"Bucket Day"
Eh, it's good to be back... The red-eye flight back to Armenia was packed - almost half of it with a huge group of older ethnic immigrants to Britain who were Christian tourists. I was the only one who by some miracle got my own row of seats, but since it was only a 4.5 hour flight and included a meal, I only got maybe an hour of sleep anyway.
Back in Yerevan Sunday morning I finally made it out of the house in the afternoon, and it was scorching hot. As I walked to meet my friends for lunch, I noticed puddles everywhere, and wondered how I could not have noticed rain... but was still too tired to think about it. As I got next door to the restaurant, the explanation for the puddles came when a huge bottle of water was poured onto me... in an instant I realized it was Vartivar (bucket day - when people, mostly kids spend the day pouring buckets of water onto anyone who can't outrun them or plead their way out of it)... I ducked in to the restaurant to see some of the battle had made it inside, but it was still relatively safe. After eating we headed to Rep. Square which we assumed would be the hot spot, and were surprised that nothing was going on... so we got someone ourselves and were immediately approached by a policeman who said Republic Square was off limits - and he hoped this didn't upset us. It didn't (though it amused me that there was such a "safe" zone and I have to wonder why). From there we literally battled our way to the Opera then Cascades, everyone getting repeatedly drenched along the way... and doing some drenching back... it was quite a day, and as usual, the sidewalks were quite quiet as most people decided to stay out of the war zone.
Last night was a big event at the Cascades which the Armenian Assembly put on for the 4th of July, and today is Constitution Day in Armenia, so it's a holiday.
Back in Yerevan Sunday morning I finally made it out of the house in the afternoon, and it was scorching hot. As I walked to meet my friends for lunch, I noticed puddles everywhere, and wondered how I could not have noticed rain... but was still too tired to think about it. As I got next door to the restaurant, the explanation for the puddles came when a huge bottle of water was poured onto me... in an instant I realized it was Vartivar (bucket day - when people, mostly kids spend the day pouring buckets of water onto anyone who can't outrun them or plead their way out of it)... I ducked in to the restaurant to see some of the battle had made it inside, but it was still relatively safe. After eating we headed to Rep. Square which we assumed would be the hot spot, and were surprised that nothing was going on... so we got someone ourselves and were immediately approached by a policeman who said Republic Square was off limits - and he hoped this didn't upset us. It didn't (though it amused me that there was such a "safe" zone and I have to wonder why). From there we literally battled our way to the Opera then Cascades, everyone getting repeatedly drenched along the way... and doing some drenching back... it was quite a day, and as usual, the sidewalks were quite quiet as most people decided to stay out of the war zone.
Last night was a big event at the Cascades which the Armenian Assembly put on for the 4th of July, and today is Constitution Day in Armenia, so it's a holiday.
posted by Raffi K. at 9:36 AM
3 Comments:
Wow, the square being off limits to water throwers.... That's a first! Last year it definitely was not off limits, as I found out by experience ;-)
Some photos of Vardavar available at:
http://onnik.blogspot.com/2005/07/vardavar.html
I remember being there last year at this time just before our wedding. My cousin Chris and I decided to take a bike tour out of Yerevan and we were completely drenched by sneaky little boys coming out of alleys for the whole day. Luckily it was a swelteringly hot day and the water was usually refreshing if it was cold and clean, and that was pretty rare.
cheers
Haig
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