This past week was a lot of fun. I traveled south of Yerevan for the first time and it was so pretty. Its incredible that in such a small country you can have such a variation of climates and scenery. Where I live its sort of like a tundra with shrubby bushes and small trees over rolling hills, but in the south its big mountains covered in forest and rivers. It is also the oldest part of the country where the Armenian civilization really holds its most interesting roots (in my opinion). Throughout this country you can find old things for example across the street from me is an eleventh century church but down south all you have to do is walk to find something old. Anyways, so I set off in a seven-passenger van with eight people (all other volunteers). And for the next week I saw old fortresses, churches, abandoned towns and even a burial ground. My travel buddy and sidekick Danny along with another friend Sean walked to the ruin of an old 16th century church that had been destroyed in a landslide shortly after its construction. Since that time not many people have visited but the church all though partly submerged still stands deep in the forest upside a mountain. The cool thing about it was that here was this rarely visited church that probably only a handful of foreigners have ever seen and I’m drinking Gatorade on the roof of it! The nature to was pretty spectacular with a winding river through the gorge below and a waterfall that you could actually stand under which I didn’t do because it was freezing but if I go back in summer then I’m definitely going to stand under it. After that we hiked to an abandoned town that had been lived in for the past 1000 years and only abandoned in the 1970’s which was probably a perfect example of a mid-evil community. That’s where we also saw an exposed burial ground from the Bronze Age where there was actually exposed bone, which might sound gross, but I was seeing the skeleton of a man who died thousands of years ago. After a week of seeing plenty of historical sites I caught a ride back with our PTO(Peace Corps training officer) in his white Toyota land cruiser which probably doesn’t excite y’all back at home but in Armenia White Toyota land cruisers are the cars that diplomats, foreign aid workers and UN officials ride in so you always get looks. Not since I was a kid have I really felt important sitting in the back seat of a car but when I ride in one of those cars I get that feeling once again.
One and a half weeks of school left and then its on to a busy summer but I know its going to be a lot of fun!
