Touring Dvin

I woke up on the 21st to my roommates arriving, finally! Three days alone at night in a new city was more than enough. After showing Lauren and Taylor the apartment we packed up for the day and met with the rest of the crew on the other side of the city for our first study trip. The trip was bittersweet as Dvin was originally the site which we were supposed to be excavating. The site was a merchant stop, as well as the old capitol of Armenia, where many religious councils were held. The site is also home to the largest Armenian Christian ruins, as Gregory the Illuminator (an important figure in Armenian Christian history who founded the Armenian Apostolic Church) divinely chose the site to build his church. We walked along the old citadel mounds and the entire tel while our professor, Dr. Areshian, lectured us on the history of the site from the Chalcolithic period right up until the middle ages. You can see the features from the peak of the hill but as you walk among them the grass seems to consume everything. Times like this it’s understandable why aerial photography is so imperative to many archaeological projects.

We also walked up to last years excavation site - just waiting to be reopened. Unfortunatley, this site will not be reopened for a few years as the only expert in this area of archaeology in the country passed away a few months ago, Aram Kalantarian, who was supposed to be our co-director. It is because of his passing that the original plan to dig on Dvin was abandoned and we were moved to the caves in Areni for our field school. I have to say I am really sad in some ways about this. Dvin was a beautiful rural village with cattle roaming free and had stunning views of mount Ararat and the Ararat valley. Also, the history of Dvin is much more interesting to me as my primary interests are in religious history and the early middle ages, and this site also offered Bronze Age features as well. The Areni caves will be purely Chalcolithic. Just walking around the site I found many shards of glazed pottery and it made me a little sad knowing the pottery at Areni will be nothing like the colourful and stunning pieces hanging in the Dvin museum, which would have been imported from all areas of the Caucuses.

Before leaving Dvin, we met with our cook for our expedition and had some amazing fresh apricots, which taste nothing like the apricots you find in Canada, delicious!

Speaking of delicious, after we arrived back in Yerevan we went to a local Persian restaurant for the largest lunch I have ever encountered. First arrived plates of breads, cheeses, olives, and sour cream and dill spreads. Then salads, and more plates of assorted cheeses, and plates that had red basil, parsley, radish, onion, hot green pepper, cucumber and tomatoes, which we rolled up in lavash (flat bread). Then came pilaf (a traditional rice) and three types of soup-like sauces with lamb, barley, and various spices and stocks to put over the rice. Nexr came pork kabobs and potatoes, and then a ground beef sausage type dish. It was amazingly delicious, but also really overwhelming. I have never seen a table with so much food. We finished it off with red wine and jermuk (a naturally carbonated mineral water).

Two hours later, after a nap, we were expected again for supper with some of the local directors of the Archaeological Institute. I just had some more red wine, and nibbled on the lavash and cheeses... no way I could handle another big meal like that! I am going to come home about 30 pounds heavier, no doubt.



Group photo


Shrine at early church ruins in Dvin



Dvin views and the Dvin excavations

Touring Yerevan – June 19th and 20th

Yerevan is the capitol city of Armenia, and it is also where myself and the rest of the Areni field crew are staying for the first few days. The plan is to get some site seeing in before heading to the mountains for the excavation. After a night of zero sleep (since I found the apartment too creepy and lonely to let myself actually sleep) my TA, Kristine, picked me up to bring me to the other apartment with the others students. It took me almost twenty minutes to unlock my door (the doors here are incredibly strange, and the keys are practically like a code... twist so many times to the left, then so many times to the right, then press in and hope for the best!) Once I finally got out we headed to Dr. Areshian’s apartment which is in the heart of Yerevan’s center. In typical Armenian style he wanted to feed us and he set up a gigantic spread of Armenian cheeses, yogurts, breads, cakes, and the strongest coffee you will encounter. Lavash is flat bread that is almost paper thin, and many of the cheeses are strong and salty but have a soft cream cheese/cottage cheese texture.

After breakfast, Kristine, Nani, Nathan and myself (the only ones who have arrived thus far) went for a walk in Yerevan. The interesting breakfast, the strong coffee, and the extreme heat (35 degrees Celsius) made me really sick. but I sucked it up and tried to enjoy the day. Yerevan looks exactly what you would expect from a post Soviet country. The majority of the buildings and monuments date to the Soviet period and you will even see some headless Lenin statues. The Opera is the only grand building that has real character and is not just a red brick square. We walked down to Vernissage, an open air market, where locals sell crafts, goods, and art (I fell in love with the amazing artwork, and I wish I had a way of bringing some home). You can find everything from rugs, pottery, Soviet memorabilia, jewellery, clothing, paintings, to rusty surgical equipment and any piece of used junk you can think of. On my second trip to the market on the 20th I made some souvenir purchases which included a clay Armenian coffee set (the super tiny cups you serve Turkish and Armenian coffee in with a pomegranite motif), and an Armenian ibric which is a copper coffee kettle, as well as a necklace of an olive leaf.

I was too sick for lunch on the 19th, but on the 20th myself, Kristine, Collette, Nathan and Buzz went to a Lahmajoon restaurant, which is the Armenian version of a pizzeria. Lahmajoon is made of a flat bread called Lavash with a meat (lamb or beef), tomato paste, and spice topping folded over. It is referred to as the Armenian pizza, and it is amazing! We also had a dish called Acharuli khachapuri which is a flat bread boat with egg inside. For supper on the 20th we went to an Armenian restaurant and had potato soup, carrot and honey salads, and also a delicious desert – chilli, cinnamon, and apple icecream! I must say, so far I love the Armenian cuisine.

Other notable occurrences from these first two days in Armenia:

The most epic lightning storm I have ever witnessed, the sky was like a strobe light.

The fact that the traffic and driving is the most insane I have ever experienced... basically lanes do not matter, drive where ever the heck you want... and don’t expect a seatbelt because they really don’t exist in most cars (I am sure anyone who knows how I am in cars is getting a good laugh at this right now).

I have noticed the girls here wear four inch stilettos even to go to the grocery store... I have found where I belong!

Lastly, it is EXTREMELY easy to get lost.. and when you are by yourself and you don’t know anyone’s number or street name, or even your own street name, or the native language, it is not so easy to get found! Lesson learned: no more solo travel in Yerevan for Aurora.


Vernissage Art


Vernissage souvenirs


Street vendor selling puppies


Lightning over Yerevan

Plane rides, and Yerevan Apartments – I Need Valium.

So the story of my Armenian adventure begins on the 17th of June, the day after my 21st birthday. This birthday was a little bittersweet for me, and my solutions for drowning out the bitter and celebrating the sweet involve the same process: friends and alcohol. I had an amazing birthday bash at the Alehouse with my amazing friends, and what was supposed to be a casual beer and wing night, turned into Aurora drinking a pitcher and a half of beer, flaming zambuca shots, and being a huge, but happy, mess. This meant that the morning of the 17th, the day in which I needed to finish packing and preparing for my trip and fly to England, was instead a day of a massive hangover, rendering me useless.

Good thing there are moms to pack suitcases for times when the only thing you are good for is sitting on a couch. staring at a bowl of won-ton soup, and pointing to things that need to go in suitcases!

I left for the Halifax Airport around 9:30, and by 11:40 I was boarding the plane. I sat beside an old man who wore a satin sleep mask and snored the whole way. Sexy. I can’t sleep on flights because I am ABSOLUTLEY TERRIFIED OF FLYING, even though I do so regularly. So I was not only hung over, but also a nervous wreck... and watching sappy chick flicks the entire way to Heathrow didn’t help my already pathetic mental state. I calmed down once we got close to landing, as I could see the English country side below me. All the little thatched roofs made me want to not even bother going to Armenia and just stay in England forever instead. Once I landed in Heathrow I was amazed at how huge the airport was, there’s a freaking shopping mall in it! (I went inside Burberry and thought of you Margaret!) I ended up getting food and passing out on a bench for a few hours, as I had six hours to wait before my connection flight boarded.

I was much calmer during my flight from Heathrow to Yerevan, even though the plane was not nearly as nice. I guess I was just used to flying by then. My company was much better than sleep mask guy, and I got to chat up two guys from Greece/England. When I landed I was very confused, the airport signs didn’t always have English translations... and when I got to the baggage area I realised the girl who was supposed to pick me up was not even there! I got my luggage and went to the exit area, and after a while I saw an older Armenian man with a sign saying “UCLA FIELD SCHOOL.” The TA, Kristine, who I had been talking to was not there as planned, so I was slightly uncomfortable. The man was Professor Areshian, the main coordinator for the field program, and was very nice. He drove me from the airport to our temporary apartments in the city. We passed by a street of amazing looking casino’s that I hope I get to visit later. Dr. Areshian picked up some groceries for me at a corner store: the groceries included a loaf of flat bread, a tub of sour cream, two kinds of local cheese (one tastes like a variation of feta, the other like a bitter cream cheese), some walnut pastries, tea, unpasteurized milk, and some carbonated water.... interesting choices.

The apartment is located right beside the American Armenian University and just down the road from the Presidents palace. Although, I felt very sketchy walking into the apartment as you have to take a dark narrow back alley to get to the parking space, and when you are walking through the building (which has open windows with no panes of glass on some of the levels), you feel like you are walking through a vacant cement warehouse... not an apartment building. I won’t even begin to describe the inside of the apartments – I will let pictures do the talking. I am not someone to get nervous, I live alone in Newfoundland and I love it, however, being alone here with the only people I know across the city is the most terrifying thing ever. Even though I haven’t had a real night’s sleep since the 15th, and would love nothing more than to crash, unfortunatley the place creeps me out way too much to try to sleep. I am the first of the girls to arrive, so I am alone for the night... and I’m not liking that AT ALL.


My kitchen in the Yerevan apartment


My View from the Yerevan Apartment

One More Sleep for The Birthday Girl!

Well, it's almost three AM which makes it officially my twenty-first birthday! This means that I only have "one more sleep" until I am sleeping on a plane to the Heathrow airport, final destination, Yerevan, Armenia.

My shopping for the trip is complete, as is the majority of the packing. Tomorrow/Today's plans include, sleeping in, downloading music and movies for the trip, and then some wings and beers at the Alehouse in Halifax with some friends :)

As of right now, I am unsure of what the Internet access will be like throughout my trip in Armenia, but I am hoping that I will be able to update this blog on a semi regular basis to talk about my trip, the dig, and share some photos. This is also my way of "keeping in touch," as I have decided to bid farewell to facebook, MSN, and even my emails while away. It's been a long year, and a little break from the real world is much needed!

Aurora