Armenia was a country sounding of a beautiful nature, culture, food and people. But what I discovered was so much more. This was the furthest destination I ever travelled to, I started this two month journey in the middle of May arriving in Jerevan.
The second day I came for the first time to the office of FIOH a bit early, still not knowing about the “Armenian” time. But after the others came I felt welcomed from the start. I worked mostly in the office on administrative, photos and graphic design tasks. We also got a chance to learn about Armenia through this organization. For example, we saw the inside of a factory of traditional Armenian carpets and the process of the making. Met very nice local volunteers and even because of on-arrival training got a chance to travel to Georgia to the seaside.
My discovering started on the first day. After arriving I decided to take a walk in the city and go to the Cascade. The first part was easy, went to the top of the stairs, saw the beautiful Ararat and then decided to walk down. It was quite hot and sunny, so even walking down the stairs was a lot in jeans and clothes not meant for sportish activities. I took a small break, and decided to walk back to my home. I looked at the map and realised now I need to hike all the stairs back up, in this heat. Of course people told me there are escalators inside of the cascade, but in the moment that information left my mind. So I hiked to the top, thinking this was the end of hiking, but later on learned that Jerevan is a city on a hill and I had to go up and down all the way to the house. After that the buses became my best friends in this city.
In my free time I tried to see as much of this country as I could. Travelled to places like Dilijan, Gyumri, Garni Temple, Sevan and of course went on some hikes to see this captivating nature. The architecture of the numerous monasteries is something different from the buildings I saw before, and is for sure a gem you need to see here.
I learned so much about Armenian culture, saw and even tried to learn their dances, had a lot of amazing food – of course one of them was the Armenian barbeque. Through that saw the beautiful Armenian hospitality, that is still very much rooted in these people. I had a chance to be a part of a tradition I never heard about before. In Armenia when the baby’s first tooth grows it will pick the job it will do, when it grows up. They firstly pour a mix of grains on the head of the baby, and after that put objects resembling the occupations around it. After that, they let the baby choose its job by picking an object and after picking of course the barbeque and celebration time begins. This celebration really surprised me, but it was a very beautiful and happy experience.
I found out so many differences in our cultures, some of them were funny but also some taught me a lot. Being in Armenia brought me so many beautiful memories and this is for sure not the last time for me to be here.
