably rich collection of old manuscripts housed in one of the museums, replete with illuminated bibles from the 10th, 11th and 12th centuries and even the originals of a Napoleonic decree and one by Nicholas II of Russia, which sported a silver & gold seal that must have weighed a kilo at least!
As the sun set and the day handed over the baton to the night, we were out pounding the streets again, this time with Gevorg, a fantastic tour organizer from the hostel acting as our guide and Nathan, an american teacher travelling in the Caucasus for a month. With Gevorg, we climbed to the top of the Cascade, a monumental stairway commemorating 50 years of soviet Armenia, from whence we looked down on the whole city, before strolling down to the Opera square to indulge in people watching. Apparently, the Armenians major evening activity is “walking around”. In fact, hordes of people, two by two, four by four or in any other combination amble from one cafe to the other, chatting cheerfully as they go by. Sitting at streetside cafes watching the to-and-fro of this human tide, we polished off some refreshments before heading to Republic square, a large esplanade where Lenin’s statue used to haunt the government workers until it was torn down. The statue gone, austereness has given way to nighttime revelry as crowds gather to watch the fountain’s waters dance to tunes both armenian and foreign in a beautiful “sound, light & water” display.
