Armenia Travels Page
Pictures:
Mount Ararat -- 25 miles from
Yerevan, but across the border in Turkey -- unaccessible to the very
people who claim to come from there.
View of the Opera House and Yerevan
Bagramyan Street, at the CNN headquarters, Between the Opera house and
Parliment. Standard Soviet-style cars are the norm in Armenia,
especially my favorite, the "Volga".
A cool Volga rolls down Mashtots street.
The daily grind in Yerevan..
Me hanging outside of the parliment building. There was a massive
demonstration planned for this evening, where the locals were planning
to have another "Tulip Revolution" like in Tiblisi. More about that
below.
The Impending Revolution - Revolt on the Streets
Protests started at the Opera Square, from there they plan to march up
Bagramyan to 'Bust down da Parliment.
The insurgents are growing restless...and eventually begin marching on
the parliment...
However, the incument powers are not stupid -- riot police and water
cannons are moved in, and protesters are either sprayed, beaten or
shot. None of this is ever filmed by CNN or major players -- the
"uprising" is inevitably squashed. Most of the ordinary citizens don't
seem to care. They say that the new, insurgent government would be
just as bad as the current one, so why bother..
Historical Sites
Armenia is long on Monestaries -- it has tons of them. A couple of the
monestaries closer to Yerevan are below.
The Pagan temple at Garni.
Gerhard Monestary
The Gaurdian protecting the Gerhardt Valley
The monestary at Gerhardt.. built over the course of 100 years between
1200 and 1300 AD. A standard visit for tourists to Armenia.
Watch a video of the Bread-vendors outside of Gerhard Monestary.. the
main items to buy here are: sweet bread and fruit leather. (about
500K to watch the movie).
Me and Ed __ at the Gerhardt Monestary, about 30 KM from Yerevan.
Indiana Jones would have been proud in this Monestary, with all of the
angled lighting and dark, scary underground carvings.
View of the outer valley, with snow still on the mountaintops.
The Pagan ritual of sacrifice. A family sacrifices a lamb at
Gerhardt.
The Genocide Memorial -- April 24th.
Some building at the bottom of the hill on Genocide Day.
Flowers to place at the "Eternal Flame".. Miles, Sosse, Michael,
Mike's friend from Spain, F and his french girlfriend. And __ a friend
of Chad's who works for a Democracy-Facilitation Organization (name?).
The Walk Up to the Eternal Flame.
The Monument. The flame is inside of the shell-looking monument and
the spire is supposed to represent strength and unity for Armenians
worldwide.
Depositing flowers around the "eternal flame"
People
Lena and Diana -- the night shift receptionists at the Congress hotel
who took me around Yerevan the first few days. This picture is on the
"cascades" rising above town.
Me, Michael, and ___ at the Armenian Navy Band Concert.
The Lead singer (ONNO) and instrumentalists from the ANB.
Marshall M. and Ienea from Russia/Germany. At the Wednesday Night
Poker Game.
Me, Michael, and Ralf from Germany and his wife. Ralf is running the
Lycos Armenian programming team.
Chad Rogers, Mads, Sosse, Michael and me at Sunday Brunch at the
Mariott/Armenia.
The party at Sosse's apartment -- Fazil's 24th birthday party.
T takes a hit off the Hoopka at Sosse's party.
The guys: Michael, __, Fazil, and ___. Lots of Iranian diaspora go to
school in Armenia because the education is good and it's cheap.
Even straight Iranians come to Armenia to escape the
ultra-conservative religous scene.
T and Fazil show how to dance it up.
Sosse's bathroom -- complete with "Barf" soap and detergent.
T.
The SOHO Lounge
Chilling at the Soho with Amelia, Mads, and others.
Chad consults with the "Vice-Roy" at Soho