The end
Trip Start
Aug 10, 2006
1
5
Trip End
Aug 14, 2006
Yerevan,
Armenia
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
early to see them in the morning. When I got up however Anna was
already up too and she was preparing breakfast. I ate a bit, packed my
bag, included a little sandwich from Anna and entered the streets of
sleeping Stepanakert. Walking on the main road and suddenly I hear a
weird noise and I see something running across the street. Looks and
sounds like a herd of cows.) When I walked closer I ve realised that it
was soldiers having their morning excersise. From the distance it
seemed they were half naked, but before I managed to get closer to
enjoy...I mean, to VERIFY my thoughts they were gone
01_Anna s house
. Dissapointed Ihopped on a minibus and got to the main bus station. Everyone seems to
have a reserved seat and I think I actualy got the last empty seat in
the bus. A girl and boy that arrived later, tourists (Canadians I
think) that I ve seen in the NKR embassy five days ago arent that lucky
and have to wait for the next bus.
The trip is not that pleasant. The seat is not comfortable so I cant
sleep, two kids and one young lady are sick and we spent half an hour
on a parking (so that the driver can have lunch, I think).
Unfortunately my sandwich from Anna is in the back of the bus and I
cant get to it. We arrive to Yerevan around 1pm, I get off the bus as
soon as possible and I take the metro to the center to change money
02_Stepanakert s museum
. Ihave only 400 drams left, which is less than 1 EUR! Yerevans
underground is of the same kind as ours in Prague some 15 years ago. It
is old but not ugly and dirty like the one in Paris.
From the republic square I am heading back to Smbat s house. He said to
me on the phone that he cant go and meet me in the center, because he
had a car crash. He sounds fine though so I imagine a little accident.
But at Smbats I am told a horrible story of Smbat drivind a car when
suddenly the tire explodes, car starts tourning, hits a rock, rolls
over a few times and starts burning. (And well, I ve seen a video of
the car after the crash, so I am completely convinced it was true).
Miraculously Smbat got off nearly uninjured and thanks god no one else
was in the car!
In the evening we have a randez vous with Eric, Kathrine, Berit, ani,
Haykanush and Tico
03_back in Yerevan
. First we re having a coffee near the Opera (for achange:-)) and then we go for a walk (without Haykanush and Ani this
time). The best thing is a great "traditional armenian dinner" in a
"traditional armenian restaurant" with waiters wearing "traditional
armenian dresses":-) I can now understand why all the tourists love
"traditional czech restaurants" that are hundreds times more expensive
than usual and where no czech has ever entered. Well - you just want to
experience the stereotype once, even though it is just a theatre. And
so I had summer dolma I ve been looking forward to eating the whole
month. And we had a great time and we had a great fight over paying the
bill:-) But in the end women forces proved stronger than men and we
managed to invite the guys and pay the bill ourselves. The day was
perfect, but all three of us (all the girls) are already looking
forward to being back home.
