I know this has nothing to do with Life in Armenia, but I had to post it. This is a new residential building that is being built in Malmo (Sweden). One of my brother-in-law's cousins is a big chief in the project. It's called the Turning Torso.

I made it back to Armenia in one piece, but not my luggage.

The main reason I went to Sweden was to take part in my niece’s baptism.

We had a great time in the small city of Malmo, where my brother-in-law is from, and where his family currently lives. The Armenian community in Malmo is very small, and most of my brother-in-law's family hangs out with the local Assyrians, which seem to have a greater population.

Returning yesterday, I first went to Copenhagen airport via the awesome bridge that connects Sweden with Denmark. Towards the end of the bridge, before reaching Denmark, the bridge turns into an underwater tunnel before making its first stop at Copenhagen airport.

In Vienna I was greeted by a friend, spent half a day there, and saw ugly parts of Vienna I had not seen before. I swear, one road completely reminded me of the road here in Yerevan that leads to the airport … you know where all those shacks are, close to the casinos and Malaysian furniture stores? Luckily, most of that area here is currently being torn down to build neater looking furniture stores.

Surprisingly, the flight to Yerevan took less than 3 hours. My one piece of luggage arrived all torn up. Usually I get my luggage wrapped up in that super expensive saran wrap, but I didn't have time to do that in Copenhagen. After reporting the damage, I finally got out of the airport 2 hours after I had arrived ... 6 in the morning. Unfortunately, the next day I found out that one of my friends had stayed up all night to surprise/pick me up, and was gone by the time I got out of the airport.

So, back in Armenia ... I just sat down at a café in Armenia, and got an update of what's been going on in Life in Armenia. Construction wise, the Swan Lake pond by the Opera is turning into a pool. Not sure what that means. The city has started cleaning up entrances and replacing entrance doors to many of the residential buildings around the city. (One of many complaints we usually hear from Diaspora Armenians.) Lighting up more streets and cleaning up residential building courtyards is also on the agenda.