Days 18 and 19

We returned to sunny Yerevan for the second half of Day 18.  It has hit us that we have less than a week left on GOLD and so we took ourselves out for some traditional Armenian food.  There was some confusion over finding the restaurant as it turned out to be on the second floor of a building.  The woman on the ground floor seemed perplexed by our desire to eat.  Much miming and rubbing of tummies ensued.

When we found it, we opened the door to a blast of music and masses of traditional Armenian paraphernalia hanging or resting from every available surface.  We sidled past the music group and were seated in huge carved wooden chairs. Awesome.

We used the time-honoured method of food ordering when you don't speak the language or read the alphabet: pointing and hoping.  We selected a variety of things on the basis that we could share and by the law of large numbers, something must end up being delicious.  And it was a win!  Everything turned out lovely!

We munched on stuffed cabbage leaves, roast vegetables, green beans with omelette, toasted lavash stuffed with cabbage, fried cheese and something called Julian which turned out to be chicken and mushrooms and cheese in a little pot.  We also had mash and chips and slices of jacket potato and, because we're in Armenia, bread.  We also ordered Armenian lemonade which turned out to be purple fizzy cherry-flavoured drink.

We didn't manage all the bread.  But we put paid to everything else and it was delicious!  Definitely the best meal we've eaten out.  The setting was great and we listened to the music and saw some traditional dancing too.  We went for a stroll after that to watch the fountains dance along to 'Under the Sea' from the Little Mermaid as well as Carmina Burana.

Day 19 dawned a toasty 33 degrees.  It's not been as hot as I'd feared (or as some hoped) but it's definitely warm.  We ran our errands and sorted out all the things we needed to do in the morning, got lost in a market and visited a lovely church.  It was quite new and it had a beautiful, clean style which was light and peaceful.

We trawled back to the centre for lunch and enthusiastically ordered some more Armenian lemonade.  And it was bright green and tasted of aniseed. Yuck.  We weren't sure why it wasn't the same as previously.  After lunch we popped to the supermarket and Rachael and I resumed the mantle of milk-purchasing.  We made our cups of tea with much trepidation.  The result?

Once it was a bit cooler, we went out for the evening.  We were met by two friends from camp and we all went bowling.  It turns out that Rachael is a secret bowling genius, getting 7 strikes across 2 games.  Let's just say that the rest of us are not secret bowling geniuses.  It was good fun though!

Then we walked through Yerevan to Lovers' Park.  It was very pretty and we found a picnic bench and munched our way through ice creams and some baklava.  And some tropical fanta.  Slurrrp.  This reminded us of the Armenian lemonade so we enquired of the Armenians who sniggered at us and said the Armenian lemonade just means a cheap fizzy drink and you get whatever.  That's us told then.

As I write this, it is day 20.  Terrifying thought indeed.  So we are off to a water park to cool down, slide down some slides and enjoy our day off, as tomorrow we head off to leader camp which promises to be GOLD fun of the most manic variety.

Much GOLD love to all,

Kirsty and Team Armenia