Blogs from Armenia, Asia - page 10

Resumo:Um dia ensolarado; Paisagem maravilhosa; Conhecendo pessoas incríveis; Fazendo amizades; Tomando café, vinho, vodka e cerveja; Ganhando presentes inesquecíveis; Chorando; Estou bem. O meu dia estava meio planejado. Após ir para Khor Virap (igreja), tentaria ir para o lago Sevan. No entanto, como muitos dias aqui na minha viagem, algo acontece e muda tudo. =) Já no local eu conheci um senhorzinho muito simpático, que além de dar uma mini carona (500m), ele me deu um cartão postal, tirou uma foto minha, imprimiu e deu para mim. Obrigada Vace! Quando eu estava a caminho da estrada para pegar o meu ônibus, um carro parou e me ofereceu uma carona. Não precisava, pois o caminho era curto, mas resolvi entrar no carro. O carro já estava lotado, mas eles se apertaram para eu entrar. "conversa-vai .. conversa-vem" ... read more

Monday 1 October 2012 Despite being right in the busy centre of the city, we are both sleeping really well. I thought the traffic might disturb us but I think we are so tired from walking in the heat, by night time we are flat out. Our plan for the day was to visit the Parajanov Museum. Each time we walk somewhere, we take a slightly different route so that we get to see different parts of the city. The museum is close to the gorge - opposite the football ground. It was built for Parajanov but he died of lung cancer before he had a chance to live in it. Although, principally a film maker, he was someone who could turn his hand to anything - drawing, collage, installations. Personally, out of all the museums ... read more

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 ... read more

27 September 2012 Our last day in Artsakh. It's been good staying in one place for three nights. Once we had breakfast we set off, our first destination - the post office. Easier said than done. It took as a while to find it. A very insignificant looking place considering we were in a capital city. It turned out that we had to wait for someone to arrive before we could get the stamps. The 'stamp fairy' arrived 10 minutes later, nonchalantly walking in. She proceeded to try to persuade us to buy commemorative stamps - she had millions of them! We succumbed and bought a couple. We then set off to Shushi, visit the carpet museum/showroom first. We had a little guide to the stories within the carpets. Apparently, as the people weren't allowed to ... read more

Wednesday 3 October 2012 We'd arranged to meet Hasmik at 9am - early for Armenian standards - to go for a swim and sauna at the Business Centre Health club. We got there but found that it was closed for maintenance. A bit disappointing but we had a coffee in the cafe before deciding to go to the best place to buy good Armenian coffee. This was a metro ride away to the end of the line in the north of the city. Again, it is so good to have someone to advise us. I also bought a Jazzve - the coffee pot used to make Armenian coffee. It's different from the one I have at home and slightly bigger. We also popped into Grand Candy - Armenian's main sweet outlet. I managed to come out ... read more