Six days on a trip to Armenia. Day 3

We woke up at 7 am and the sky was so clear that from the window of the hotel room you could see the peak of the Ararat. Incredible! After a nice breakfast, I head to the Cascade. On th way I got lost, by mixing Tamanyan st. with Tumanyan st. The funny thing is that this street lead to a museum in a smaller scale but that could fit the drawing in the map I had. Finally I came across a very nice lady who was able to speak a perfect english and helped my way. The Cascade is a Complex, originally designed by architect Alexander Tamanyan, followed by Jim Torosyan and ended by the new benefactor, Gerard Cafesjian. It is a huge monumental building with more than 500 steps and an incredible view over the city. Before the Cascades there are 2 squares with some of the sculptures of the Cafesjian Collection. It´s interesting to see how Botero´s work blend in with the Tamanian style. On my way in I saw a lot of young couples dating there. But the exterior with the fountains and the stairs are for free. You can climb to the top by the exterior stairs or by escalators in the interior. The whole monuments is constructed with a very light stone (a local stone similar to travertino marble) and as I went almost at midday ot was blinding from the sun and the reflection of the walls and floor. The Complex houses 6 galleries with temporary exhibitions from the Cafesjian Collection. I only took the chance on visiting one, the Galley One which is placed in the entrance next to the gift shop. They were showing a selection of glass art, which was very well displayed andthink it was a wonderful selection. I have to confess I don´t know a lot about glass art but I felt that this exhbition was exquisite. For lunch I could finally find natural yoghurt, that they call madzun, asking half in english and half gesture language. It´s so good. In the afternoon I went to the History Museum. It is placed in the same building as the National Gallery in the Republic Square. The Armenian History is very long so the museum starts with some prehistoric tools and arrows that belonged already to the armenian culture! The Armenian culture is contemporary to the Persian and the Assyrian. They were very advanced. They had very nice fine pottery, we´ve seen a car with wooden wheels and even a diagram of the solar system including the atmosphere concept and the roundness of the earth. They had a special room for traditional costumes. They are so skillfully done and with such a nice taste to combine the different patterns. There were specialists in bobbinlaces and metal belts (which seemed as finely intricated as the lace). They also have flower embroideries as in the Russian culture and many hairdresses with coins and other decorative things.

Back on the XXc. it was heartbraking to read about the genocide. Unfortunatly there were just some texts translated. But the short text about genocide, and the photos were enough to make you cry. The story of the genocide is in the first day, 1,5 million people died, killed or starved in the desert. And still is not acknowledge as a genocide by a lot of countries. Not even the responsibles.