The Yerevan Zoo

I am not talking about the actual zoo, which is worthy of its own post, I am talking about the streets here which are crawling with examples of Armenian youth from all over the world who have come for the pan-Armenian games. 150 (an entire plane full) came from the little community of Egypt alone! Vernissage was absolutely packed with tourists and I think prices have gone up a bit for the time being. Thats OK, I will do my shopping in February when the prices are quite low.

Anyways, I want to share a story from this evening which I will not forget soon. I was sitting at this nice little "Kilikia" bar on the corner of Mashdots and Amiryan eating a delicious beef stroganoff when I noticed this beggar woman going from table to table. At the table next to ours I saw the guy reach into his pocket and then tell her all he had was a 10 dollar bill equivalent (5,000 dram) and I thought to myself it is pretty harsh to tell a beggar that, and stopped paying attention as a moment later she left. A few minutes later she returned... he had given her the 5,000 dram to go off with and make change so that he could give her some change! When I thought about it I was not at all surprised at her honesty, I have come to expect and depend on that here, but I was still surprised that he didn't just use the excuse that he didn't have change and leave it at that.