I had a very busy but fabulous time in Armenia. The food, the people, the weather – it was all fabulous. I was really busy, they packed my schedule quite tightly with meetings and events, but they were all productive and some even fun. I love talking to students, and I got to do it three times!
Yerevan is an interesting mix of new “under construction” sites and decaying, collapsing sites – some old abandoned buildings, some construction sites that were never completed and were abandoned (mostly at the end of the Soviet Union and early 90’s). So it has that in common with Kyiv, although it’s a lot smaller. Lots and lots of parks, lots and lots of monuments. I really want to go back during a nicer time of year to enjoy the great outdoor spaces.
We went for a day to Armenia’s second largest city, Gyumri. The 2-hour drive was gorgeous – fantastic view of Mt. Ararat as we departed from Yerevan, it’s just breathtaking! As we ascended higher and higher into the mountains, I really started to regret not buying a new camera when I had the chance. I was camera-less on the whole trip! Argh! Gyumri was hit hard in the 1988 earthquake, and I was told there are still destroyed buildings and homes in the city, although I didn’t see them myself. There was a lot of talk about a recent government decree to provide free houses to hundreds of families still displaced from the 1988 earthquake – for 21 years these families have been living in makeshift and (so-called) temporary emergency housing. Incredible.
I also heard a lot about the “dark ages”, three years in the mid-90’s when the entire country was without electricity and heat. Three years. Not a speck of electricity, not a bit of heat. One long-lasting result is the near total deforestation of much of the country, as so many trees were cut down for fuel during those years. I was fascinated, and impressed, with the positive attitude of so many Armenians that I met. I can’t begin to imagine the horrors of living in a city apartment with no electricity or heat for 3 days, much less three years, and yet one man reminisced almost with regret that those days were gone. He talked about how his children were small then, and they played games together every night, or told each other stories, or played piano and sang songs, or just sat and talked for hours on end. “Everyone’s so busy now,” he mused. I suppose he was mostly pining for the bygone days of his grown children’s childhoods, but wow, that he could remember those years of hardship with any warmth at all was amazing to me.
On another note, the Yerevan airport has joined the War on Liquids in full force, extending their profiling well beyond the clearly-threatening bottles of water. My purse was thoroughly searched and all items that could even potentially become a liquid (such as lipstick) were neatly packed into a small, clear plastic bag. Items that were formerly liquidish, such as an empty tube of cortizone cream kept in my purse to remind me to buy a new tube, were also scooped up and added to the surprisingly large pile of potentially dangerous liquidy items that are somehow rendered safe in a small, clear plastic bag. There must be some pretty cool super powers in those baggies.
The sky was perfectly clear as we departed from Yerevan, with a breathtaking view of the mountains all the way to the Black Sea. It was absolutely gorgeous. Beyond description gorgeous. I am so kicking myself for not getting a new camera yet.
Anka in Kyiv 