We woke up at 6 am and embarked on our exploration of the city around 9. We knew from before that Yerevan is not a morning city so at that time streets were deserted and everything was pretty much closed. Our first objective was to find our favorite places from 8 years ago, and with some difficulty (due to new construction) and lots of walking, we did find and revisit most of them. After a brief rest, we asked the hotel concierge about the central fruit market where we used to shop for fresh and dried fruit. He told us that the beautiful historical covered market was now converted to a supermarket, but there was another big fruit market in Tigran street, about 30 min walk from the hotel. So we walked there only to find a big market with everything but fruits and vegetables. After unsuccessful inquiries in both Russian and English, finally a young woman pointed us in another direction. .This turned out to be a wild goose chase. People kept sending us in many conflicting directions, and finally after walking for miles, we gave up. On the way back we stopped at a travel agency where 3 people conferred together and told us that there is a fruit market near GUM department store.
In the afternoon we found the 7th century church. Eight years ago it was in the middle of an empty field. Now it is paved all around with a new church complex next to it. We saw posters advertising a performance of traditional Armenian song and dance so we bought tickets. We went in the evening. Were we in for a real surprise. It was unbelievably bad -- five minutes of very mediocre dancing (the girls were just repeating the same movements over and over) and then endless fat lady singing and endless very animated speeches, which the public seemed to enjoy, but we didn’t understand a word of. We snuck out after 1.5 hours and went to a little café that we visited 8 years ago. At that time they had a fire in the oven and were asking for divine intervention by having a feast for neighbors. They invited us in to join and we had a great time and took a picture. Al brought the picture and we found the place even though everything around it had changed. Two men who were in the picture joined us and we had a great time and Bo got to practice her Russian. The food and Areni wine were great too. We didn’t get to bed until after midnight. There is no graffiti in the city but archways to courtyards have paintings.
We woke up at 6 am and embarked on our exploration of the city around 9. We knew from before that Yerevan is not a morning city so at that time streets were deserted and everything was pretty much closed. Our first objective was to find our favorite places from 8 years ago, and with some difficulty (due to new construction) and lots of walking, we did find and revisit most of them. After a brief rest, we asked the hotel concierge about the central fruit market where we used to shop for fresh and dried fruit. He told us that the beautiful historical covered market was now converted to a supermarket, but there was another big fruit market in Tigran street, about 30 min walk from the hotel. So we walked there only to find a big market with everything but fruits and vegetables. After unsuccessful inquiries in both Russian and English, finally a young woman pointed us in another direction. .This turned out to be a wild goose chase. People kept sending us in many conflicting directions, and finally after walking for miles, we gave up. On the way back we stopped at a travel agency where 3 people conferred together and told us that there is a fruit market near GUM department store.
In the afternoon we found the 7th century church. Eight years ago it was in the middle of an empty field. Now it is paved all around with a new church complex next to it. We saw posters advertising a performance of traditional Armenian song and dance so we bought tickets. We went in the evening. Were we in for a real surprise. It was unbelievably bad -- five minutes of very mediocre dancing (the girls were just repeating the same movements over and over) and then endless fat lady singing and endless very animated speeches, which the public seemed to enjoy, but we didn’t understand a word of. We snuck out after 1.5 hours and went to a little café that we visited 8 years ago. At that time they had a fire in the oven and were asking for divine intervention by having a feast for neighbors. They invited us in to join and we had a great time and took a picture. Al brought the picture and we found the place even though everything around it had changed. Two men who were in the picture joined us and we had a great time and Bo got to practice her Russian. The food and Areni wine were great too. We didn’t get to bed until after midnight. There is no graffiti in the city but archways to courtyards have paintings.
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