Warm As Toasts

October 2024

Gyumri and the Black Fortress

Today the rain had cleared in Gyumri, a small city in northwestern Armenia, and the temperature dropped to really bloody cold. Overnight it was minus 2, and it didn't rise much above 10 during the day.

But the rain had also cleaned the air, and the views were crisp and clear.

After a slow start, I slowly wandered through town.

The beautiful Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God, on the edge of the main square, Vardanants Square. The cathedral was actually full of Christian devotees, lighting candles, touching walls and statues with their hands and then kissing them, and just basically being out and devout. I didn't want to disturb them with too many pics.

There's some great old Soviet architecture about. Gyumri is Armenia's second biggest city (although it's not very big), and has its fair share of grand buildings, almost all of which have been reconstructed after the huge city-destroying earthquake of 1988, when over 80% of the buildings were totally destroyed.

Ritzy restaurant and café street. So many dogs were out partying last night, and they haven't made it home yet.

There's a few Russian bars about. Rasputin is a famous figure in Russian history, a poor religious mystic from a small village who befriended the imperial family of Nicholas II, and who the Tsar's wife believed could heal their haemophiliac son.

Rasputin became very influential in the royal court, especially when the Tsar went off to war, and Rasputin hung out back in St Petersburg with Alexandra, the Tsar's wife, and they took on more powerful political roles, and extended their influence across the Empire.

It's said that Rasputin was instrumental in the subsequent downfall of the Tsarist empire, and his influence and some poor advice and decisions led to him being despised by certain important people in Russian society. A bunch of them finally got together and had him assassinated.

Now that'll teach ya.

It's a great story, sort of a rags-to-riches-to-burial-rags saga.

But, as a sad epilogue to the whole thing, the entire imperial family were executed by the Soviets during the revolution in 1917, kids and all (even though the Soviets denied it for 8 years, and said they'd only killed Tsar Nicholas).

Awesome! I can go globbing tonight.

There's some beautiful parks around town, but I avoided them, as they were even more freezing than the sunny pavements around them.

Gyumri is the capital of Shiraq province. This is the city club's football stadium. They're currently sitting 6th in the Armenian Premier League, which I'm sure you were desperate to know.

My destination was a place called the Black Fortress, and as I headed there I started to get some beautiful views.

This is Mt Aragats (not to be confused with the now-Turkish Mt Ararat, which was, for many centuries, on Armenian land, and which features strongly in Armenian history, traditional stories and music).

Turkey is only 10km up the road, by the way.

Soon I came upon the amazing Black Fortress, known in Armenian as Sev Berd.

The Black Fortress was built in the 1830s by imperial Russia, as a defense base against the Ottoman Empire, which it had been regularly fighting in the Russo-Turkish Wars, a series of wars that had been going on since the 16th Century. In fact, the Russo-Turkish Wars are regarded as one of the longest ever series of ongoing military conflicts in European history.

The Russians basically won.

The black stone of the Black Fortress. The place itself is completely trippy, a totally circular fortress building that's now been renovated and is used for concerts. The acoustics were stunning, I'd love to see musicians play there, but there was nothing on while I was in Gyumri.

The balconies are cool. I bet they host operas in here and people sit up there with their little Galilean opera glasses and sip champagne.

The views were stellar from the top.

Where there's space, there's a church

Not far from the fortress is the Mother Of Armenia statue. Mother Of statues seem to be a Caucasian thing. There's a big one in Georgia, one in Yerevan, and now this one.

I strolled back into town, passing this beautiful church, which was being diligently guarded by yet another pack of vicious dogs.

Wandering the streets

Gyumri markets were interesting

Dried fish at 4-for-1000 Dram, about 60 US cents each.

Trotters that no longer even walk

I told the guys at the stall selling this that my dad used to make this stuff when I was a kid, and that he called it Sülze. They laughed, and told me that here they call it zilch. It's basically various types of meat floating in jelly, and is normally eaten with lots of salt and pepper, and vinegar. It's all yours.

This is panr, the cheese they use when they make their traditional panrkhash dish, which is basically a bowl of cheese with soaked lavash bread interspersed in it, and topped with fried onions and spices.

I bought a stack of the cheese, it's a very strong flavour, you don't need much on your bread. The one with black spots on it is even more strongly flavoured, as it's laced with mould.

So many bakeries around, and the bread is always super fresh. They seem to bake all day.

St All Saviours church, which has been lovingly restored, after being almost completely demolished during the 1988 earthquake.

I didn't take pics inside as they were having a service, but it's really beautiful. Sparse and beautiful, which seems to be the Armenian Christian way.

In the main square, Vardanants Square, which is actually square this time.

Armenia's answer to X-Men

My hood

My guest house. It was really nice inside

Old fireplace and heater

A very late lunch snack

Bad boys are good, and good girls are bad. Good boys are good, and bad girls are bad. What to do?

Astrid, Mahesh and I went to the BarBar, it was super fun, set in a dingy basement where they happened to be having a Russian music trivia night. It was a hoot. We drank beer and philosophised, and also wondered what the hell most of the questions were even about, despite the visuals.

We had an amazing conversation, about all sorts of things.

Everyone was friendly too.

I bought these sweets for us, because a kind shopowner had given one to me earlier in the day, and so I knew they're delicious. Plus I love the little kittis.

We finally made it home, Mahesh cooked us delicious French omelettes, and we pigged out on lavash, eggplant dip, panr, and other delicacies. We were hungry, and also needed to soak up some beer.

Temporary Parting

The next day Astrid and Mahesh left, and I wandered around again.

My window

Nikolai, one of the guest house owners, had suggested a particular eating place in town to see traditional music, and so I went there to make booking, as it was a Saturday.

It was lunch time, and there was a crowd in there. Amazingly for that time of day, there was a group of women in there dancing, in the traditional style.

So good. And it wasn't just the old women either.

It was suddenly busy in town, as Yerevanians (and other Armenians) were in Gyumri for the weekend. It's also the start of the one week Fall holidays, so there's loads of families arriving.

Love and hate.

Delicious manti. These ones were stuffed with potatoes and cheese, served with a sour cream.

Armenians always seem to feast in groups. These guys are preparing for a huge party.

Warm As Toasts

My Korean friend Won Quy came to town, from Yerevan. It was great that we had the chance to catch up again, as I'd made a reservation for us at the music place, and they'd reserved us a table right in front of the band.

It was the biggest and most amazing night ever.

The band were fabulous, incredibly talented guys playing traditional music, sometimes at ridiculous speeds. They didn't smile once though, not one of them. It was only when we chatted to a couple of them later in the night that they seemed to loosen up a bit.

Pretty much as soon as the band started, the dancing did as well.

The little girls got the ball rolling.

This was part of their dance routine.

And then their mums followed, unselfconsciously getting right into their traditional dance moves. It's so great to see young Armenians embracing their ancient cultural traditions in such a relaxed and fun way. They were having a ball.

We didn't realise it at the time, but we were in for a huge night with these guys.

Won Quy and I had a scrumptious dinner, and absolutely loved the incredible music. Well, my dinner was scrumptious, and it included spas, a tasty soup made of yoghurt and whole wheat kernels, flavoured with dill.

Won Quy, on the other hand, ordered half the menu, and his meal included a traditional specialty called khash, which was basically a soup with a massive chunk of fatty cow knee in it.

That's part of the knee on the side plate.

He asked me if I wanted to try it, and I did. It tasted exactly like eating the eraser at the end of your pencil, like I used to nervously do at school when I was stressed and didn't know why, and when there was nothing left of my fingernails. The khash was disgusting. But Won Quy assured me that this part of the cow is a revered delicacy in Korea.

For Buddha's sake, what are they thinking? There's so much actual good food in Korea, why would they eat this flavourless rubbish?

It was at this point that the night got really interesting. A couple of guys from a large group near us dragged Won Quy and I up onto the dance floor, where we proceeded to do a crash course in traditional Armenian dancing. It was great!

After the first couple of dances they then dragged us to their table, where we proceeded to drink toast after toast to everything you could possibly think of. The toasts were vodka, of course, and not just any old vodka, but local 80 proof vodka, which means it was 40% pure alcohol, and 99% pure deadly.

Periodically we'd all be spirited away by the amazing music back to the dance floor, which was full of locals going heaven-for-leather to the traditional music, all of whom embraced us with welcoming arms and the biggest smiles and laughs in the universe, very happy that these foreigners were enjoying their hospitality and culture so much.

It was very special, one of those incredibly memorable nights.

I paced myself. After a few toasts, which the young guys next to me insisted I skol, I started to just sip the vodka in my glass after every Voscht!! toast, because I realised that no matter how much vodka was in there, every time I put my glass back on the table it kept refilling to the very top as if by magic.

We had some amazing conversations, particularly with Sona, one of the women who could actually speak pretty good English. She was the only one who could, but was a great translator for all of us. Along with Google Translate, of course.

The night was long and a complete joy.

After hours of frenzied activity, the table and its occupants eventually looked as if an earthquake had hit it, most particularly the men, a number of whom looked like the living dead. They'd been drinking pretty heavily for quite a while before we got there. Somehow the women appeared fine, and were still dancing and wanting to chat and keep having a great time.

Of course, most of the women had wisely been declining the vodka toasts.

Sona, on the other hand, kept up with the men, and somehow remained full of beans.

There were a bunch of kids about too, who looked very tired and bored after awhile. Won Quy, in his infinite niceness, went off to the shop and bought them all little packets of chips. One of the girls subsequently gave him her tiny wooden doll that said 'I Love You' on it.

So sweet.

Won Quy cried - tears of joy (and probably tears of actual vodka), as he was so full that he was maybe leaking a bit up there.

Eventually it became time to leave, and we finally did, a process which itself seemed to take forever. Everyone was super grateful for being able to enjoy each other's company for the night.

Won Quy had had one or two et al shots too many, so we went back to his hostel, where he insisted he could put himself to bed, but then the next day told me he had no memory whatsoever of any of it, let alone how he got to bed.

But he vividly remembered the most important thing - the incredible spontaneous connection we shared with a whole group of amazingly hospitable, generous and fun-loving locals.

On the night I kept telling them how precious their culture is, and how unique it is that so many young people are still so strongly connected to it. And how amazing it feels to be welcomed and embraced so whole-heartedly by local Armenians.

They were happy to hear it.

Sometimes you really don't realise how beautiful you are until someone tells you.

Soviet Trip

The next day I started late. Won Quy and I had planned on visiting a Soviet monument together, but when I tried to get in touch with him he was nowhere to be found. I wasn't surprised.

I wandered off anyway.

Gates mean something around these parts.

Sad but true

Sadder but also true. It was packed, which is amazing, considering the range of incredible and cheap food in this town.

The pickles are always greener, I suppose.

Sunday arvo hangout spot

Alina. World of Wonder. I guess it's the Armenian version of Alice, and is a theatre production. School holidays have just started.

Sniperian training, and it wasn't even along a river.

Repaired grand Soviet buildings.

I'd quite like to go and have a drakht tonight, but I bet Won Quy's not into it.

Traffic cop

Old earthquake rubble

Dog day afternoon

What does that even mean?

I headed north into the poorest part of town. There were cops around. I gotta say, there's a lot of cops around all the time in the countries around here, you see them everywhere, and they're not shy to let you know of their presence, blasting their sirens or regularly using too-loudspeakers to bark at pedestrians or drivers on the streets.

And there it is. The old Soviet modernist monument I'd walked all the way out here to see. The Iron Fountain.

According to the local tourist board, this so-called attraction "is visited by many tourists due to its monumentality." I guess that's a good type of mentality for it to have, as a monument, but I personally was particularly underwhelmed by this example of Soviet trippiness.

It was built back in the early 1980s, and I guess would've been great when it worked.

Here it is back in the day.

Like much of Gyumri, the rockwork and piping around the fountain was severely damaged during the 1988 earthquake, along with almost all of the buildings in this part of town, which had been quite heavily populated.

Now there's vacant land everywhere, and the whole area has sorta become a bit slummy, with makeshift dwellings and shops around the place (often built from recycled metal), and almost no examples of proper government services or infrastructure.

Whatever it is you may want to do, don't even think about it! I mean it! No no no!!!

Fruit and veg shop

Archaeological evidence of a nasty dogfight. That's actually ripped dog fur on the ground. I carbon-tested it, and discovered that it's been there since approximately 3am this morning.

Step right up. For coffee.

Late in the day, in fact so late that it was no longer day, I met up with Won Quy and we got some food. He gingerly ate his dinner, telling me he won't be drinking for at least a week. "Is that all?" I thought.

My delicious mushroom soup.

After dinner Won Quy and I said goodbye, again. I get the feeling we'll meet up again sometime. I hope so, he's the loveliest guy ever, so gentle, interesting, and bloody funny.

AI controlled downpipes which rotate in different directions, to make sure everyone going past gets totally drenched.

To The Snowy Hills

So my plan is to spend my last couple of days in Armenia in the small town of Dilijan, tucked away in the snow-capped hills in the east of the country. There's a really big national park there, and, if I'm lucky, the weather will be ok to go hiking in there.

It's been such a warm, beautiful trip in this country so far.

Not warm in the temperature sense, cos it's been absolutely brass-monkey bloody freezing, especially since I left Yerevan and the vast Ararat plains.

But in the people sense this country has been glowingly hot. The amazing souls I've met have been so incredibly friendly and open, and have kept me sizzling and nurtured inside. I really feel  like I'd like to come back here one day, for a longer period.

But first things first.

It's time to leave and discover some new places in this beautiful country.

And, Insha'Allah, some more very cool people❤️

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