Vernissage or bust

---

Sunday 30 September 2012

Our plans for the day involved buying gifts from Vernissage and then visiting the Parajanov Museum in the afternoon. After breakfast we went for coffee at Artbridge hoping to use their wifi. Unfortunately, it was rather erratic which was disappointing. We seem to be doomed on this front. We have found one reliable wifi source but it does mean sitting in the park to use it and it isn't secure.

Vernissage was busy and hot but we successfully managed to buy what we needed. Both Rod and I had local people with us last time we had negotiated the market who helped us identify the best stuff to buy. I didn't think we did too badly on our own. Rod even remembered one of the women who he had bought a tablecloth from 8 years earlier. It's the tablecloth sellers that tend to be very pushy as you walk through the market. They produce intricate, detailed cloths which must take weeks to do. We think that this might be their only source of income, hence the hard sell.

We made our way back to the flat to eat our left over pilaf with a freshly made tomato salad with herbs. Because of the heat we are doing everything at a leisurely pace. Because of this, we realised that we weren't going to make the Parajanov museum. Instead we went for a stroll on the route of the city walk in the Bradt guide. A quick stop at the wifi spot to send a few emails and then we carried on near the Cascades and round the opera house. We realised that Katchaturian's Ballet, Gayane was on the next night so we bought tickets so that we can get a bit of culture while we are here. The rest of the walk took in the Blue Mosque - a very tranquil spot on Mashtots Street. The covered fruit market has been gutted - not sure what's happened to that. We stopped for ice-cream to cool us down before we made our way back to the flat. We also bought ourselves two 5 litres bottles of water. When we were in the regions we usually drank water from springs but now we are in the city we are being cautious.

We decided to go to the Caucasus restaurant which is close to where I stayed before and was a bit of a favourite. We sat in the basement where there was a band and singer playing traditional songs. They don't play continuously, but play and then have a gap of about 10 minutes and then play again. This means you can still have a conversation! This place is popular with tourists but everyone around us were Armenian. We were particularly fascinated by a group of four young lads who were getting through 2 bottles of vodka downing each glass in one. A similar scenario was happening on the next table. I think this is a bit of an Armenian custom, not one that I would want to engage in.

The food was good. We had tabbouleh, hummus, pepper dolma and an aubergine dish topped over with Kotayk beer for Rod and Killikia beer for me.

We made our way back to the flat via Republic Square to catch sight of the fountains. Magic! I will try to get a video up - it's a water, light and music show and I think it's brilliant - others might disagree.

As we walked back we had our phones on wifi detecting mode and we homed in on the Jazzve Cafe where we stopped and had a couple of non alcoholic cocktails, checked emails and Facebook before wending our way back. It was gone midnight when we got back but the city was still very much alive.

---