White
Trip Start
Mar 21, 2005
1
274
354
Trip End
Ongoing
Sevan,
Armenia
Monday, February 11, 2008
Walking around, I finally found a small place open for the winter, a roadside motel composed of rectangular metal boxes, not really suitable for winter accommodation, but at least open, and they had a small heater.
From here, I walked to Sevanavank, about four miles away, along the main highway, passing barking stray dogs and rows of closed hotels. Savanavank was once an island, as paintings in the Yerevan Art Museum showed, but Soviet water policies shrank the lake, whose level fell sixty feet. As a monastic island, Sevanavank was a remote place, where monks could meditate and hand transcribe holy texts away from the bustle of civilization.
The monastery was perched on the top of a rocky hill. Steps led past khatchkars to the two churches, Surp Arakelots and Surp Astvatsatsin. I climbed the steps with a big friendly stray dog. All the other stray dogs stayed behind after barking and growling at the big dog, who seemed an outcast, but had the best disposition.
Surrounded by whiteness, the ninth century churches gave a feeling of extreme remoteness and frozen purity. The khatchkars and church rooftops were draped in newly-fallen snow, with over a foot of old snow elsewhere.
Walking back to the roadside motel before dusk, I had dinner there: fried Lake Sevan trout and potatoes with bread.
In the morning, I walked four miles to the bus stop. In a snowstorm, a marshrutka came and soon I was off for the town of Haghpat.
