Avan Villa Yerevan, Tufenkian Hotel

... are newly built and mostly empty. In a way the Armenians are like the Jews: they are intelligent people and most of them good businessmen who, because of historical events (the Ottoman Empire occupied a large part of Armenia, and today Turkey still has lands that are used to be part of Armenia, such as its ancient capital Ani and Mt. Ararat, symbol of Armenia) are forced to live outside of their own country.

And the similarity doesn’t stop there. Both of them also ...

... part of the year. Especially September and October. It is called «Golden Autumn» (in Armenian «Voske Ashun» if you wish) =) In this time of the year the nature is wonderful. The trees change into warm colours – yellow, red, brown, some of them remain green. So you feel like you're in a fairy tale. When you leave Yerevan for the country, and pass by wide valleys and see those beautiful ...

... world to the Armenian countryside. Like a European town permanently on holiday the populace strutt along the polished boulevards armed to the teeth in (fake) designer wear. The young middle aged and old sit lazily in the parks and cafes enjoying the sunshine, the world of work a million miles away. Trim couples admire themselves in shop windows followed by long legged tourists who think they should stop eating cheap bakery goods. Built in 1920 the city ...

... went to the UNESCO World Heritage sites of Sanahin and Haghpat (the name's as fun to say at it seems it would be) Monastaries. They are near the town of Alaverdi in the Debed Canyon, where the main industry is copper mining. These monastaries are from the 9th to 13th centuries. There's also an old bridge built by Queen Tamar of Georgia that was still in use by cars until about 25 years ago (they knew how to make bridges back in the good old days....). The churches ...

... happy to get off at Vanadzor. New language, new alphabet, new exchange rate computations. Around the train station looks like from the 50th, appearances are deceptive and the city is actually not so bad and is quite lively. Since I'm a bit late there, I try Gugarg hotel in the huge Soviet-style main square. However the price got from LP's 3000AMD to 9000AMD [it's empty and they don't bargain, chm] and thus I walk for another kilometer to the second nearest accommodation - Maghay B ...

... of her past as well as the past of the Armenian people, who no longer live in their historical homeland of over three thousand years, in Western Turkey, beginning with the Bronze Age people and land called the Nairi, predecessors of the Urartu, considered the original Armenians. Ararat Brandy names its finest 20-year old oak cask aged bottles after this land, located around present-day Van. Two photographs in the museum show the Armenian city of Van before and ...

... closer to home than before. And the fact that my 1995 home-stay mom Kamo just purchased a cell phone (though admittedly the service is relatively cheap compared to most inexpensive Asian countries we went to, not to mention North America of course) means she is in a better and happier place than she used to be. Slowly but surely, right? SIGH...NEVERTHELESS I did love hearing and seeing my language. Each time I heard conversation, I was ...

... and with them. We also got to each talk a little about ourselves- sort of a mini testimony, I suppose. It was a great time to get to hear each other's stories as well as share our own with the people of Armenia. Once the Bible Study was over, we went to a late dinner at a very nice restaurant. It was really fun, because we were off in a room with just our group as well as a small group of musicians who kept playing music. We learned some Armenian dances while we waited for ...

... i did dicover that beer is right price in this city and the perv value is bloody tops. next, the ride to iran, my main destinations in the region. views of mt ararat in turkey from yerevan and for several hours of drivng thru the lower caucus mountains. lovely (not) soviet towns along the way, including lots of those lovely apartment ...