Somusing

Phin and I were able to walk around Yerevan and see quite a few things. Here are some of them. Manhole covers reading "telefon" in Russian: One of the LDS (Mormon) churches in Yerevan, Armenia. We attended here on Sunday. In Kiev we were able to at least sing the hymns since we can read Cyrillic tolerably well. We couldn't sing at all because we couldn't read any Armenian. That was sad. The people were friendly, though! And Armenia got its first stake just a few months ago. We met this man, Mikhail Artemovich Unun'yants, in a park. He was eager to have us sign his manifesto and petition which said, among other things, in English and Russian: We the undersigned ask you, please establish (un)committee of «Peoples Diplomacy M.A.U.» under the leadership of Mr. Mikhail Artemovich Unan'yants, date of birth - August 2, 1957, place of birth - Taganrog town, Russia Federation, citizenship - Russia. We second all his ideas, plans, projects. We share all...

We took the Envoy Hostel Enlinking the Caucasus Tour to get from Tbilisi, Georgia to Yerevan, Armenia, via a scenic route. The tour is described like this, and my selection of photos here follows this order: Entering Armenia, delight in the ancient frescoes of the church at the Akhtala fortress-monastery. Visit two UNESCO Heritage listed sights along the Debed Canyon. Marvel at the Haghbat monastery, positioned among lush green fields and then on to Sanahin with its serene and tranquil surrounds. Enjoy a BBQ lunch on the banks of the river in Alaverdi. Sample freshly baked pastry in Aparan. Arrive in Yerevan at Envoy hostel. I will add just a few comments here and there. In this first one there is a sculpture of a pair of wedding rings. Couples walk through the rings right after getting married to bring them good luck and a happy marriage. This church is rare in that it has old murals still relatively well preserved, but the head of Jesus was blown out by a cannonball som...