Jan 8-9 Arriving and Settling Down in Gyumri

To get to Gyumri, the second largest city in Armenia, I flew from New York to Doha and from Doha to Yerevan. From Yerevan, a taxi brought me to Gyumri. 

I was moderately impressed with the flight from New York to Doha with Qatar Airways. The plane was loaded from the back to the front, so business/first class was seated last. However, there seemed to be less waiting for people to put away their luggage, at least while walking through the first three-quarters of the plane. The meal services were pretty good albeit a bit slow. There was one person in charge of both food and drinks, while I'm used to two people. The chiles in the chicken curry helped to elevate the meal and the chocolate mousse with sour cherry compote was superb. This was also the first time I used metal utensils on a flight. The food on Doha to Yerevan flight was more mediocre. In addition, the entertainment options on the New York to Doha flight were pretty extensive, too. I kept scrolling and scrolling through the movies and classical music lists. Furthermore, on both flights, the seats reclined more than I'm used to so my sleep was decent for airplane standards. 

Cities of different shapes and sizes that we flew over from Doha to Yerevan

Taxi drivers waited just outside customs in Yerevan, but we just weaved through them to the drivers that TUMO hired for us. Large snowflakes fell as we waited for the driver to bring the car. Driving in Armenia can basically be described as follows: all tinted windows; not wearing seatbelts; talk, text, surf, and drive. There were definitely times when my driver had both his hands off the wheel to reach for his jacket or phone. Thankfully, there were barely any cars on the road. The drive to Gyumri involved traversing a mountain on bumpy, windy roads. Yes, not quite like the tunnels through mountains on the interstates in New York and Pennsylvania.

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While wandering through the streets for the first time, I noticed a decent number of stray dogs. They all seemed quite friendly and not vicious at all. A few trotted after us, but most just lay in the sun, particularly later in the day. They didn't seem to be starving too much.

In addition, the straight faces and many men dressed in all black may create a stark image of Armenia, but the teller who smiled at us in the currency exchange office and the humorous security guard (who spoke no English) at TUMO broke the image for me. 

Also, it turns out that almost everyone speaks Russian fluently, which I did not expect after my conversation with Zach. While it seems that people usually use Armenian first, many use the two languages interchangeably. Perhaps Armenian is like Cantonese in Guangzhou and Russian is like Mandarin, although it seems that the older generation prefers to use Russian. 

A streetside water fountain

Armenia also seems to be a place of old and new. On the way to Gyumri, parts of the road were well paved with modern railings while others were littered with potholes and demarcated with stones. Similarly, in Gyumri, the large roads are well paved, but the side streets are run down. On many of the smaller streets, large holes in the concrete pavement reveal the pebbles over which the pavement was laid. There are also many houses that are crumbling or boarded up among other proudly standing ones. This legacy of the 1988 earthquake is still visible. Furthermore, there are some crosswalks with screens counting down both the green and red lights and other places where you have to calculate whether a car will let you pass. If a car lets you pass, it may only slow down, instead of stopping, making you question your judgment. I was also surprised to see many stone-laid accessible paths alongside steps and on the curb. Then again, the other side of the street is like hiking through the woods with many tree roots in the way. Moreover, rusty Soviet era cars sputter alongside more recent Mercendes Benz cars, either indicating growth or disparities.

A more rundown street

The place where we wanted to have lunch was closed for the day, so we ended up wandering through a third of Gyumri. We settled on Florence Gyumri, which is pricey for locals but pretty affordable by American standards.

• Eggplant rolls filled with labne (thick yogurt), as opposed to walnut sauce, in Georgia - eggplant was well roasted and flavorful
• Labne spread with diced olives and tomatoes mixed in, topped with drizzle of oil
• Aveluk (Armenian sorrel) soup - tasted almost like seaweed or mushroom (fat choy?), a few bits of chicken
• Lavash - rolled up it was quite chewy but good for soup dipping, unrolled and torn it was like roti but less fatty

Florence Gyumri was decorated with colorful, ceramic dishes as well as basket-shaped lights.

Lunch was quite heavy, so for dinner I just had some penne with vegetables at Tashir Pizza. Vegetables were well roasted and cheese was aromatic.

The central part of the city is lit up with festive lights.