beautiful ARMENIA

what to say about our caucasus trip in early september? that's easy: armenia won, georgia lost :-). probably because our travel guide in armenia, hakob (jacob), was many many times better than his georgian colleague arthur ... and because the armenians we met were somehow more friendly to us than most of the georgians. anyway, my dusty school russian is still well enough for travelling in caucasus.

*** the folowing paragraph makes more sense for georgia than for armenia, so just ignore it here :-)

... damn, what if the georgians do not like russia anymore because of the conflicts with south ossetia & abkhazia and thus do not like to speak russian? hell, what if they like only their new 'friends' americans. there is even a g.w. bush street in tbilisi => OMG, OMG, OMG :-( => IMHO is g.w. bush an ugly mass murder / war monger / war criminal (who attacked iraq & afghanistan which didn't threaten any other country and especially not usa. even in the 9/11 issue was not a single afghani involved) => btw, can you imagine a hitler street or göhring square in today's germany?

off-topic: who believes in american 'friendship'? the americans murdered about 100 millions native americans; enslaved the black; supported the soviets against germans in WWII when the soviet victory became obvious, but supported the western germans against soviets directly after WWII; they thrown nuclear bombs on the japanese; thrown napalm & agent orange on the vietnamese; shot uranium ammunition on the iraqies and serbs; still support al-nusra, al-qaeda and isis in syria, ... if you asked me, the americans (not the ordinary people, but the dark powers which rules the white house & government) will always follow their own interests and never consider interests of any other nation or the earth itself UNLESS the american people abolish these dark powers and start to rule their country and its foreign policy on principles of respect and equality (liberty, equality, fraternity!) .. or at least according to their own constitution and not on the principles of imperialism as today.

start to sense + SAVE the PLANET, my dears. ***

what to say in short? well, armenia is a very nice and interesting country with friendly people and especially beautiful women (there are hundreds of kim kardashians walking in the streets of yerevan). there are many, many mostly dry and bleak mountains and there is almost everywhere still present the genocide and diaspora armenians suffered that badly ... so sad ... well, the turks and partially also the kurds murdered around 1,000,000 armenians in the ottoman empire in the early 20th century (most of them 1915-1922) and many other flown the country, so out of 10 million ethnic armenians there are 7 millions living abroad. the last million left armenia in the nineties after the breakdown of soviet union because of serius economic difficulties.

few most interesting pictures:

 big and small ararat (3896 metres and 5137 metres high respectively), the holy mountain of all armenians is in kurdistan (turkey) today

armenia is the first christian state on earth, so there were many opportunities to burn a candle a to place a wish, my dears. christianity became the national religion in 301 AD if i remember that date correctly

surb hripsime church from 7th century in vagharshapat / etchmiadzin / etschmiadsin / echmiadzin (finished 618 A.D.) was the first of many unesco world cultural heritage sites we have visited in armenia ~ at this place was before a mausoleum (church) from late 4th century A.D. for the roman nun hripsime and her nun-sisters murdered around the year 300 A.D. on command of the armenian king trdat III.

genocide memorial, yerevan

yerevan / eriwan / jerewan / jerevan

geghard monastery

pre-christian hellenistic temple in garni

chor virap monastery + ararat, the only peak far and wide. no wonder that noah's ark docked here (arca noae)

noravank monastery

areni, the probably oldest wine making area of the world (and a name for a local wine sort)

hills, hills, hills

coming closer to the selim pass

a lonely volcano in the armenian highlands south of lake sevan

swimming in lake sevan at 1,900 metres above the sea level

goshavank monastery (or gosh monastery as avank means church/monastery, i believe)

there were many industrial ruins from soviet times in armenia and georgia. this factory in vanadzor is still in business, i think 

dancing with the hotel personnel in haghpat

alaverdi / haghpat

haghpat monastery

akhtala monastery

russia meets armenia

mane, the armenian cognac / brandy and yes, ararat cognac is the next famous brand

armenian alphabet and numbers

many, many more pictures which capture my memories (together 200 often commented pictures) are HERE, so watch just the overview first and zoom in only for the most interesting ones, otherwise it will be boring for you, i guess :-)

and here are my notes i made during our round trip (mostly in german as we were a group of 16 elderly and unfortunately often really complicated tourists from germany):

• barylouis armenia - good morning (good light) - guten morgen 
• the country with the nicest women i have ever seen. there were hundreds of Kim Kardashians walking in the streets of yerevan ;-) ... and a country of mountains and stones
• the first Christian state of the world (since 301 a.d.)
• the armenians call their country hayastan
• Jerewan - 2800 Jahre alt... 782 v. Chr.
• Diaspora - 7 Mio der 10 Mio Armenier leben im Ausland 
• 1915 Genozid in Westarmenien (Türkei) mit 1 - 1,5 mio ermordeten Armeniern
• 301 n. chr. Christentum erste Staatsreligion weltweit... besuch der Kirche surb hripsime aus dem 7. Jhdt.
• Viele UNESCO weltkulturerbestätten, meistens ohne Eintrittsgeld, da der Tourismus noch kaum entwickelt ist
• 1512 wurde das erste armenische Buch (in Venedig) geDRUCKT 
• 1991 Unabhängigkeit nach dem zerfall der sovietunion
• Ararat, 5165m, heutige türkei, 2 NATO Militärbasen :-(
• Superschöne Frauen, thousands of Kim Kardashians walking in the streets of Yerevan
• Sauberes Wasser, gesundes Essen, saubere Straßen
• 405 n. Chr. armenisches alphabet erfunden mit 36 Buchstaben. Heute 39 Buchstaben, bis 17xx wurden Buchstaben auch als zahlen benutzt... Alphabet-Reihen: Einser, Zehner, Tausender... 
• Lastiver igevan - ijevan - ijevan - hiking in north armenia => Daravand - hotel
• traurige flötenmusik (duduk ~ Aprikosenrohr)
• Sewansee - 1900m hoch, 80 km lang, bis max. 50 km breit und seit der sovietischen wasserstromnutzung ist der wasserspiegel um 19m gesunken. So war die sewan Halbinsel früher eine Insel.... In der Chruschtschowzeit durch einen Kanal mit Wasserzufluss gerettet und der wasserspiegel um 3-4m auf das heutige wunschniveau angestiegen 
• Molokovci (Molokanen) - milk drinkers - russische Minderheit zwangsumgesiedelt vor 150 Jahren in der Zarenzeit aufgrund religiöser Rebellion (keine Priester, kein Alkohol, kein Fernseher usw) - mußten keine Steuern zahlen, dafür die pässe bewachen und den postdienst unterstützen
• Werbungen vom armenischen Cognac im Internet googlen
• 1988 Erdbeben, 90er Jahre Wirtschaftskrise insbesondere wg. Zerfall der sovietunion. Danach Energiekrise wegen Krieg um bergkarabach und handelsblokade durch Türkei und Aserbaidschan, darüber hinaus Bombardements und Zerstörung der russischen Gasleitungen durch Aserbaidschaner => 50% aller Wälder abgeholzt :-(
• Viele schachweltmeister (Einzel, Mannschaft) ... tigran petrosian... sogar der weltbeste Schachspieler der Welt, garri kasparow, ist mütterlicherseits Armenier und väterlicherseits Jude.
• reise-erkenntnis: Sozialismus / sovietische Zeit (SK, CZ, PL, AM, GE, ...) ist noch prägnanter / verbindender als 20 jahre Ehe :-)
• Industrieschlucht (kupfer) an der Grenze zu Georgien (Alaverdi)
• Korruption und Vetternwirtschaft im Staatsdienst / Politik => Volk leidet und muss hohe steuern zahlen (z.b. 32% bei autoimport gebrauchter Fahrzeuge aus Georgien auf einen von der Regierung festgelegten Tabellenwert, der den tatsächlichen Kaufpreis oft um 100% übersteigt => 64% Steuer). Da aufgrund Korruption auch die Spenden von auslandsarmeniern ausbleiben (kirk kirkorian, charles aznavour & co.), versucht der Staat über Gebühren und schikaneähnliche autoverkehrsstrafen das staatsbudget aufbessern => die Akademiker verkaufen Postkarten oder fahren Taxi in Jerewan UND der armenische exodus insbesondere nach Georgien und Russland geht ungebremst weiter 
• Wie auch immer, ich drücke dem wunderschönen Land und den so sympathischen Leuten in Armenien die Daumen, damit sie erst einmal ihre korrupten Politiker loswerden und ihr uraltes Land + ihre Kultur bewahren können => GOOD LUCK, ARMENIA

last but not least, some armenian sounds (duduk music ~ wooden pipe)

#1 djivan gasparian: https://youtu.be/RvhU7Th9_OI

#2 melancholic duduk music and nice armenia pictures

#3 duduk relax music

eof