Yerevan Journals

Welcomed by Storks - Three Days in Yerevan

A May 2006 trip to Yerevan by fizzytom

Mother Armenia, Yerevan Photo - Yerevan, Armenia

Quote: A whistle stop tour of the sights and sounds - historic and contemporary - of the scenic Armenian capital city.

2 Photos

Mother Armenia - Watching over Yerevan

Story/Tip

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Mother Armenia is a giant statue that watches over the city from Victory Park; basically she is the female personification of Armenia. In Armenian the statue is known as "Mayr Hayastan". In it's place used to be a stature of Stalin, but, for obvious reasons it was removed and replaced with this statue 1967.The statue was designed by Ara Harutyunyan depicts Mother Armenia holding a sword; this is said to reflect the high standing of the matriarch figure in Armenian families and also to commemorate some of the notable women who have taken up arms in clashes with Turkish troops.An architect, Raphael Israelian, designed the pedestal that the statue stands on. This was designed to r...Read More

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Homestay - Anahit Avedisyan

Hotel

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Ideally located for the centre of Yerevan - just over the road from the Opera House, Anahit's lovely apartment should be a fantastic place to stay.

It's cheap - US$18 a night for a two sharing, it's clean and comfortable, and it's very attractive.

However, Anahit can be quite over bearing; you've just sat on the toilet and she starts calling you; you've come back mid-afternoon for a quick nap and she's calling you; you take a chair onto the balcony to enjoy a cold beer and she's calling you.

You're always doing something wrong, and when you aren't you're worrying that you might be. She says you are welcome to use the kitchen but then she wants to supervise you. She says you can have hot water but she never switches it on. In the three nights we stayed there we never had a hot shower. She has a washing machine but it's swathed in plastic sheeting and you somehow get the idea nobody ever gets to use it even though she tells you that you may. You must take off your shoes at the door which is fair enough but you slide every where on the polished floors; incidentally we witnessed her giving the cleaner a hard when she was on her hands and knees waxing the floor; Anahit is extremely particular, not least when it comes to the opening of windows when her views change daily - you will never get this right.

That said, her apartment is very beautiful and full of paintings done by her father who is even exhibited in Armenia's National gallery.

There are two rooms available; one has two singles and bags of room; the other is also large and has a fold out couch and a bed.

Our final hassle with Anahit concerned her giving us our change; she said she would give it to us when she got some change. In the end we had to ask for it. First she denied all knowledge, then she said we did not want the change anyway otherwise we would have said. We explained that British people do not like to ask and then she told us that we had "closed the deal" and we had agreed the price. A firm stance and a threat not to return her key saw her fetch the change.

Anahit's English tends to deteriorate when you ask her something she doesn't want to answer. Her place is nice but try others first and Anahit's as a last resort if you want to be in this part of town. Read Less

Member Rating 2 out of 5 on May 12, 2007

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Genocide Memorial and Museum

Attraction

Quote:

Although they can be very jovial indeed when it comes to a party, the Armenians are by and large a fairly melancholy people. There are two main reasons behind this melancholy. The first is that their sacred Mount Ararat, the mountain that symbolises so much of the nation's history, now lies in Turkey and they can only see its magnificent snow-capped peak from behind a closed border. The fact that the border is closed brings me to the second reason for the pervading sadness of Armenians: the tense relationship with Turkey is due to a massive event that few people are aware of. In 1915 over one and a half million Armenians were murdered in a genocide that took place within the Ottoman Empire at hands of...Read More