Wine Tasting and Noravank

The third of July was our first day off from excavating at Areni and we decided to continue our touring near our village as everyone was really tired of all the long drives from the following week. We began the day with wine tasting (its Armenia, wine at 10 am is perfectly acceptable... and I like it). Areni has its own type of grape named after it, and the region is well known for its wine and vineyards. We went to a local winery and had a tour of the property and the areas where the wine was aging. After the tour came the tasting and out came the bottles.... my past experiences in wine tasting have been just a little splash in each glass to taste... but when the owner began pouring he topped of each glass.... for every bottle we tried. So after our tasting/binging we purchased wines for supper and for everyone to take home and carried on to our next stop, which happened to be a church, which seemed a little ironic in our state.

Noravank is one of the most recognizable of Armenia’s many churches and monasteries and is very close to the cave site we are digging at. Like many of the area’s oldest religious sites, the churches are situated at the top of a large mountain and have beautiful views. The first of the two churches we went into we were able to observe a sermon that was being spoken by an Armenian priest. It is not common for Armenians to have masses or organized sermons, rather, a priest will throughout the day give sermons and pray aloud whether there is an audience or not and parishioners will stop by to listen or to just light a candle and pray. I noticed that some people removed their shoes when entering the alter part of the church, and so a few of us followed the example. I was told by an Armenian woman that I could put my shoes back on because “I looked frail” and the cold floor would make me sick.

(This is a perfect example of two things I am beginning to notice about Armenia, if you are thin you are considered frail and Armenian women will try to CONSTANTLY feed you until you can barely move. I have never encountered so much food. When it’s my turn to stay home for lab duty the cook, Gohar, sits and watches me eat and will constantly add more food to my plate and looks very hurt when I finally tell her I have had more than enough. The other thing the above story outlines very well is the fact that Armenian’s think EVERYTHING will make you sick. If you have a water fight and get splashed with luke warm water in 35+ weather you are going to get scolded, if you even dare to sit down on the concrete steps in 40 degrees you will have the entire household of Armenian women yelling “bad health, bad health!” at you and motioning for you to get up. I tried to explain to them that I am from Canada where 40 degrees don’t even exist and that sitting on concrete won’t make me sick... but the concept hasn’t sunk in yet.)

Now back to my Noravank adventure... the second church at Noravank is one of my favourites as it as these steps that go from either side of the the churches entrance to a second entrance on the second level. The stairs are EXTREMELY narrow, I’m pretty tiny and I had trouble balancing, and also have no railing. I was feeling brave (thanks wine for smoothing over my fear of heights) and so I climbed up to the second level. There are pictures to prove it. Once I was up at the top I had a conversation with an Italian family who were vacationing who happened to be from the same small town, Borgo a Mozzano, where my family originated from, needless to say I got lots of kisses. I posed for a picture at the top before coming down, however one guy saw me pose and thought I was standing at the top because I was nervous and before I know it he was at the top to hold my hand while I walked down. Typical Armenian boy... they are very forward here. I think I should do an entire blog post on the funny things me and the girls and my crew have encountered from the local guys here. After Noravank we went to a local restaurant for lunch. It was beside the Arpa Valley River and it was a gorgeous little outdoor restaurant which served chicken barbeque, lavash, yogurts, veggies and fruit.

Everyone came home and had monster naps until supper, where we devoured some left over lamajoon, along with the typical spread and tried to decide what to do with the rest of our day off. Some wanted to go hiking, most wanted to sleep, and I wanted to find somewhere to swim because it was boiling out and I could not handle another hike in forty degrees. Lucky for me my roommates caved and abandoned their hike to find a place to swim with me. Our neighbour Lilit who speaks English offered to take come with us to a “lake”. The cab driver (in his thirties and a little rough looking) on the way asked us if we wanted to listen to music, and so he turned some music on. Celine Dion. I jammed out to the song and my roommates made fun of me for being “so Canadian.” Then as the next song came on we realised that this was a Celine Dion CD that we was playing.. and he knew all the words. I really need to blog about the music selections of Armenia at a later date.

The “Lake” turned out to be a mineral spring with a manmade rock parameter with about 60 guys in tighty whities wading in water that barely when past my belly button. We were the only girls there, but we got a good laugh out of it. We also got a lot of stares, and Lauren and Taylor decided to swim in shorts and a Tshirt.. but since I was wearing a nice dress I didn’t want to ruin I decided to be brave and go in my bikini. It was absolutely hilarious how much we stuck out of the crowed.


The "Lake" in Areni


Noravank stairs


Winery in Areni