Last Field Trip

Our field school coordinators definitely saved the best for last when it came to feild trips, the 24th was the last organized field trip day as the rest of my stay in Armenia will be spent digging in Areni. Our first stop was my favourite of all our trips and the most phenomenal monastery that I have ever seen. The monastery was called Gerhard and it is a huge complex with multiple rooms and chapels carved into the mountain. The inside of the monastery was dark and had intricate stone wall carvings that where only visible where the skylights hits. One of the coolest parts was the running stream through one of the chapel rooms. Buzz and Nathan and myself, after looking through the monastery, decided to climb up the mountain to check out some of the other chapels caved out of the rock, it was an incredibly steep climb but the view and the tunnel chapels where so worth it. I really cannot justify this place in words. Once down by the van we went to see the lines of street vendors selling gata (a decorative pastry with sugar and honey layer inside) taetu lavash (basically a homemade fruit roll up with raspberry, plum or apricot). The old ladies who are at the stands will yell at you to buy stuff and to not buy from the others, very strange. I also bought a doves to release at the top of the monastery, totally got ripped off but I could not pass up the chance to feel like a Michael Bolton video. I also must add that I nearly cried the entire drive to Gerhard because we were driving in out Partridge family van on the edge of the scariest cliff in the middle of the Armenian highlands (one of my many car related phobias).

The next stop was also absolutely stunning, and it was our only non-Christian religious site we visited. When Christianity became the national religion of Armenia there was a call for all pagan sites to be demolished. Garni is the last standing pagan site in Armenia, and it has been partially reconstructed from the damage that was done to the site during this period. The site had an amazing view of the mountain ranges and we also go to see an Armenian bride take her wedding photos by the temple. Outside the temple there were more street vendors selling jams and honeys and I bought some honey with the comb still in it, can’t wait to break that out when I’m home.

I was really excited to visit Lake Sevan since being in a landlocked country has definitely taken some adjustment from my usual peninsula/island home. Lake Sevan is the largest lake in Armenia and looks more like an ocean as it has great waves. I was hoping to swim, but we didn’t have the time. We climbed up to see the Lake Sevan Monasteries which were beautiful and had stone mazes around each chapel. The view was also amazing as it over looked the lake and the other mountains. On the hike down there were men selling chunks of obsidian to tourists for five bucks when if you could pick up some on the side of the road if you wanted!

After stopping to put our feet in the water in the lake we headed off to a local restaurant for a late lunch. The restaurants here are often a series of small rooms so you get your own room to dine. The restaurant owner is known for his pilaf (a roasted rice and lamb and garlic dish that is absolutely amazing) and he cooks it in the traditional way outside on a fire stove and he wears a traditional outfit while making it. He is very proud of his pilaf and invited all of us to watch him make it. We had the pilaf for supper along with a fish head soup (surprisingly good), and other traditional Armenian appetizers. The owner decided he loved us so he gave us crawfish kabobs as and extra and then invited us into his office to show us an article in National Geographic about his restaurant which he called the most famous in all Armenia. Just as we were about to hope into the van and leave he called out to us and brought out two trays of wine and asked us to join him. The wine was more like syrup and was incredibly sweet and we later found out it was a pomegranate wine. This is a perfect example of my experiences with Armenian hospitality.
We got into the two cars to leave and took a scenic route home, the van holding Kristine, Nathan, Buzz, Collette and Nani decided to stop on the roadside and so our driver pulled over too. The next thing I know we are all dancing on the side of the road in the middle of the Armenian highlands to traditional Armenian music while Kristine teaches us all traditional dancing. I think someone slipped something into the pomegranate wine because everyone was definitely a little loopy.

For our last night in Yerevan myself and my roommates Lauren and Taylor decided to adventure on our own downtown and we walked around the city and stopped into a cafe. The cafe had bruchetta and we were extremely happy to have something we recognized. The waiters here are always so excited for “Armericans” and the one here spoke some English and would come by every ten minutes to tell us the soccer scores and sat with us after his shift to watch the game with us.


Lake Sevan


Garni


Gerhard