Excursions in Armenia During PST

Armenia is a country with an incredibly long history. As such, old monasteries, churches, and other historical monuments are scattered throughout Armenia. During PST, we had the opportunity to visit a few of them. I love seeing the incredible architecture, and learning about the things that have happened in the past, but I am honestly not much of a history buff. I don’t soak in the knowledge enough to retain what I have learned, and most definitely I can’t bring these places alive for you with the information I have about them. So, I will show you pictures of where I’ve been, and tell you that they are beautiful and I’m glad I got to see them. And maybe I can let slip a fact or two that I remember. But if you want to learn more, you will have to do it on your own. If you learn anything interesting, please let me know; I’d love to hear it!

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The Garni Temple is super super old, dating back to the 3rd Century BC. It was built for royalty, I think, and was destroyed by an earthquake in 1679. My favorite part of my visit to this place, besides getting to see the temple and the gorge around it, was visiting with other Peace Corps Trainees. This was a day that I really needed the companionship of other Americans. So I spent more time talking to them than learning about the history of the place.

Garni Temple, Armenia

Me and most of my training village at Garni Temple

The Geghard Monastery is absolutely huge, with all kinds of nooks and crannies to explore. Parts of it were carved completely out of the stone mountainside; my favorite part was a large chamber with incredible acoustics where some of us took turns singing songs and letting the music soar around the room. I could have stayed in there forever. The surrounding countryside has absolutely beautiful views of cliffs and mountains and valleys. Here’s your factoid: The main cathedral of the monastery was built in 1215.

Geghard Monastery, Armenia

The monastery at Sevan was built on an island in the 800′s. But since then, the waters have receded, and the remaining structures are on a peninsula, not an island. It was fun to be here, because I got to see the lake, and it was a gorgeous day to be outside. I also got to wade in the lake for a few minutes, but we weren’t really there long enough to swim.

Lake Sevan Monastery, Armenia

The Haghartsin Monastery is situated in another beautiful area of Armenia, near Dilijan. It, too, is very old, built between the 10th and 14th centuries.

Haghartsin Monastery, Armenia

You may know something about the Armenian Genocide in the early 1900′s. This is the extremely tragic, horrific series of massacres that led to over 1 million Armenian deaths. I absolutely cannot believe the terrible things that humans will do to each other. Makes me sick to my stomach to learn that this stuff goes on, and I can only hope that some day people will learn to treat each other better. Anyway, I got to go to the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan, and put my flowers around the eternal flame in sorrow and remembrance for the people who died. Visiting the museum and reading the accounts of everything that happened cast a pall over the rest of the day for me, but I can hardly complain.

Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan

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On a lighter note, I took part in a couple of fun extracurricular events as well during PST.

One was the Armenian dancing at the Cascade in Yerevan. This happens every last Friday of the month, and you can go and learn traditional Armenian dancing, taught by professional dancers in costume. There were people everywhere, and it was tons and tons of fun! It didn’t matter if you knew the steps or not; you could just find a place in the circle and grab someone’s hand, then watch the people around you to figure out what to do. Some dances were definitely harder than others…

Armenian Dances at the Cascade, Yerevan

Finally, Vartavar, or “Water Day.” This is a SUPER fun holiday that is traditionally celebrated 14 weeks after Easter. On this day, you should expect to get wet, because if you go outside you are basically giving people permission to dump buckets of water on you. In our training village, everyone got in the spirit, and crowds of us were in the streets for hours, filling our buckets and throwing water at anyone who would come near us. I only got a few pictures, for fear of bringing my camera outside and getting it wet. (That was a good call, because as I tried to walk down my street, I almost drowned, so much water was thrown at me by all the neighborhood kids!) But it was an amazing, amazing day. The weather was perfect for it, because it was very hot that day, and it felt good to get wet.

The drenching begins during Vartavar -- or Water Day -- in Armenia