Armenian adventure

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Here we are in Yerevan, staying in a hotel which used to be, and still is, partially at least, a cinema. According to Wikipedia it was built in the 1930s on the site of a church which had been demolished by the Soviets. It is an extraordinary place. We enter up a sweeping flight of stone stairs from a square with a huge fountain and a giant Louise Bourgeois style metal spider. There is a phalanx of glass doors, only one pair of which opens. Inside is a large semicircular foyer with a reception desk and a substantial bar and a coffee shop. According to Wiki there are 4 cinema halls, as yet unseen by us. Above the doors there are 2 tiers of balconies with large posters of cinema stars covering the spaces. We access our room via a tiny rickety lift which pants like a fire-breathing dragon as it opens to envelop us. Our room is large with a sitting area and a kingsize bedroom, but the windows are small diamonds high up in the wall. We can see the sky, a crane and the skeleton of a building under construction.. On the first night we were unable to sleep as someone was hammering next door somewhere at 1 in the morning. I eventually dressed and went to see the guy on reception. He seemed rather surprised that I was complaining and said it was someone next door, nothing to do with him. I refused to go away until he did something about it...so he eventually got on the phone. And the noise stopped.

Yerevan centre is a modern European city of parks, fountains and sweeping tree-lined boulevards. No pickpockets, no street pedlars or money exchangers, no crusties, no dog poo, lots of young people, coffee shops, restaurants, advertisement panel, streetcrossings with countdown traffic lights, shops you find in every European city. Evidently much of old Yerevan was demolished in Soviet times, but there still remain Victorian buildings squeezed between modern architecture, sometimes renovated sometimes in desperate need of tlc. The modern building material of choice seems to be a pink tufa stone. The enormous Republic Square has a vast fountain, acres of paving and tiling and is surrounded by pink and pale ochre Palladian style modern buildings with upper storey galleries of Roman columns. I call Yerevan fountain city. Everywhere you go there is a park with ingenious fountain systems, the sound of splashing water, like an Arabic garden. People really use the parks. There are benches and cafes in them. There are extensive kiddy car areas that are lit up in the dark. Families are there with children playing late into the night. It is a joyful, youthful, lively city, at least in the centre where we are. There are galleries, concert halls and theatres, an opera house and a puppet theatre....shades of Soviet cultural times. One caveat - beware the pavements! All seem modern and smooth, but suddenly there are paving works, or holes, or uprisings. No markings at the edge of steps, no concessions to visual impairment. Indeed on the first evening my unwary self, I tripped on an uprisen tile and fell slap bang on my face. Ken and helpful nearby guy picked me up and sorted me. No bones broken, but dignity suffered and bruises emerged in the morning. Watching my step since then!

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