Back in town...

It was a long trip this one - 3 months in Australia. I really enjoyed it so much, there are definitely things about the old lifestyle that I miss - the pools, the beaches, the casual dress all around you, the non-smoking environment... it was also nice to spend so much time with relatives - here I have zero. I did learn during my trip that I have some distant relatives in Tblisi, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to get the information to track them down or not. While I was there I entertained thoughts of staying there - thoughts I always have when I go there, in fact thoughts I think most visitors to Australia seem to have. If it wasn't so far from everything else, and if it had more Armenians, the temptation would be greater. While I was there I did meet some Armenians, and while I was spending time with the Armenians I know they'd point out other Armenians they know in shops, cars, public transport... so I wonder how many there actually are there. I went to a friends birthday party where there were a good number of young Armenians and Australians. A young couple in Sydney who read my logs were nice enough to take me around one night. We dropped into their local agump and then headed to a new Armenian owned Lebanese restaurant which was reaaally good food. They've come to Armenia a few times, picked up a home here and have a solid plan to move here in a few years. It was good to meet some of the ppl there who do visit here, and are changing the old misconceptions about Armenia...

I'd like to share a lot more of my trip, but it was so long and I saw so much and met so many people, including fellow travellers... I'm afraid the post would go on forever. So I'll let the whole thing sink in a bit more and see if there are specific things that come to mind that I think would be interesting.

So arriving back to Yerevan without luggage for the first time after such a long flight was frustrating - though they assure me it will show up. I knew I shouldn't check it all the way to Armenia! To get to my apartment and find out I had no electricity was even worse... it was 5am and dark. No fun at all. Luckily the weather was warm, my gas heater was going regardless, and I had some candles. I figured I'd sort it out in the morning, but of course everybody knows March 8 is women's day right? And it's an actual day off! Well of course I didn't know (not that it would have made a difference) and that meant nothing could be done. So yesterday I found out why the electricity was turned off... I don't know if it's an official policy, but my electricty usage was zero one month and so they just shut it off in order to prevent power from being stolen by neighbors. In all the time I've been here I'd never heard of this, and I'm sure I've had zero usage before... but that was what they said.

Well it is good to be back, although things like the smoking are bugging me even more than usual. There are in fact some new smoking restrictions which came into effect this month, but those - and last years restrictions are being ignored, as there are no fines for breaking that law. I was just speachless when I read the quote of Vazgen Manukyan in RFE/RL last week saying that he was categorically against the non-smoking laws (as he puffed a cigarette), adding that anti-smoking campaigns can only work in Western democracies. Now this guy was almost president in 1996, and is still a reasonably big opposition figure. What an idiot.