Day 4 Yerevan Heights and Ballet

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Day 4 Saturday 9th September



I’m writing in the past tense today.

Which do you prefer, past or present tense?



After a night of disruption we woke at 8.45am feeling refreshed. Into a new day, Saturday, with hope and a rested head.



We pottered with crosswords and blogs in our room until it felt time to set off and find breakfast around 10am. We shunned the cinema café opting for an exploration to find a baker’s shop.

It was raining, but no sooner than you can get the words ‘Danish Pastries’ out of your mouth and we we’re upon the best bun shop in town. Baguette and Co. The place smelled great, there were trays of croissants coming out of the oven as we queued and the glass display cabinets were brimming with freshly baked bread, sandwiches, cakes and patisserie.

We were given a table marker with a letter symbol from the Mashtots alphabet on it, and coffee and best pains au raisins ever was soon making a match with its order designation. Delicious. Heartwarming. Welcoming.

Mesrop Mashtot was an Armenian monk who It developed an alphabet for the Armenian language around 405 AD. He was so keen to write down an Armenian translation of the bible that he invented a graphic system to do it. It survives to this day and it is one of the things that gave Armenians their identity and he is still held in a position of honour today. We had the letter with the equivalent of our ‘v’.



Over the road was the church of St Astvatsatsin. A small original chapel takes pride of place. A survivor of earthquakes and Soviet demolition. Today there was a man singing prayers in front of icons. Embracing this small red stoned jewel is a much larger, and newer, church and ecclesiastical collège built in a lighter pink stone. Propped against the inside of the churchyard walls are the decorated remnants of previous churches on the site. Pediments, escutcheons and gravestones. The carvings on these look Celtic: knots and basket-woven lines carved in ancient stonework. My narrow concept of this milieu doesn’t permit thought that such styling could be here in Asia.



We headed up Mashtots Street, a coincidence indeed, to find a tourist information office up by the Opéra House on the Square of France. It turned out to be a kiosk without much to offer. But we already had a half made plan.......



Heading northward through parks and open air bars we arrived at the Cafesjian Sculpture Garden on Tamanyan St at the foot of The Cascades.

It’s rammed with sculptures, see the pictures below. A fierce black lion, a fat man and a far woman in bronze, a cat, leaping fawns, a dandelion by Jenny Pickford a UK sculptor and so much more.

Excellent fun, set in gardens with accompanying soldiers to keep you (Marion) off the grass. I particularly liked the circular flower beds featuring purple leafed begonias with tiny pink flowers enclosed by mini silvery leaved hedges.



The Cascades are a set of water features set in limestone terraces with 572 stairs to climb. Designed by architects Jim Torosyan, Aslan Mkhitaryan, and Sargis Gurzadyan the construction of the cascade started in 1971 in the Soviet era and was partially completed in 1980. The second phase began in earnest in 2002 and lasted until 2009 in post pestroika time. The complex was handed over to the American magnate and collector in Gerard Cafesjian in the early 2000s during which the complex underwent further renovation. A large museum complex is planned at the zenith but remains stalled and is still in the early stages of construction.

The sun peeped out as we started the climb. It’s a clever design because at the moment you are starting to tire you reach a new terrace with themed but ever changing decorations. Two sculpted men on pedestals sit looking south reminiscent of our Newcastle Sandgate keelman.

On nearing the top we investigate a glass door to an exhibition in the interior of the construction to west side of the stairway. Inside there is a large room filled with sculptures employing glass crystal and light to sparkle illuminating the top escalator of a series of escalators we could have utilised on the way up here...........

We bear in mind this facility for the descent, but head outside to reach the very top (of what is complete) to catch views of Mount Ararat. It is gradually revealing itself from beneath the day’s cloud and haze.

It started to rain at this point so we took refuge inside the escalator housing and started to descend past many sculptures positioned on the gallery terraces and by the side of the moving stairs.

Bonus finds are three further galleries accessed by lifts down into the hillside itself, two with large works relating to Armenia’s turbulent history (including a panel depicting Mashstots) and the third featuring a collection of modern works.



It was still raining as we left behind the three hour visit, so we stopped at the first of many Gastro Pubs by the Sculpture Park called The Black Cat. It boasts a covered outdoor terrace typical of huge numbers of similar establishments in Yerevan......... and a menu that includes Sushi, Pizza, Pasta, Tacos, and Burger sections. (But no Armenian beer, only imported lagers).

We both opt for soft dough baos within the Tacos category. Yum.

There are numerous staff here in a hierarchy. Some meet and greet. Some take orders. Some bring your food on big trays to put on trestles for others to deliver to the table. And at the bottom of the pecking order are the pot clearers gradually denuding the table of cutlery and crockery throughout your meal.

We decided to seek out Old Yerevan. Kond is a district on the map which shows small dwelling packed together in a random way. Pretty much everywhere else is within a grid of boulevards. We head towards the unknown area.

As we passed the Opéra ticket office and buy tickets for Sunday evening’s ballet Prokofiev’ Romeo and Juliet.

We walked though Aramaic Street Gardens which are bounded by modern high rise apartments. it’s essentially a paved strip of illuminated fountains for toddlers to scoot through or stamp upon. I first saw this in Bradford city centre and it’s a popular city planners project now.

Just behind the luxury of the new appartement blocks hides Kond. We entered the old quarter be heading up a newly paved staircase which leads to a patch-worked road of tar, concrete and mud winding up a hillside of tin roofed old housing. There’s a unitised stone block of about 30cm x 25cm that is used make the buildings. Some only one storey others taller and showing different eras of construction / renovation.

The overall impression is of an impoverished but close village community. There are some wall murals indicating pride. There’s a curious tangle of gas and water piping above ground mixed with electrical spaghetti and glass cabinets of electric meters. So there has been an attempt to provide modern facilities. But the irregular ups and downs and narrowness of footpaths between the housing makes it difficult to see how the old fabric of the place could be retained if proper renovation was financed through grants, or imposed Upon the residents.

We started feel like voyeurs, out of place here, and head back to the modernity And anonymity of the rest of the city. The Soviet machine bulldozed most of such districts, sometimes for cultural reasons churches and the like. But the modernity provided by the rebuilding allows for sanitation, power, water on tap. C’est compliqué.



After the discovery of a supermarket on our way back we found fun in trying to buy hair products in Mashtots language. Then we took a moment to rest in our room with a cup of tea. Marion is scanning e mails and realises the the tickets that we have bought are for tonight not Sunday ....... so we dress up a wee bit and head out again for a 7pm start.

There is a orchestra of more than 50 musicians. The chandeliers are huge. The hall is in well used but good repair. The whole company seems to be on stage for an introductory Montague v Capulet face-off. It’s all on a very grand scale with rich colours and complicated bits of set flying in and out.

I struggle with working out who is who initially, but soon suss Romeo in all-white who is getting on well with Juliet, who is dressed in pale blues. Mams and dads are in reds and blacks. Father Laurence is the one in the monk costume. Paris is much taller than everyone else and a bit camp.

The music is superb, there’s a bit of tenor sax and plenty of tuba in the well known bit and fight scenes. R and J are particularly impressive although they’ve been choreographed to do some standing weight bearing holds which seem out of place but get the audience clapping over music .... all very jazz.



Home via a sedate traditional Armenian food restaurant in an upstairs living room. The wine wasn’t great but good food and ambience to be enjoyed.



And so to bed

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