yohankang · 1 year ago
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posting it in black&white bc it's bloody but heyyyy look at my new tattoo!!
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domi-scu · 2 months ago
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Day off, hallelujah!
The plan was to start with some shopping at Vernissage and then look at the main touristy parts of Yerevan. To begin with, I forgot my hat in the room so I was very aware I’m risking a heatstroke but thankfully, that was avoided as the city centre has loads of trees that cool things down quite significantly. The Vernissage market was larger than expected and I think I looked through everything multiple times. This meant that my tourist day turned into a shopping day with some great finds.
The handmade cashmere scarf was the biggest win. It looked beautiful and I knew I wanted it right away but knowing how expensive it probably was, I hesitated. I also knew that I’ll be given a higher price as a tourist so I googled how much cashmere costs and wasn’t expecting anything below £50 AT BEST. I figured I would ask and just walk away said but when the woman said £14????? I have a new scarf. Another great find was a tiny bookshelf carved out of wood with miniature song books by an Armenian songwriter (I think. The language barrier is real.)
Crossing the streets was a bit of an experience. It took me a while to figure out because there seems to be no rhyme or reason to it so I just had to wait for a local to show up and follow their lead for a while. It’s one way to do it!
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I ended up spending £50 at the market after 2.5h so I figured that was enough for one day and moved on to a café and lunch. Touristy stuff will have to come later. For how little I’ve seen, I walked a surprising amount so by the time I finished my food, I was glad to go back to the hotel to drop things off and take another taxi back to the centre to a music marketing workshop.
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The information was totally outside of what I do but I did learn a thing or two that I might try to apply. Don’t ask me what, I need to think on it for a while. During the networking session after, I got to know a local artist whose goal it is to collect and record lullabies from around the world. How innovative and interesting. She kindly invited me to join her and half the Portuguese band called Malotira at a ‘hidden away café with the best coffee around’.
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It was raining as we left so we got pretty soaked but I got to experience the local metro! And get told off for taking photos in it too- who knew it’s not allowed? I'm also really curious to know why. Maybe tourists tend to fall of the escalators when they take selfies.
My new friend wasn’t lying about this place. We got to choose from about 20 kinds of Colombian coffees. I opted to have mine with ice cream and we also got some homemade chocolate with it too. Both the coffee and chocolate were indeed one of the best I’ve ever had.
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We headed back just in time to catch the concert of the best tar player in Armenia with a visiting Albanian polyphonic group- that was very new to me and, once again, impressive. The entire group along with the EU ambassador and one of the UK guys went to a nearby beer garden afterwards so I joined them for drinks along with the other half of Malotira band. One of them being from Chile, the other one from UK (as it turns out, none of the guys from the Portuguese band are actually Portuguese).
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As we were chatting, one of them mentioned that he once played a gig in Slovakia. He couldn’t remember where but said he really loved the venue and all he can remember is that it was a train station that was turned into a music venue. I knew immediately where that was- my favourite venue in my hometown. What a coincidence!
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As we were slowly getting kicked out because they were closing, we asked for our individual bills- only to find out that the EU ambassador already paid everything (and forgot his tie there in the process). How lovely of him. I then got talked into going next door because apparently this is the place to get the best cognac. And who am I to argue with that, especially when I have multiple meetings and a panel tomorrow? I joined in and was given a 10 year old cognac. I’m no expert but it was surprisingly enjoyable. We finally headed back to the hotel and I was asleep around 2am.
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