Yerevan, A City of Contrasts

Beautiful National Opera House surrounded by
100s of cafes--Armenians love classical music!

Armenia is a fascinating country.  Yerevan is a city of contrasts.   You might describe it as a strange mix of Eastern European/Slavic and Soviet influences, maybe with some Eastern Mediterranean markings thrown in the mix, too.  The people are lovely and helpful.  A city of 1,000,000, the crime rate here is one of the lowest for a city anywhere in the world.  Everyone we have run across has been incredibly nice and accommodating.  People here are a little more serious (at least, less "lighthearted," or "carefree") culturally than we are, perhaps a result of their Soviet past.   Most Armenian women dress like any westerner, but Armenian men wear dark clothes—shirts and pants, and even on a day like today when the temperature soared to 102 degrees  F, they do not wear shorts.  Our friend Artyam wishes that the culture could lighten up a bit because shorts would be nice in such dry hot weather!

Case and Artyam, our new Armenian friend
posing Armenian style! 

Life is at a different pace here.  It is quiet in the mornings until about 8 a.m.  People don’t go to work until at least 9 or 10 a.m. and they work until 6:30 or 7:00 in the evenings.  After dinner most nights, Yerevan folks enjoy visiting the outdoor cafes (of which there are hundreds, maybe thousands!), socializing, drinking beer or coffee (but no one seems to drink even close to excess), then moving on to a new cafe after a while. Walking between cafes is really a slow amble--we had to consciously slow down a great deal to keep their pace. When you get beer they bring pistachios, which they enjoy despite being a “Turkish Delight;” and everyone smokes like chimneys.  

Yerevan is undergoing massive transformations.  Sprouting from City Center to the Opera House, the rebuilding and new building is astounding.  There is one new, beautiful plaza that is incredible—they call it the Rodeo Drive of Yerevan with Armani, Chanel, Versace and the other high end designers---a bit like Via del Babuino in Rome!  The city has a definite European feel.  Our hotel for the first three nights was a very western place, in fact literally so, the Yerevan Congress Best Western Hotel!   The hotel has a beautiful pool and a great health club/gym where we could work out.  But somehow, I didn’t quite fell like we were getting the average Armenian from Yerevan experience.  And so for the next three nights, our friend Artyam found us an apartment outside of city center but in the middle of a purely Armenian neighborhood.  It is an “up and coming neighborhood” with the 60’s Soviet apartment buildings being renovated beautifully inside (ours was just redone with hardwood floors, new kitchen and bath, and beautiful and fancy lighting (an Armenian thing I am discovering—even in their churches!).  But we are on the 5^th and top floor and there is no elevator!  The outside is looking better, but the stairwell is definitely Soviet Union depression!  But down the street are multi-million dollar homoes and the Armenian “Pentagon” is just around the corner. 

Our Apartment building--our apartment
is top left with balcony!

Our neighbors in the building are always surprised to meet us on the stairs.  There are not many Americans travelling Armenia unless they are part of the Armenian diaspora returning to the homeland.  It is a matter of cultural pride to visit Armenia by Armenians dispersed over the world because of the late 19^th century genocide and the 1915 massacre by the Turks where a reported 1,500,000 Armenians were killed.  So we have met lots of American Armenians travelling here, and have run in to Armenians from all over the world.   My son Case and I are undisputably Anglo (blond hair, clothing style including shorts, and Ray Bans give us away immediately!), and so we are always asked, “So WHY did you come to Armenia?”  And then I tell them of my admiration of their stalwart faith in becoming the first Christian nation.  But more admirable is that against all odds of persecutions through the centuries, they have clung to their Christian identity,  refusing to follow Zoroastrianism when the Persians conquered Armenia and then again, for centuries of Muslim political domination, refusing to give up their Trinitarian belief for Islam.  Even in the late 19^th Century, the Russian Czar wanted the people of Armenia to “reform” their Ancient Armenian Apostolic Church and assimilate into the Russian Orthodox tradition.  But through it all, they stood firm in their faith as they had received it and finally their oppressors just metaphorically (but after much literal persecutions and even battles) “threw their hands up.”  In so many words they said, okay, keep your faith as long as you  pay your tribute…a kind of acquiescence reversal of Jesus’ words to “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s. 

View form our apartment looking out over
Mother Armenia Victory Park and Yerevan

And so the Armenians have this spirit of brave perseverance, as well as National pride that is greatly tied to their Christian identity and the fact that they are the first Christian nation, claiming Christianity in the year 301.  Through years of Soviet domination when anyone who wanted to have a decent job could not profess Christianity, they secretly observed the Sacraments.  Immediately after the Soviet Union’s downfall, they openly embraced the faith and began the monumental task of repairing their ancient churches and building magnificent new ones.  Tomorrow we visit Holy Etchmiadzin, the “Vatican” of the Armenian Apostolic Church, where we will have tours and I will meet with church officials.  The Mother Church of Armenia, Mayr Tacher is relatively small, but has its origins in the early 4^th century as the place St. Gregory the Illuminator, the patron saint of Armenia because he converted King Tradat to Christianity in 301, had a vision of Christ descending from heaven and telling him to build a church on this spot right in front of the King’s palace.  The connection of faith to the state has continued for centuries!

There are many beautiful things to see here.  More to come tomorrow with the visit to Holy Etchmiadzin and then, travelling in this amazing country to the sites outside of the city.

View from Apartment with contrasts of multi-million dollar homes

Pax and Cheers –or Genats as the Armenians say!

Another View

Fireworks over the city---seen from our apartment!

TOMORROW WE LEAVE THE CITY...GET READY FOR GREAT PICTURES OF BEAUTIFUL OLD CHURCHES AND SPECTACULAR SCENERY!