Yerevan Road Trip!

This weekend was a well needed one. Kevork and I arrived in Yerevan on Friday while the rest arrived Saturday; we got an extra night of fun.

The Pan-Armenia games’ opening was the main reason for us taking this road trip and it was well worth it.

The night started off with all the athletes lined up in front of the stage and about 25,000 viewers held back by barriers. The usual things happened, speakers spoke and people cheered, but what surprised me was when international pop sensation Andy came on stage and gave a 5 minute speech BUT DID NOT SING.

As the first performer came on stage, the police officers removed the barriers and the crowd wildly ran to the stage. I stood still watching this in shock, until I finally realized that a performer was coming on stage. We finally decided to go by the stage and dance a little, all the teams from different countries were in little circles doing their own dances, and we obviously joined the western America team. When the festivities were over with, we went to an after party with all of the teams at a place called ‘Aftershock’. Just picture a small places packed to the door with diasporan Armenians just dancing with the music of Bob Sinclair and Pitbull.

The next morning we had one of the strangest breakfasts of our lives; we ate Armenian-Chinese food. The restaurant itself was set up like any other Chinese restaurant, and the food was amazing. While eating a group of Chinese people walk in, our group simultaneously stops talking and just stares as these 4 Chinese men walk through the restaurant and take their seats. We anxiously wanted to ask where they were from and what they were doing here, but everyone was too embarrassed. Since we’re on the subject of food, let’s speak of our dinner experience.

We had finally found a Lebanese restaurant that actually served chikufte, manti, and jajekh. Everyone was pleased with that restaurant, we will definitely return to that establishment. At this point it is about 8:30 P.M. and we are getting ready to go home (Gyumri). The van arrives at 10 and everyone plans on sleeping in the car for the 2 hour trip.

We get settled in our seats and rest our heads when the driver plays a song and turns the volume up to the fullest! Our first reaction is to wake up and start clapping and dancing. No one was really mad, we just had big smiles on our faces as the driver was dancing and driving at the same time. There is not much else I could write about this weekend but there are many more stories to be told when we get back to America. Just approach any of us and ask us what happened that weekend.

Levon Abrahamian