Our Trip
Day 2 - April 29
In the morning we were able to sleep a little longer. Breakfast was at 10. At 12 we started for a sight seeing tour in Yerevan. The first impression of the city was positive - most of us who had not been there before certainly thought we would see more obvious poverty. Of course the poverty was there, for example right behind the Guesthouse:
Still too many people have to live in such "houses"
Nonetheless one did not have the impression to be in a country in which so many people are living without a regular income. However, many of Yerevan's good-looking sights are owing to the generosity of Armenians living abroad who either donate for public projects or directly support their relatives in Armenia.The city with its modern style and activities is hardly any different from capital cities in Europe.
Monument Park
There are a lot of new buildings...
... but residential houses are usually in unaffordable price ranges for average people
Many of the newly built streets have been paid for by Armenians living abroad
Monument Park
Donated by a US-Armenian
The real Armenian men are much better looking ;)
View on Mashtots Avenue
Of course there are also still the typical Eastern Block buildings made of concrete slabs
By 1 pm we stopped at the Matenadaran Institute, in which ancient scriptures of more than one thousand years are being stored and used for research purposes. There is also an exhibition of very beautiful old books. When we just got out of the bus Hermann experienced a huge surprise. A lady who just passed by recognized him as the "photographer of the Südkurier" (the newspaper he works for). It turned out that Margret Jaschke was a tutor at an adult education institute in the area where Hermann works. Now she was in Yerevan to help with the restoration of old books and scriptures. Was that a lovely coincidence? We could hardly believe it! She invited Hermann to have a look at her work and of course he wrote an article for the newspaper.
Statue of Mesrop Mashtots
Entrance of Matenadaran
In the museum
Restoration workshop (left to right): Margret Jaschke, Gayane Eliazyan who is
the Head of the Restoration Department, restorator Susanna
Afterwards we visited the Erebouni museum and fortress.
Museum entrance
Statue at the museum
Inside the museum
Guided tour in very good German
Fascinated listeners
View from the fortress on Yerevan
Path to the fortress
Wall paintings
Every day we had a short devotional and prayer time (usually in the bus, however)
"Cool" guys
In the evening we dined in a restaurant with the rather boring name "The Club", but very interesting interior. Here for the first time we tasted a typical Armenian three course menu which from then on we would enjoy almost every day for lunch AND dinner: first the appetizer with fresh vegetables and salads, bread - also the typical Armenian Lavash - and cheese, usually similar to the Greek Feta; then the main menu with meat or fish and afterwards a dessert consisting of either different fruit or cake. However, one had to take care not to get too full with the wonderful appetizer meals already! Anyway, at the end of the trip almost everyone of us had the feeling to have put on some weight ;)
The appetizer
Everybody likes this food!
Photos by us
©2009 Hermann-Peter Steinmüller & Dr. Barbara Strohmenger
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