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I’m back! This time, my journal lay dormant for a mere five months! Too bad I can’t extrapolate the diminishing interval between visits…
In the spirit of variety, the honor fell to Czech Airlines to carry me to my homeland this time around. Had I known of their draconian policies, this may not have been the case. They had packed all 30 passengers on an overnight flight into as few rows as possible, giving weight and balance of the aircraft as an excuse. No one could move to the empty rows, even if we spread out as homogeneously as possible, and this made sleeping nearly impossible on this last leg of my 22-hour journey from L.A.
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Yerevan's crisp morning air reinvigorated me, almost miraculously, so that less than three hours of sleep later, I was already out the door shopping for breakfast: fresh bread, cheese, and heavenly sweet tomatoes. I had been looking forward to this breakfast as much as everything else that is part of the implausible magnetic field (strength increasing with distance) that draws me back to Armenia with such frequency. The obscene saltiness of the cheese, balanced perfectly by the best tomatoes on this planet, sandwiched between layers of bread baked less than an hour ago. With no one around to count the cups of coffee accompanying the meal, this is a slice of heaven indeed.
Coming to Armenia because of my “day job” as a space physicist means that I’ll have precious little time for photography. I’ve tried planning things in advance and am keeping my fingers crossed…
Stepan has arranged for his friend Gago to be my guide today, as he is recovering from an illness and can’t travel with us. Gago’s silver Niva is waiting outside even before I’m ready, and I rush to leave the confines of Yerevan for Gegharkunik and the southern shore of Lake Sevan. I’m told, by the way, that the Niva’s color is rare enough that a policeman once pulled Gago over and asked for his permit to repaint the car!
Odometer set to zero, we rocket out of Yerevan. Apparently, all Niva drivers (a generalization based on a sample size of 2) have lead feet, a fact that I appreciate only on the open highway.
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