Arthurs Aghveran Resort Yerevan

The capital of Armenia - Yerevan was founded in 782B.C.
So now every year 11th October we celebrate the birthday of our city.
This is all about closingall the ways for cars in town, everybody's out walking in the streets happy, cheerful, laughing!!! There are dozens of different free open air concerts throughout the town - in one place - jazz, in another ...

... 8211; you are walking through the town and as you pass different parts of it you listen to totally different music – in one place they perform rock, in other – jazz, in the third – classic, the 4th – Armenian, 5th – French Chanson... and so on!

Winter – as I said Tsakhkadzor is a famous ski resort, so the best thing to do in winter is to stay a week ...

... get into a little routine of noodles and eggs, fruits and vegs, cheese and bread. I get way caught up on Internet and write another album review for the mother blog. Finally I even take a 'village tour' to see the master duduk maker and drink some homemade vodka. We eat lunch out there, but it's no great shakes cuisine-wise, mostly variations on bread and diary, our common Indo-European heritage, if there is such a thing. Every thing's ...

... the marshrutka and asked the driver for the destination to make sure it was the right bus. The driver told me yes, but that I needed to buy a ticket (this was about 45 minutes before departure). I went into the bus station to buy the ticket, stood in line, approached the window, and told the girl behind it my destination. She spoke something in Armenian, then looked to the next customer. I waited for the next guy to buy a ticket, then pushed my way back in ...

Today I went to the Khor Virap Monastary near the border with Turkey (very near- as in, half the site is in Turkey and I could have touched Turkish soil if I wasn't scared of getting electrocuted by the fence...) and near the slopes of Mount Ararat. The site was the capital of Armenia from 2nd century B.C. to 5th century A.D., and after that the site was built on until the 17th century and still serves as an active church today. It's ...

20.9.2008: Armenia, Debed Canyon I get up really early: I want to take marshrutka to the borders of Armenia, take a taxi to explore Debed Canyon right behind them and end up at Vanadzor. However, there are cats&dogs pouring behind the windows and I really don't like the idea of hiking to the borders (marshrutka would go just as far as the last Georgian town) or finding a taxi. So let's take Yerevan-bound marshrutka and get off at Vanadzor... The 8am one should go from Ortachala bus ...

... historical genocide, and a dozen or so Armenian monasteries and churches. For six of these days, I stayed in Yerevan with Anahit and her two sons, who came and went with their jobs, one a fashion designer, another a soldier. We watched a television show on Versace's murder and a music video created by Mr. Stepanyan the designer himself, complete with computerized special effects and MTV makeover. Undoubtedly talented, he represented the new Armenia, now ...

John and Anita next say good bye to the beaches of the Mediterranean, and head towards Anita's spiritual homeland of Armenia. After mostly sleeping through a relatively comfortable overnight ferry from Santorini to Athens, our duo make their way to the airport (successfully this time), and onto an Armavia Airlines flight to Yerevan. With possibly a bit of foreshadowing of the adventure to come, while waiting for the plain in the gate area, an ...

... svo madur geti greint stafina og gamalt ledrid eru thessi hofd i skjannabjortu rymi med fluorljosum i skapunum og ohefdum adgangi dagsljossins. Sinn er sidur i landi hverju med thetta eins og annad. Mer tokst ad kaupa mer smavegis af minjagripum adur en vid forum ad skoda koniaksverksmidju i borginni. I Ararat verksmidjunni saum vid risastorar amur sem koniakid er geymt i a einhverju stigi framleidslunnar og nu eins ...

... kids- newborn to 6 years old. The lady who ran the orphanage said that once they get to age 7 they are sent to another orphanage. Not only are the kids little, but they also have both physical and mental disabilities and their parents sent them to the orphanage by choice. It wasn't that their parents were unable to care for them- they weren't wanted! It nearly brings me to tears to imagine that a parent would care so little about their own child that they would send them ...