My last spring break as a teacher (at least for a good long while) is over. On one hand, this means that I won't have to experience the way a week can stretch infinitely at the end of a quarter while you pray you survive long enough to be free of the children for at least a few short days of travel. On the other hand, it means I'm going to be too broke to actually have a few short days of travel...unless I break my piggy bank. This is something that I'm trying to avoid, but after a year Stateside I may be desperate enough. I have hope that Minneapolis will be lively enough to keep me from noticing all the places I haven't gone.
Ever since the Evil One moved to Armenia I've been intending to go visit. After all, we were
practically neighbors...or so I told myself.* I was aware, on some level, that it was trickier to get to the other end of central Asia than I was telling myself, since Her Evilness and co. came to visit two years ago, but you have to actually EXPERIENCE it to realize the truth. I've said it before. I'll say it again, especially since it may be the last time I do so for two years:
getting there is NOT half the fun. See, flights into Yerevan are sporadic. What the Evil One did - and what she suggested to me - was to fly through Istanbul into Tblisi, which is in Georgia. Four hours away from Yerevan. Which either meant another flight - if there was one when I needed it (there wasn't) or ground transportation. She suggested a taxi. I said a bus was fine (I am not living on a state department salary, after all). And then she booked and paid for a taxi anyways, and had it take me directly to Gyumri - the first place that I mentioned wanting to visit - and met me there, claiming that it made it easier for her (because it did - no worrying about me while also avoiding a 8-hour drive round trip).
I was struck pretty hard through the drive by how similar Georgia (and later Armenia) felt. Topographically as well as the nature and some of the buildings gave me the impression that Mongolia and Greece got together and had a love child, then gave it to Russia to raise. My driver rushed along nice, smooth roads til we got to the border crossing - I think my fifth time crossing by land.** Since these days we mostly travel internationally by plane, it's easy to forget that you typically have to pass immigration twice - as a departure and as an arrival - but it was kind of a trip to be dropped off by the driver, walk through Georgian immigration just a few hours after they stamped my passport at the airport, drive over a river, get out and walk through Armenian immigration with my luggage, because this time I also had to go through customs. Not my weirdest land crossing, but definitely interesting.
The taxi made a brief stop for food (ie, snacks) and the bathroom just past the border, and then we wound through a canyon pretty much all the way to Gyumri, another 3 hours. The views were stunning and bleak by turns - I would have loved to make the driver stop at several points for photos, but since he was getting paid as a taxi driver, not a tour driver, I went easy on him.
Finally I made it to the old town, where the Evil One had booked us into the Grand Apricot hotel. She and her spawn came out and retrieved me from the driver and escorted me along a walking street before giving me the "grand tour" of my hotel room, which had been ransacked for pillows by the Lesser of Two Evils. After a short break, we all went out wandering.
The Armenians are amazing stone workers, and if I'd had more time, I would have taken her Evilness up on the offer to find me a carving class to take. Instead, I just had to admire it and take photos ad nauseum. The stone many of the buildings and carvings are made from is called tuff, a kind of sedimentary stone made from volcanic ash. Apparently the city planners of Gyumri - formerly known as Aleksandropol - had an emo streak, because they primarily used the black tuff for their masonry. And since I have a bit of an emo streak myself, of course I loved it...now I just have to figure out how to work it into a piece (maybe embossed paper???)
My first morning in Armenia I woke up bright and early for the thing that had brought me to Gyumri - dolls. Of course. The Family Evil slept in while I walked past churches to buy a loaf of bread and sit in the fresh morning air eating a snack, then wandered the rest of the way over to Naro Dolls.
It was a little off the beaten track, but 100% worth it! I loved meeting another craftsman - she hand sews and stuffs the dolls, using some cloth accessories as well as the painting. She even had a "big sister" doll based on the same design that I chose, which I really loved. Although it was different from the dolls I usually make, it was fun and I learned a new technique for the hair that I might have to try with my own dolls someday. And her hospitality was so sweet - when I told her I didn't drink coffee or tea, instead she brought me a cup of water in one of Gyumri's special crafts - a metal cup that sings! It was a pretty long workshop, and by the time Anahid (as Evil named her) was finished, it was about lunch time, so I got to try my first lavash, too, and it was delicious.
Finally I headed back to the hotel to force the sleepyheads to get moving. It was Evil's birthday, after all, so even if a lie-in was called for, we definitely needed to go see something. We discussed what we should do next, and after wandering a bit ended up at the Black Fortress.
Once upon a time, of course, it was an actual military fortification. The hill it sits on gives a strong advantage, with views of the countryside (ie, the Turkish border) all around...not to mention a lot of steps, if you count that sort of thing. But these days, it's used primarily for performances. I checked out the acoustics, much to the mortification of the Lesser of Two Evils, who refused to sing songs from Frozen with me, even though we were about the only people there. As we were about to leave, the caretaker came and offered to show us the museum, as well - apparently it kind of opens on an as-needed basis. We also got a nice view of Gyumri's Mother Armenia statue.
And that was about it. The next day, we visited the Museum of the Two Sisters - an art museum showcasing the work of two women from Gyumri - and stopped at HayAr jewelry on our way out of town, where I got to buy a beautiful pomegranate necklace made of recycled bullet casings. Then we were on our way to Yerevan.
*Yes, we physically lived closer to one another her first go-round - her in India, me in the Emirates - but Mongolia and Armenia feel closer on a mental level. Yes, my brain is a crazy, crazy place.
**I've also crossed US-Canada in 1989, South-North Korea in 2007, Greece-Turkey in 2008, and China-Nepal in 2013
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