Finally the restaurant all us expats have been hearing about for over a year has opened. On opening night I was actually blackmailed by one individual to not say anything bad about the restaurant in my infamous dining reviews, but everyone knows that I'm quite direct about my opinions when it comes to dining in Armenia.
The menu is simple, yet perfect with a variety of different North American foods. Both Sam and Stepan (the big honchos of Square One) are 100% willing to tweak their service and presentation of their foods, and I can truly say that this is the only place in Yerevan that really makes an effort to satisfy its customers.
Artbridge, which over the past couple of years has transformed from a popular "expat" hangout into a "locals and some expats" hangout, is going to face some major competition with Square One, mostly due to bigger portions, which also cost less than Artbridge foods.
Bravo to Sam and Stepan for all their hard work. Square One is guaranteed to be a success.
Moving on, for the past 2 years I've asked so many people to accompany me on a trip to Tiflis (Tbilisi, Georgia.) Everyone has refused, due to fear of getting mugged or killed. (After independence, many people have labeled Georgia as a dangerous country for tourists.)
Last week I found out that one of my friends was going to go on a short business trip to Tiflis, so I decided to take the opportunity to go see the place where so many great Armenian artists were originally from (including one of my favourite musicians ... Sayat Nova.)
We took a taxi, along with an annoying Yezidi couple who sat in the back seat of the car with me. They demanded frequent stops extending our trip to 6 hours. Contrary to the stories I've heard about the bad Georgian highway after crossing the border, most of it had already been paved, and I would say that 80% of the roads from the border to Tiflis were clear. The sight of many Turkish trucks crossing the border into Armenia was quite sad. The first big town, after crossing the border, is an Azeri town, where there are many buses heading to Baku, and Muslim women walking around with their heads covered.
For a long time now, I've read and seen so many pictures and tv specials about Tiflis, and with the great interest I have in architecture, I was really looking forward to seeing and experiencing the cosmopolitan capital of the Caucasus.
Entering Tiflis I was quite shocked by the size of the city. Tiflis is big, very green, and beautiful in many ways.
I don't want to make this a super-long log, so I'll write my observations in point form, naturally comparing Tiflis with Yerevan, and Georgians with Armenians:
-Contrast in attire ... adult Georgian men are quite sloppy dressers, and most wear jeans. I think I saw only one man wearing pointy black shoes, and I'm quite sure he was Armenian. Younger Georgian guys dress much more hip than local Armenians. Armenian girls are much more risky with what they wear compared to Georgian girls. (No one in Georgia wears pink, orange or baby blue from head-to-toe like they do in Armenia.)
-Most local Armenians in Armenia are fluent in both Russian and Armenian. They also know at least a little bit of conversational English. The new generation of Georgians seem to know ONLY Georgian, and surprisingly quite a few words and phrases in Armenian, which they have learned from Armenian friends. They hate Russia and anything to do with the Russian race. I approached many young people on the streets trying to find an internet cafe, and sadly the majority couldn't even respond with a single word in English.
-I only found one internet cafe in all of Tiflis. Yerevan has at least one at every intersection.
-Georgian teens seem to like drugs a lot, especially ecstasy. Not to say drug use doesn't exist in our race/culture, but it's not as common ... Thank God.
-Most of the entertainment industry in Tiflis shuts down for the summer, and moves over to Batumi on the Black Sea coast. This, along with the fact that the city layout is quite spread out and without public transportation tourists can't get anywhere, and also the fact that English is barely spoken or understood, and most stores are named only in Georgian, does not make Tiflis a tourist friendly destination. Yerevan, though smaller in size, is much more perfect for tourists in my opinion. Tamanyan's city plan is truly ideal in many ways. Kentron (Yerevan's center) has hotels, cafes, restaurants, theaters, the Opera House, embassies, shopping, internet cafes, and more. It is safe, and you can walk to just about anywhere in less than 20 minutes. Our stores are usually titled in both Armenian and English (or sometimes Russian.) And most locals seem to know at least a few words in English.
-On the other hand, Tiflis architecture is truly beautiful. The river running through the city definitely gives it a lot of character. The old buildings that have been preserved so well, the new architecture that compliment old buildings, the lush green trees covering the entire city, all make this a typical beautiful European-like city. The detail in the architecture is gorgeous. The new residential buildings that are usually around 20 stories are simple, yet unique, painted in different bright colours, and not flat like most of the new residential buildings in Yerevan. The center of Tiflis also has at least a dozen visible churches. A new awesome and very detailed Georgian monastery is also being built in one of the Armenian sections of the center, and when finished is supposed to be the biggest Orthodox monastery in the world. (Sorry if this offends anyone, but our St. Gregory the Illuminator monastery is extremely boring and uninviting. I've always said that they should have at least rebuilt Zvartnots Temple in its place.)
-Tiflis, like Yerevan, has a major street dog issue, but they're dogs sound much more scarier than ours. They sort of sound as mean as Georgians talking.
-The center of Tiflis has something that we used to have, and I'm so thankful to our government for getting rid of ... casinos.
-Georgian pop music is definitely more original and hip than our pop music, but definitely lacks Georgian culture. As much as I hate most of our current pop music, at least we Armenians use our ethnic musical instruments in our music, which is very original.
On this trip, we came across so many people that spoke Armenian and/or were Armenian. Taxi drivers that were either Yezidi, Kurd or Georgian that spoke fluent Armenian. Young Georgian DJ's I met up with who knew "Axper djan, vonts es?", as well as some rude, though funny, Armenian poetry. One of the hotel workers was really excited when she noticed my friends Armenian last name. She was Armenian, and I chatted with her for over half an hour about the living conditions of Armenians in Tiflis. I visited the two Armenian churches in the old section of Tiflis, and the people I met there were so excited to meet someone from Yerevan. They kept asking how Yerevan is, and saying how much they would like to move to Armenia one day, and so on. (Very typical Armenian diaspora conversations.) One man ended up inviting us to his home in one of the Armenian communities in Tiflis. We drank, had dinner, and watermelon for hours. Meeting the Armenians of Tiflis was definitely one of the highlights of my trip.
I also had my dose of American culture ... twice (at both McDonald's restaurants in Tiflis.)
My friend and I came back with a BMW taxi within 4 hours. On the way, we drove through northern Armenia's Alaverdi and Ijevan cities. Both are beautiful towns (I don't know if they would be considered cities anymore) which have so much potential to develop into awesome relaxing tourist spots one day. (Yerevan has received way too much attention and credit over the past few years.) Actually, this year Sevan has become a very very popular hot spot for both locals and tourists. Resorts are popping up all over the north-western coast of the lake.
One day I would like to see Armenia's architects voice their concerns for stricter laws on the look of new construction in this country. A project to clean up and preserve old buildings would also be a good idea. I know Tiflis has a richer history than Yerevan, but there's no decent excuse to demolish the old section of Yerevan, and to not take advantage of its existence and beauty. (By the way, the newest trend in Armenia is buildings covered in glass.)
One sad experience in Tiflis was seeing the sign of a gun with a red line crossed through it, and being frisked just to enter an outdoor cafe. At that point I remembered how many times this past month I have walked over to one of our many beautiful cafes in Yerevan 2 in the morning, not worrying about being mugged. (Those damn dogs that stole my bread is another issue.
See my July 29 log. )
