Vanadzor, northwest Armenia - Week 2

August 28, 2003

Yikes! I spent a day and a half in Yerevan over the weekend and took almost no pictures. I'm not sure why, except that a lot of the interesting tourist attractions are being renovated and were closed. But still, that's not a good excuse. Vahagn, my translator, pointed out that my last missive promised photos from Yerevan, so he's generously given me one of his.

Mt. Ararat No, it didn't snow here. That's Vahagn's photo from New Year's Day...

It's quite a nice city, renovations aside, and we took advantage of the opportunity to eat Indian food and pizza, knowing that we would have another week of Armenian food in Vanadzor, our next stop.

We left for Vanadzor early Monday morning; it was a two hour ride from Yerevan, and quite spectacular. On one long stretch, you can see both Mt. Ararat and Mt. Aragats, another big mountain. We also drove through Spitak, the epicenter of the 1988 earthquake, where you see that the town has literally shifted, with all the new construction forming a new center away from the town that was destroyed.

Vanadzor is in the Lori region, and it has a reputation for rain. But from the landscape, it reminds me more of western North Carolina than Oregon. It's been relatively cool and it has rained a bit.

With Vahagn on the balcony of his cousin apartment

The first evening here, Vahagn took me to dinner at his cousin Armen's. Armen's wife Anna prepared a wonderful dinner that included all the things I really like here: fresh tomatoes, cucumber, salads, and roasted eggplant. And Anna and Armen have the most adorable little guy, Vazgen, who is about a year and a half old. Naturally, he had to be inducted into the Tessy & Tab Reading Club! I gave him an advance copy of "Fun Park", which seemed appropriate as all the parks have amusement park areas for little kids to go on rides.

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Vazgen, a little dubious about being inducted into the Tessy & Tab Reading Club!