Hey all,
So, since I don't always update my blog everyday, I figured that I would do it twice today!!! HOORAY!!!
Well, today after walking around a bit, I decided to go to Old Goris, it's on a hill and it's very nice - there is this gorgeous cemetery overlooking the old city. It's up this big hill with all these caves at the top. According to the locals, the caves have been inhabited since the 5th century. Of course, I'm assuming they don't mean that they are inhabited now... However, I didn't walk to the back and there is at least a 50/50 chance that someone is living there...
While up there, I climbed up this really steep hill and remembered a VERY important lesson from my childhood. You know when you see a cat in a tree and you think 'stupid cat, why the hell did it climb up there when it couldn't come back down?' Well, today I became the stupid cat. As I was admiring the view, it suddenly struck me that it would be a lot more difficult to climb back down that it was to go up. At first, it was a lot of ankle-breaking rocks. I figured if I managed to scramble down those it would be fine. Not a bad assumption, but not totally correct; mostly because there were these jumps that I would need to make on to wet rock. That was fun. Especially when I suddenly discovered that the wet rock was more like really really hard mud, sometimes with the consistancy of mud, sometimes with rock. A solid 20 minutes later, backpack and all, I cleared most of the rocks, ankles intact and relatively clean. Then came the next surprise; cow shit. I'd normally call these big piles of steaming cow dung, but they weren't really steaming because of the rain, they were just big piles of cow dung. Also, when you're climbing up a hill, it's a lot easier to see things because they pass your eyes on the way up; not so on the way down. Another lesson learned. Well, by some miracle of God, I managed to make it all the way down with not only all my joints working BUT also my clothes pretty much free of cow dung. Score. But the view was worth it.
After that, I figured I would reward myself with a little something to eat. However, I had a little surprise waiting for me. I actually couldn't find a restaurant in the village. I searched and entered one place called 'cafe' - the uninspiring name pretty much matched the service (a COMPLETE reversal from what is normally in Armenia) - the lady asked if I wanted a menu, I said yes, and she promptly threw a menu written completely in Armenian in front of me (incidently, it's a 39 letter alphabet with no similar letters to English or Russian). Well, it wasn't all in Armenian, the vodka, beer and cigarette menus were all in English as well. Since they only had chicken, cutlets or meat sandwiches, I decided to find another place. I ended up having some self-made sandwiches and pirozhok - kinda like deep fried potatoes. On the whole it was good.
The road to Tatev is incredible. Up a mountain, down a mountain, up another mountain - absolutely incredible!!! Especially when the back door opened and we started losing equipment out the back - that was a bit of a shock, and then we got a flat (again, nerve-wracking!!!). We topped the second mountain, had a great view and then I went to the place where I'm staying tonight. My landlady might just be the nicest person in this country - we sat down, she helped me to do my laundry (more than a little necessary since I've already gone through all my clothes... and some more than once...), we had tea, some more food as well, she asked me if I wanted dinner or just breakfast and then we ended up talking for about an hour. Super super nice!!! But... that's kind of to be expected by now. ))
I went for a little walk, saw the monastery with some incredible views and took a few pictures. The fog was pretty thick, so I couldn't see much, but it opened for me just for a minute - gorgeous!!!
As a little aside, I think you would all be happy to know that the first Christian nation also had the first communist revolution. Apparently there was a heretic following around this monastery that flourished from the 7th until about the 9th centuries CE. Peasants rebelled several times and one time even sacked the fortress (killing several monks) before being ruthlessly put down by the king. Their demands?? An end of the church's power (they had atheist beliefs) and the establishment of a system of class equality. And you thought Lenin was revolutionary.
Hope you're all well!!
A
