Above is the subway entrance from Republic Square. ‘They’ say the subway isn’t fancy like some but it’s clean and nicer than others. We ran out of time to give it a try. It’s not a very big system, only 10 stations, but then Yerevan isn’t a very big city at around one million residents.
We decided to have a lazy morning and it was easy to hang around the condo, eat snacks and leftovers, drink coffee, take deep breaths. We were headed to the flea market, close enough to the condo to walk, and we passed through the pedestrian shopping street, a shopping opportunity with the opposite vibe of the flea market, all high-end shops with international brands.
Our destination for the day was the flea market Vernissage, the most well-known in Yerevan. The second we got even close I started sneezing and it did not stop. WHAT? What was going on?! I couldn’t stay, my eyes were swollen and tears and snot filled my face. I later learned all those trees that covered the market, the wind swirling the fallen pods, were cottonwoods and cause a lot of people trouble. All around the tables of the flea market people were sneezing. It was crazy!
We met up with Sevak and Ida for lunch. It poured rain the whole time we were eating and then stopped for us to leave.
The rain has been very accommodating.
After lunch we went to the History Museum of Armenia where we got to see the actual shoe from Areni Cave and there’s a picture of the cave below.
There was s special exhibit of carpets “from the collection of James Tufenkian, displayed ‘in dialogue’ with a collection of archival photographs from the early 20th century…and studio portraits from photographer Dimitri Yermakov.”
A quote from the exhibit: “In an era when the statehoods of Armenia and Artsakh are under attack from their violent neighbors – who, in parallel to territorial claims and an ongoing blockade, engage in politics of cultural appropriation and erasure while the world plays blind – Armenian carpets stand as bold statements of statehood. Let the individual stories of each carpet from James Tufenkian’s private collection unfold with their own voice. United, they form a collective narrative bringing forth Armenians’ fundamental contribution to the history of carpet making.”
