I just simply love tourists!
I write that down 100 times each day to remind myself that I love this interesting breed of human beings--or should I say hybrid humans. This species is interesting: It likes to walk around Yerevan a lot, stopping unannounced to look at high stone buildings, whip out a camera, and take a photo of an arch, a broken window, or the the delapitated balcony. Then, putting the camera into its case, shaking his/her head in disbelief:
"What is it, dear tourist?"
"It's just beautiful!"
"What is beautiful?"
"The broken window."
"Huh?"
Yep, that's a typical conversation you'll hear at every corner of this city this week, and many more weeks to come into the Indian Summer that Armenia tends to experience.
All joking aside, tourists have taken over Yerevan, and there is not a more beautiful sight than seeing Armenians of all colors and stripes interacting with one another--or not. Thousands of tourists are here--so much so, that flights in and out of Armenia are on average 10% overbooked according to travel agencies. No chance of getting into or out of this country, especially this month!
This tourist issue is a sensitive one for me, because I seemed to host half of them in my house over the last month. Every room of my apartment was home 2 out of towners. At one point last week 7 people, with 3 different groups were staying at my house. It was enjoyable, and it would have been more enjoyable, if I didn't have to wake up at 7 a.m. each morning to go to work. But, nonetheless, summer holidays are in high gear in Armenia--and that's just the way we like it, except that all of the "repats" have a sudden yearning for late November/early December winter days (if you can believe it?), because that's when we actually get to see one another and spend quality time with each other.
I, too, went to the opening ceremonies of the Pan-Armenian Games, and I must say what great pride I had to watch all of the teams enter the stadium from various locales of the world, celebrating the simple fact that they share a cultural heritage that has brought them here to compete in athletics. Particularly proud moments were when Armenian enclaves from Africa, Javakhk, the whole of Karabakh showed up, wearing their uniforms and carrying their flags. What a sight to see!
On the concern that my fellow loggers have expressed about the low number of participants from various, traditionally Armenian populous cities in the world, I tend to think that quality supercedes quantity. So, perhaps the two Montreal athletes will mark great victories. But, it was indeed quite visible that middle eastern, and generally east of euope communities were better represented at the opening ceremonies.
The program was extremely well organized, and the few mishaps, I'm sure, are part of such large events, except when we watch the international Olypmics we get a filtered view from the camera operator's perspective, and not the raw event. In any event, a job well done by the organizers!
I have to concur with Der Hova on the airport situation. I've made about nine trips to the ariport in the last 2 months, and the level of aggravation seemse to be climbing with each visit. It's high time that people are held accountable for some of the happenings at Zvartnots International.
Cheers!
I write that down 100 times each day to remind myself that I love this interesting breed of human beings--or should I say hybrid humans. This species is interesting: It likes to walk around Yerevan a lot, stopping unannounced to look at high stone buildings, whip out a camera, and take a photo of an arch, a broken window, or the the delapitated balcony. Then, putting the camera into its case, shaking his/her head in disbelief:
"What is it, dear tourist?"
"It's just beautiful!"
"What is beautiful?"
"The broken window."
"Huh?"
Yep, that's a typical conversation you'll hear at every corner of this city this week, and many more weeks to come into the Indian Summer that Armenia tends to experience.
All joking aside, tourists have taken over Yerevan, and there is not a more beautiful sight than seeing Armenians of all colors and stripes interacting with one another--or not. Thousands of tourists are here--so much so, that flights in and out of Armenia are on average 10% overbooked according to travel agencies. No chance of getting into or out of this country, especially this month!
This tourist issue is a sensitive one for me, because I seemed to host half of them in my house over the last month. Every room of my apartment was home 2 out of towners. At one point last week 7 people, with 3 different groups were staying at my house. It was enjoyable, and it would have been more enjoyable, if I didn't have to wake up at 7 a.m. each morning to go to work. But, nonetheless, summer holidays are in high gear in Armenia--and that's just the way we like it, except that all of the "repats" have a sudden yearning for late November/early December winter days (if you can believe it?), because that's when we actually get to see one another and spend quality time with each other.
I, too, went to the opening ceremonies of the Pan-Armenian Games, and I must say what great pride I had to watch all of the teams enter the stadium from various locales of the world, celebrating the simple fact that they share a cultural heritage that has brought them here to compete in athletics. Particularly proud moments were when Armenian enclaves from Africa, Javakhk, the whole of Karabakh showed up, wearing their uniforms and carrying their flags. What a sight to see!
On the concern that my fellow loggers have expressed about the low number of participants from various, traditionally Armenian populous cities in the world, I tend to think that quality supercedes quantity. So, perhaps the two Montreal athletes will mark great victories. But, it was indeed quite visible that middle eastern, and generally east of euope communities were better represented at the opening ceremonies.
The program was extremely well organized, and the few mishaps, I'm sure, are part of such large events, except when we watch the international Olypmics we get a filtered view from the camera operator's perspective, and not the raw event. In any event, a job well done by the organizers!
I have to concur with Der Hova on the airport situation. I've made about nine trips to the ariport in the last 2 months, and the level of aggravation seemse to be climbing with each visit. It's high time that people are held accountable for some of the happenings at Zvartnots International.
Cheers!
posted by Alex at 11:46 AM
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