Having had very little sleep on the trip so far, I slept pretty late the next morning. The first order of business was to get breakfast, so I walked to Artbridge Cafe and Books. I saw a foursquare recommendation for the French toast, and the recommendation is for a good reason. It's amazing! I also tried the Armenian coffee. It is like Turkish coffee, but not quite as sweet, served in little cups. You need to be careful not to drink to the bottom, because this becomes a heavy slurry of coffee grounds. It's kind of weird if you drink it, because then there's no coffee to wash away the grit. I didn't quite get the hang of it the first time, so I had to order another one. This nearly led to a third (just because I liked it so much), but I had to stop there.
I walked into the city center, along a different route than I'd taken during the previous day's explorations. There was some sort of TV news interview taking place on the sidewalk, which was kind of cool. My route led me to a central traffic circle, which is the official city center. It is ringed by the Marriott (dingy and badly in need of updating--I'm really glad I didn't stay there), the central government, the central post office, and the Armenian history museum. The whole square has free Wi-Fi and some really nice fountains. Since the museum was open and I didn't know much about Armenian history, I went inside.
One exhibit (a "special exhibit") is for free, and this was the most interesting exhibit at the museum. It covered the pre-Christianity times of Armenia, dating back the Stone Age. Most of this time, the country has been variously occupied by the region's great powers. Armenians worshiped Greek and Roman gods before Christian times, which was surprising to me, and a lot of Roman-era history has been well-preserved. The museum is really very well done, and the entrance fee (should you wish to see the whole thing) is about $1. Also, like many other government services in Armenia, the museum is open on Sundays!
I then stopped by the post office to buy stamps. If you go to Yerevan, I really recommend a visit, if not to buy stamps, just to see the building. It's absolutely incredible, and is built in a style more reminiscent of a cathedral than something as mundane as a post office. There are gorgeous stained glass pieces and to top it all off, the mailing rates are reasonable and they even have EMS service. Open 7 days a week!
One travel rule I follow is that five-star Western hotels always have free, Western-style toilets with working plumbing. If you just walk into a property like you own the place then everyone assumes you are staying there if you're a foreigner (this works especially well in places where I "look" foreign and where there aren't so many foreigners). The Marriott did, in fact, have working plumbing, but I was surprised how dingy and run-down the facilities are. The hotel is badly in need of updating and a poor value at rates near $200 per night.
I had overheard some Americans talking to each other about a nearby market so I set off to find it, finally getting directions from a friendly Armenian who made me a delicious smoothie from fresh raspberries, yogurt, milk and ice at a ridiculously low price. Yerevan has a subway line, and the market was near the Metro station. I normally avoid flea markets of this type but I really wanted to buy a T-shirt stylized like the Armenian flag (similar to the type that all the kids performing had been wearing the previous day), and figured that of all places, the market might have one. They didn't, but there was a ton of old Soviet-era stuff, everything from multiple volumes of regulatory tomes in the Russian language to medal collections.
After the market, I wanted to cool off--temperatures were pushing 95 degrees in Yerevan. It doesn't actually feel that hot in the shade (there is a dramatic difference) due to the elevation. Where is a good place to cool off? The subway, which provides natural air conditioning! Yerevan has a subway with one line, which is similar in construction and design to the Pyongyang metro (which I have also ridden). It's really uncanny how similar--stations look much the same, the subway cars are nearly identical, and it's unbelievably deep (which was probably done so the subway could double as a bomb shelter in the days prior to bunker-busting nukes). The subway cars are spotless, and so are the stations. Everything is well maintained and in perfect working order. Most signage is in Armenian and Russian, but some is only in Russian. There is a very slight bow to capitalism since there were discreet Nescafe ads on the train, but--like Beijing--only minimal advertising seems to be tolerated on the subway.
I don't know Yerevan well, so I took the train all the way to the end of the line. This dropped me nowhere in particular, so I followed a main street downhill for no reason other than it was downhill and that was easier walking. Random discoveries are one of my most favorite things to do when traveling and to my delight, I was able to see many more beautiful murals that are painted on the entrance to communities. These, as you may recall, consist of multi-story apartment buildings organized in a square with a large courtyard in the middle. To enter the community, you walk through "portals" on each side, and these are decorated with some of the most beautiful, artistic murals you'll ever see. This one was my favorite:
Finally, I came to the end of the road. It was a bridge over a river. There was a staircase leading down, but it was covered in trash and the farther down I got, the more it smelled like sewage. In the shadows, some sketchy guy under the bridge kept sneaking around pillars to peer at me from the darkness. And then I noticed the giant pipes with a rushing sound and fetid drip: it was the sewage outfall for the city of Yerevan. No wonder the locals were surprised I'd visit! Obviously this wasn't a riverfront I wanted to see, so I headed back upstairs. I was really tired after so much walking and wanted to catch a cab back--but not just
any cab. It had to be a special one, but just then, one made a U-turn at the bridge. It was my lucky day, and after a bit of negotiation to explain the destination (I don't speak Armenian or Russian which makes most things difficult), I was on my way in a Lada!
I'd never ridden in a Lada before, and the experience is awesome. They rattle and shake and sputter and just keep running no matter what. The fuel quality in Yerevan is absolutely terrible (fuel comes from Dubai and Iran), even worse than Chinese fuel. Because of this, Russian LADA cars are popular. The design of the
LADA Riva is simple, and basically didn't change for 40 years until production was phased out in 2012. These cars are absolute tanks, will run on anything (it's said they will even run on vodka if that's all you have), and you see them everywhere in Armenia.
It was time for dinner, so I grabbed a sandwich at the local shop and walked up the famous Yerevan Cascade. I will save the details for another post.