Armenia Dispatch 16: Road Trip Part 4 (Haghpat)

by Erik Olsen on

I guess it’s probably obvious if you’ve been reading these dispatches that there are quite a few monasteries in Armenia. That’s true. And like European churches, they are breath-takingly beautiful. And like European churches, you start to get bored of them very quickly. But we still had a ways to drive on this road trip, and there were other monasteries to see.

But I’ll not bore you with all the historical details. The links here can do that. Suffice to say, we saw Sanahin monastery (woodsy, nice, lots of cross carvings), the Odzun monastery (high atop a mountain, lovely view, fresh air, more, uh, cross carvings), and finally the Haghpat monastery, easily the best of the bunch, as it is laid out on a grassy plateau with a view of the entire valley below. The buildings themselves here are magnificent examples of the classic Armenian monastery style…round tower, conical roof…and the setting is like something out of a EM Forester novel.

If I have one complaint…actually, you might call this more of a screaming rage, it is the presence, right in your immediate view from the monastery, of an unsightly, working copper factory that rumbles and booms and spews an impossibly long tail of industrial cottonous filth into the sky. Thankfully, the wind was blowing in the direction away from the monastery…but man, the vision of this behemoth from the monastery grounds is a real downer. That said, as the picture of Haghpat here attests, it’s a lovely place.

Armenia Dispatch 15: Road Trip Part 3

by Erik Olsen on

Perhaps I got a bit carried away in my last entry in describing the post-Soviet industrial blight that can sometimes be seen along Armenian roads. Let me say that these places are few and far between, and that the diverse beauty of the Armenian countryside (mountains, rivers, plains) is by far the more dominant feature you encounter when traveling Armenia. Let me also say that for the most part, the roads we traveled on this road trip were for the most part nicely maintained, and I felt that traveling in car in Armenia is an ideal way to go.

So now back to the trip itself. We passed through Vanadzor and headed up into the mountainous region of Lori, where rocky cliffs rise above the road and a small green river slowly gnaws away the edges of the canyon. This is splendid country, easily as satisfying as driving the deep canyons of Colorado. The road rises and falls, and you pass through many cool little villages along the way. You see the people who smile and sometimes wave, but more often just go about their business. You wonder what life is like for these people. What they do for a living, how they get by day to day, what they know about world affairs (had they heard about New Orleans?), how many of the children have actually seen a Playstation (perhaps a few, eh?). And then we came upon a very nice new hotel in the area built by a young Armenian rug magnate to boost tourism to the region. It was largely empty, though. We stopped and had coffee there, and then hit the road again, stopping only when we reached a non-descript bend in the road where, high above, there loomed a lonely monastery.

We got out and climbed up a narrow trail, overgrown with weeds, that passed through a very small village. A small boy with a homemade bow and arrow trailed us until we reached the Kobayr Monastery (pictured) about 1/2 a mile up. The view from the small monastery was magnificent. You could see down the canyon to the river, and behind you, because the monastery is basically erected into the cliff, there was rock. In the open dome of the monastery is a lovely fresco, fading, but detailed, of Christ (remember that Armenia is a Christian nation…the FIRST Christian nation, as Armenians are more than ready to tell you). So there we were, taking all this in, all by ourselves.

This is one of the wonderfully satisfying things about Armenia. Because tourism is still so limited, you can find yourself in a place of immense beauty, and as you turn around you realize you are the only one there. No camera-toting American fatsos trundling up the hill from their Winnebagoes, no irritable ticket lady in a booth charging you outrageous fees to visit a monument (hey, the folks at the Taj Mahal…pay attention). It’s just you and the place (OK, and a kid with a bow and arrow). It was really excellent.

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).