Welcome to Armenia

The best thing about arriving at one's destination in the evening is that no matter how long you've been traveling, the opportunity to move directly to local time is yours. And we all know that moving to local time is the key to killing jet lag. So I was lucky to get settled into the hotel by 9:00 p.m. I got unpacked just enough to find my nightgown and my head hit the pillow for the better part of eight hours of heavenly sleep.

Breakfast selection at The Congress Hotel

Monday morning I woke up feeling normal and especially grateful that it was Labor Day in the U.S. and thus a holiday for the U.S government-funded program Denise is working for. That meant we were free to get out and explore and just relax, a pleasure that felt earned and deserved. We started with the breakfast buffet, which would please people from most of the world--Asia excepted. I was delighted to find fresh, flavorful tomatoes and cucumbers with fresh Armenian cheeses. The croissant might have been good but was covered in sugar.

A sign of modernity!

A morning "explore" took us in minutes to the heart of Yerevan, Republic Square. Built in Soviet times, four curvilineared buildings, two with bell towers (one with a clock)  make up the corners of the Square and wrap around an oval full of morning traffic. On our way to the Square we walked through tree-lined gardens and now-dry fountains bordered by outdoor cafes where people were hard at work sweeping and hosing down for a new day. Two things struck me immediately--lots of very nice benches and a good supply of places to get rid of trash. Most of the benches are wood and wrought iron, with the Yerevan url imprinted on the ends. Surely a sign of modernity, I think.

On the Square itself we found the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which shares a building but not an entrance with the Ministry of Environmental Affairs. Another building holds the national art museum and national history museum (again, separate entrances), which is high on our go-back-to list. We found a post office that actually had post card stamps for the U.S., which we bought from a woman who sat in front of a spectacular Soviet-era stained glass window inside the building. Having done our Reinka duty by entering a Post Office on day one, we have yet to see post cards anywhere. We also had the world's most expensive latte at the outdoor seating of the Marriott Hotel--this was justified as an antidote to the weak coffee served at breakfast. 

On a tip from a friend we walked up Northern Street to Opera Square. Northern Street has a story. It seems a few wheeler-dealers in the government used the power of eminent domain to seize property but then put it to private rather than public use. The store facades are huge and showy--with shops of Armani, Bally, Ferragamo, etc.Traffic was removed to create a pedestrian mall. It made for nice walking but felt bare and sort of like a Hollywood set. It turns out the backs of the buildings are not actually finished--so we were in fact walking through a "set." The EU Court has ordered significant damages be paid to the parties whose properties were seized for false purposes.

Opera Square

The top of Northern Street opens into the wide, welcoming Opera Square, which is ringed by benches and flower beds.A short walk along a heavily trafficked Mashtots Avenue nearby took us to the address of one of the apartments that may be a possibility for our temporary digs. Too much traffic on the street, we decided, despite the excellent location. The lesson learned on this walk is that places of interest are much closer than they appear to be on the maps...so maybe we have more geographical freedom in finding an apartment than we thought.

The rest of the day was designed to enjoy the hotel pool and relax in the sun. The deck chairs here offer the delightful option of a little personal sunshade for your head, which put both my head and my Kindle in the shade for easier reading. The water in the pool was sun-warmed and the area never really got crowded, so that except for the incessant pop music coming from the empty bar area, it was mostly quiet. We took immediate advantage of the presence of a Thai massage tent at pool's edge and each got a body scrub with oil. When it was over I felt I had shed the last vestiges of travel dust. But getting there took several steps and led us into international financial intrigue.

Note massage tent at end!

To make an appointment, I had to go to the hotel's business office and order the treatment and get a three-part form with the appointment and price on it. I presented the form, as instructed, to the front desk with my Capitol One VISA card and was told they do not take Capitol One VISA (despite the VISA signs plastered all over the place). Eventually they took mine, but refused to take a second one for Denise. Our original theory was that because Capitol One does not charge its cardholders international exchange fees, we suspect the business has to pay those and thus Best Western won't accept Capitol One. But that got shot out of the water later in the evening when Denise went back to try to pay for hers with a Chase VISA, which they also refused. Both times they said there were problems in the transactions with those companies and their bank would not let them accept them. They urged us to use their cash machine and just get cash to pay for the service. Now we are feeling this is some kind of scam to push us toward cash (clearly better for them) or toward a credit card we have yet to present. Stay tuned to see if they will take Bank of America or a Master Card.