Sona and Jenny in downtown Yerevan. Click for an even larger image.
Republic Square, Yerevan. Click for an even larger image.
Yerevan. Click on it for a larger image.
Sona, with Sona, on the main shopping street in Yerevan. Our apartment was just around the corner, very central. Yerevan, in good weather, has many outdoor cafes and restaurants.
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Jenny took many pictures, such as one on the left and many others on these pages. She also took many of Coke machines, food and drinks and things that interest her, such as our guidebook.
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Yerevan. With Hovhannes, Sona's dad, and one of his many books of poems, published in several launguages. Click on it for a larger image.
Yerevan. At home with Yeranuhi and Hovhannes, Sona's mom and dad, and Anush, Sona's sister. Click on it for a larger image.
Yerevan. At home with Yeranuhi and Hovhannes, Sona's mom and dad, in a splendid Yerevan restaurant. Click on it for a larger image.
Armenia new and old. Here, with my old Lada, but "my other car is a Hummer". Click on it for a larger image.
Armenia new and old. We saw the house of the person that owns the Hummer, just outside of Yerevan. Just like in Old Rome, here in Armenia, affluence breeds indulgence. Click on it for a larger image.
On our last day in Yerevan, we went to a beautiful arts and crafts and antiques market, but in the morning, we took a trip out of town to the Garni Temple, built in the first or the second century A.D. Click on it for a larger image.
Garni sits over a deep ravine, on the tip of a triangle of what was a heavily fortified site, full of archeological excavations, including a Roman mosaic. Click on it for a larger image.
Garni was destroyed by an earthquake in 1679 and restored in 1975. You can easily see the original pieces, darker, and the new, lighter colour. Click on it for a larger image.
Garni Temple complex. Click on it for a larger image.
Garni was the only site in Armenia, where we had to pay an admission fee. Click on it for a larger image.
The Garni site is full of various building. Over the centuries, it was attacked, destroyed and rebuilt. Click on it for a larger image.
From Garni, we went to see the amazing Geghard monastery, while a restaurant was preparing us lunch. Coming back, we had an obstacle on the road. Click on it for a larger image.
Lunch was roasted lamb, surprise!, roasted vegetables and a delicious salad and yet more lavash, the ultra-thin Armenian bread.
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While they were preparing our lunch in Garni, we went to the nearby Geghard monastery in a spectacular setting in a deep gorge, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Click on it for a larger image.
Geghard started in the 4th century, but most of the present structure datess from the 12th. Click on it for a larger image.
The main church s partly a surface structure and partly hewn into the rock.
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Like in all the Armenian monasteries, we lit candles in Geghard. Click on it for a larger image.
Jenny in the door to one of the chapels carved into the rock.
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In the Geghard parking lot, old women were selling various breads, more chains of honey-coated walnuts. The interesting stuff were the multi-coloured rolls of "fruit-lavash". Lavash is served, everywhere in Armenia and is a very thin bread, but this was apricot-lavash, peach-lavash and so on. Click on it for a larger image.
Geghard monastery courtyard, with two bottles of holy water that Sona collected from a spring in a chapel carved into the rocks. Both bottles worked! One was a gift to Sona's colleague in hospital, who was injured in a car accident that week, and she has since recovered. The other was sprinkled on Barbara's foot that got much better for walking all around Turkish ruins and mosques. After this, we went to lunch in Garni, a lovely market in Yerevan, a fabulous dinner at Sona's parents' house and then on to Turkey later the same night. Armenia is a wonderful country and we loved it. Click on it for a larger image.
