This is probably not in order, but wanted to show what we saw on one of our bus rides. For those of you living in, maybe Colorado or Montana, this may be “normal” for you. But seeing this on any of our Florida streets would be very out of the ordinary.
We were at some monastery, where they kept Christian Gregory, who had been thrown into this pit because he was Christian. When the pagan king became ill he prayed to his pagan Gods to heal him, which did not work. His sister convinced him to ask Gregory to heal him. He went to the pit where he had thrown Gregory into 17 years prior and was surprised Gregory was still alive. Apparently the king’s sister had been keeping him alive all this while. When the king got healed by Gregory, he decided to become Christian and the entire kingdom moved from paganism to Christian. I suspect many, many people were not ready or happy to move to Christianism, but the current people act like it was a done-deal and for the best.
Gregory was revered as the start of Christianity in Armenia and is on many of the icons in the churches.
Lynn, Tom and I climbed down into the pit. The photo is of the top and the ladder that was very narrow and straight up and down. It was quite a task to climb down.
But we made it. The place was quite small and I wonder how Gregory lived there all those years without going insane. I am happy to report I had no queasy feelings of claustrophobia. (Maybe because I knew if I had to, I could fight everyone and climb my way out of there.)
Th point of that ladder went through a hole and out into the church as seen in the photo above.
I saw this all over Armenia. These pipes are water and gas. Instead of underground, they are above the ground and just go up and over the roads.
Another view of our tram ride “Wings of Tatev”, that whisked us high over the river gorge to Tatev Monastery.
Most churches were made of limestone or sandstone and were very tall and cold and without seating.
Tom and visited these two rooms on our free time. I came out and asked for a photo of me pretending to hit the bell. As I did so, at the exact same time the real church bell rang loudly and scared the crap out of me. Then I proceeded to pretend to ring it 12 more times, because it was noon. Tom has those photos. I presume I’ll never see them.
These were some of the things we saw in these buildings. I liked the idea of the angel wings and their description. Also love to see old doors. Sadly, some of the old doors of the apartments I rented out looked almost as bad as and old as these.
I was enamored with the collapsed church bricks and the rose garden. Mother Nature survives all.
When I get bored at some of these places, I put my camera to MACRO mode and take photos two inches from the subject. What’s hilarious is that one day, I’m going to get stung! I had no idea there was a bug inches from my nose until I looked at the photo once I got on the bus.
Silliness at the top of a mountain. It doesn’t look bad …. except for my shoulders sticking out both sides of the thing.
Another typical lunch. There was always water — still and gas (meaning normal water or with bubbles) and the salads. But this photo is to show the furniture. So interesting. Again, this was outdoors with a roof.
Every place we went we were told “We can drink our water from our taps; but your tummies might not be strong enough, so don’t drink tap water.” Some people were under the illusion that if you boil the water for coffee in their hotpots, it would be sterilized. But I believe you need to boil the water for three minutes. Luckily I never had an stomach problems on this trip.
Poor Alice did, however, and stayed on the bus to throw up while we were shopping for the woodworking and ceramic stuff.
I am always grateful to remain healthy on these trips.
More scenery. The blue stripes are the metal guardrails. And I was always happy they were there.
I could tell you how much electricity is generated from coal and how much from a good carbon-footprint source. But I don’t remember.
This was a caravanserai on the Selim Pass, a building thousands of years old, used to house overnight not only the people traveling on the Silk Road, but their animals too. It was dark and cold with a stone floor inside. Animals were housed inside also! I can imagine the smell!
in Medieval times, people traveled what was called the Silk Road from Asia to Europe selling and trading their wares of silk, precious metals, salt, and they needed a place to sleep during their travels.
The three neat piles of ‘bricks’ off the road in this town, Sila, our tour guide, called something like growth soil. But I asked “Is it manure?” and the answer was yes. Again — the smell must be bad in the summer. I hope they wear gloves when they make the bricks!
We stopped at a medieval Noratus Cemetery and used the bathroom of this woman’s shop. I used the bathroom and then made sure to give her free of a dram, worth 40 cents $US. She told Sira something which I thought was “I am impressed with the honesty of Americans.” But what she was saying was “Wow, I like her eyelashes.” Too funny.
I had to buy something from her but I can crochet myself what she had for sale. So I chose the tiniest little pink baby slippers. My travel mates knew I had no grandkids and wondered what I would do with them. I explained I had a shoe collection and I adored little baby shoes, and it made sense to them. I also bought a beautiful black pashmina for $15 US.
I always love walking through a cemetery and enjoyed it immensely. Beyond these stones was another cemetery with newer gravestones.
We had a photo stop to see the largest lake in Armenia, Lake Sevan. Those were mountains in the background.
Yes more food. Plates of tomato/cucumber salad, meats and cheese, pickles, including baby corn, different breads, chips and hummus, green beans, olives. After all this, soup and then a meat entrée. And I remember a delicious chocolate brownie and ice cream for dessert.
This is my room in Diljan. We didn’t get into it until 9:30 PM and had to leave at 8 am. It was a shame we couldn’t stay a couple days to enjoy it!!
All I could get on the TV was a documentary of Shania Twain’s rise to fame. I stayed up late to get the goods on what really happened when her husband left her for her best friend. I listened the entire hour and then it ended!! — at the point she married her manager and they lived happily ever after. The show stopped before all the trauma happened. The next morning I had to have Lynn Google it to see if it really was Shania. Sadly, it was.
I love a balcony on vacation, since I sit out there first thing in the morning with my steaming instant coffee and write in my trip journal and enjoy it!! Beautiful view from mine.
I took a walk in the early morning and knew this was a bakery (from the wheat on the sides of the doors) and the wonderful aroma of bread and rolls!! M-m-m-m! And another little shop I would have perused if it hadn’t been 7:30 AM. The city was sorely missing good sidewalks, however.
Free breakfast!! What a spread. Again, too bad we weren’t here longer.
This was my view of the lobby as I was coming down in the glass elevator. I love it!!
These buildings are old Russian buildings on Sharambeyan Street They are home to woodworkers and ceramic artists. Sira bought us each a cat magnet from here and presented them to us at our last lunch.
The wooden chain was made the the woodworker’s father. It is made out of one piece of wood!!
Again, they are very proud of their alphabet and these were carved out of walnut and other type of wood.
On the way to Georgia, we saw the river, some of the areas where factories have been shut down and beautiful scenery.
This is gthe Haghpat Monastery, another UNESCO site. It was a major center of learning in the Middle Ages.
Don’t know when this tradition started, but some young kids were taking up the challenge to walk on that little ledge from one end to the other while holding on to the little holes in the wall. I guess it’s their form of our U.S. Rock Climbing.
I felt like God was shining his light upon me. Almost all the churches have holes in the ceiling to provide light.
Sira, our last day with her. She was a hoot. When Diana and Alice were constantly laughing about anything and everything, Sira began to relax and have fun with our group. By the end of the trip on the bus, she was giving us all the scoop on Armenian ways, from abortions, to birth control, divorce, insurance. She kept saying, “I’ll explain this to you because you probably want to know.”
Years ago, they used to abort many, many baby girls until the government stepped in and would not allow ultrasounds to be performed until it was past the time a woman could abort.
Sira’s mother was a police woman for many years and raised Sira from age 13, I think. So woman have quite a bit of freedom here, as opposed to Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, etc.
This was a narthex, which is an antechamber, a room before you enter the actual church and altar. Every church in the country had one. It was for women, who were not allowed inside the church and others not allowed inside for other reasons.
Note the grave stones as the floor of the church.
This was important because there is only one other religious cross where they actually depict and person on the cross.
This may have been where they kept wine. But they were all dry and were used to hide important money, jewelry and doctrines from the enemy. Be careful not to fall into any of them.
I love this picture. Everything is serene, muted or green …. and then you get the Ugly Americans in oranges and blues, stripes and puffy coats smack dab in the center.
There are no photos of our trek at the border of Armenia and entrance into Georgia. (I learned my lesson when I took a photo of a guard in Tanzania, and he got on our van and insisted I delete his photo from my phone. Of course I did so!!)
We pulled up to the the border crossing, got off the bus, leaving all our stuff on it, stood in line to show our passports. We all passed, then we took all our stuff and luggage off the wonderful cushy, spacious van and had to walk through a building and out the back. There were stairs, but we all had our large suitcases.
Lynn and Butch have a travel systems. They take only one suitcase for the two of them, and a large carry-on. The carry-on hangs on the back of Butch’s wheelchair, Butch holds and pulls the big suitcase next to him and Lynn pushes the wheelchair. We encountered a ramp, with stainless steel guardrails so steep that Butch suggested Lynn go down backwards. She did! But the weight of the wheelchair, the carry-on, and Butch was so heavy and the ramp so steep that Lynn could not stop it and they all began sliding down the ramp. I let go of my suitcase and started running down the steps on the outside of the guardrail. By the time I got to them, two other strangers ran to the rescue. I took the carry-on which weighed about 40 pounds and we got them safely down the ramp. Sheesh!!
It was then we met Nick, our Georgia Tour Guide.
This was Tom’s view from one of our hotels. I’m sure he was important; and I don’t care why.
In Georgia, we were in this hotel for 3 days, then went to Tsinandali for one night and back here for another 2 nights. Very fancy. Loved the desk and the space.
Yes, they had a scale, which I bravely got on. Ha!! Always happy to see only 2 additional pounds after three-meals-a-day for weeks!!
OH! And the shower floor was like an ice rink when wet. I cannot believe people haven’t broken their necks!!
More to come!! (yes, more food and more churches, but interesting just the same.)