Armenia Dispatch 14: Road Trip Part 2

by Erik Olsen on

Sorry for the confusing nomenclature for these posts, but I feel like I have to break them up, make them “bite-sized”, or people will get bored and bail.

So we were on the road again, passing along the narrow ribbon of road through the Armenia countryside heading towards the region called Lori. We chatted and snapped photos as we sped along, and soon all the lovely hilly surroundings came to an abrupt halt, and we came upon a large industrial city called Vanadtor, where the dead husks of old Soviet factories squatted in a grimy haze under the blazing sun.

This was my first real encounter with some of the industrial mess left behind by the Soviets, and it was not pretty. I would see many more places like this along the way, and always they were the same…awful vast sections of a town or city left to rot. Crumbling concrete skeletons with facades of broken windows, yellowing shards of glass left in the frames; wrecked, rusted machinery being slowly devoured by the weather and weeds; long-dormant smokestacks rising into the sky like exclamation points punctuating the failure of an entire era of human social engineering. These places are a jolt to the system….and yet….and yet…strangely, I find some of these places completely fascinating. There is a cacophonous majesty to them, a jarring, symphonic testament to our sometimes absurd ambitions. Sure, visually, you might find places like this in Ohio, outside of Detroit, but there is subtext of tragic history here that is on display, and when you wrap it all together, the scene and the story behind it…well, it´s a moving experience.

And speaking of moving….moving on….

Armenia Dispatch 13: Road Trip

by Erik Olsen on

I had several rather grueling days of shooting for various stories I’m working on here in Yerevan, and I knew it was time to get out of the city and do some relaxing. I’d been hanging out with the Bambir guys, and with the good folks at the Chess Academy, and I decided it was time to see the country.

So like an Armenian version of On the Road (would that sort of make me Jack Kerouackian?), myself and two friends, Dork and Mhaer, hit the road. I left the comfortable confines of the Armenia Marriott and we rented a car for the day (about $100…you might be able to do this cheaper, but gas prices are high, and well, maybe we’re not the best negotiators…this is Armenia, after all). We stopped off briefly at the local covered market and picked up some peaches, scallions, lavash bread (someone in America, PLEEEEEASE start selling lavash bread…the stuff is so good), Banir (cheese) and these amazingly tasty, but very odd-looking, ropes made of walnuts and molasses (I think) called Soujukh. A complete meal this would not make, but it was good for snacking along the way.

On the road out of Yerevan, we could see the genocide memorial on one side, and then further up on the hillside, the home of the first elected President of Armenia. The home is black, and I learned quickly that the color is somewhat appropriate. The first presdent is not widely liked here. The driver spat with disgust when we started talking about him, a sentiment that I’ve heard several times since I’ve been here. Not to get too deeply into the politics of it all, because I confess I don’t know the history that well (perhaps someone more knowledgeable than I can add a comment), but from what I understand, he and the people around him were rather corrupt, and many of the hopes for the new nation went unrealized after independence in 1991 because of rampant corrupution and cronyism. Again, I don’t profess to know this part of the story of Armenia, but judging from the what several people told me, and the comments of our driver, it seems black may be an appropriate color for the house on the hill.

Moving on.

Photo of the Day: (9/26/05)

by Erik Olsen on

Another photo coming your way from Armenia, where I have spent the last seven days, and a place that is now very high on my list as a recommended destination. My attitude has not changed at all about what a cool place Armenia is.

I will blog shortly about the long road trip I took way up to the Azeri border, but at this moment, here is a photo from the start of that trip. This was taken along the road as we passed a shepherd and his flock. He was a very nice guy, and let me take his picture. He’s holding a polaroid that we shot to give to him).

Armenia Dispatch: 12 – Chess Kids

by Erik Olsen on

I’m about a day behind, so I’m going to try to catch up here on what’s been happening during my trip to Armenia.

I left the Bambir guys and headed to the chess academy, where I hooked up with Aram, who works with the academy to promote chess in the country and abroad (and they offer expert instruction for young Armenian players…of which, you will read, there are many). At the Academy, Aram introduced me to two Grand Masters of the game: GM Karen Asryan and GM Tigran Petrosyan. For fun, Aram sat them down and asked them to play a “blitz” game for me, where they went head to head in a game that lasted (I kid you not) less than a minute. This is not to say that the game consisted of just a few moves. Far from it. No, they played a complete game, but played it so fast – moving pieces, taking them from one another – that their hands moved in a blur. Like I said, these are Grand Masters…some of the best chess players in the world (they’re also very nice guys).

I left with GM Petrosyan in his car to a part of town called the Cascade, which is a broad park where a series of staircases rise along a huge ramp towards the Mother of Armenia statue that overlooks the city. I was here because a group of organizations including the UN, the Armenian Chess Federation and the Armenian Chess Academy, were holding a major chess competition for young and old in the park. I wanted to see how big a deal chess is in this country. Suffice it to say, chess is a VERY big deal.

There were two events going on. In one, about 40 kids from all over Armenia came to play in a “blitz” tournament (very fast games) where they went head to head until a single winner emerged. These were some of the finest (young) players in the country (the best young players, I was told, were actually in Serbia at a major competition, but these kids were still incredible. There was also a Grand Master challenge match where three Armenian Grand Masters (Karen Asryan, Tigran Petrosyan, Ashot Anastasyan) took on fifteen competitors each, facing them from the other side of a long table.

I spent the whole day watching these two events, and really enjoyed myself. It grew quite hot, but the Grand Masters hardly seemed to notice and pretty much disposed of their competition without too much effort (there were a few draws, I understand, but several of the people playing against the GMs were chess teachers, so perhaps this is to be expected). Watching the kids, man, you’ve never seen such determination, such intellectual intensity. It was amazing to watch as both boys and girls played (and there were several girls) in vigorous, fast-paced competitions that lasted until one was crowned winner.

So that was my very full day…Armenian rock and Armenian chess…two very interesting sides of the culture here…in this endlessly fascinating place that I highly recommend you visit some day.

Armenia: Getting Here

by Erik Olsen on

All these dispatches under my belt, I suppose I should mention that getting to Armenia these days is pretty easy. With all the stuff I’ve been writing about it, I’d hate for people to think it was one of those awful destinations that take three days to reach. It’s not that bad (it takes two days coming from the states due to the time change), and in fact it used to be a whole lot worse. In the Soviet years, I was told, it could be nightmarish to get here. But now things are different. Several airlines fly into Yerevan on a regular basis, including British Airways and Lufthansa.

In fact, Lufthansa just started a new Munich to Yerevan Route in June that flies three times a week (Mondays, Thursdays and Sundays). For a while, they even offered a sweet deal to Armenian Disaporans…which I think is still going on. The Munich flight is the one I took, and it was fine. You know the Germans…everything was very efficient and like clockwork. Keep in mind the flight arrives late in the evening, but you can then whisk to your hotel without dealing with traffic, AND you get to awake to see Yerevan for the first time with new light and fresh eyes. And as I said, the airport needs some work, so maybe it’s better if you get there when it’s dark, anyway.

Oh, and while I’m at it, if you’re an American citizen (and even if you’re not) you’re going to need a visa in Armenia. The Armenian Embassy site allows you to buy this online as an eVisa ($60), which means you pay online and they email you a link to a page that you print out. While there are still some serious kinks in the system (I never got the link, but managed at customs to use my confirmation number to get my passport stamped), it’s a fine idea. They just need to fix the probs. You can also buy your visa when you arrive…and it’s cheaper to do so ($30). But if you’re like me, you like to have this stuff done before you arrive.