
After getting back from Echmiadzin we attempted to go to another very historical town of Garni which featured a fortress along with a very old temple/monastery of Greghard. When we got back we started looking for the 58 or 66 bus to a place called GAI Poghots (behind Yerevan's showroom) from Berekamutyun and then taking the metro there. We kept on getting distracted on our way there however. For instance, we ran accross a Shia Mosque with a beautiful courtyard in it. We decided to take a look in it since neither of us have seen a Shia Mosque considering most of Turkey is Sunni. It was a nice piece of architecture that added color to an almost colorless city. However, it was also partially a madrassa. I don't have too much of a problem with Madrassas in this part of the world since they are more liberal then there counterparts in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. However I wasn't too thrilled to see a picture of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme ruler of Iran, overlooking the classroom. After what has been happening in Iran the past couple of weeks, I think he deserves the middle finger, a fist pump (same thing as middle finger in Turkey) and one large ass kicking.


After getting on the right bus, we tried telling the bus driver where we needed to go but they had no idea what we were trying to tell them. We had a sneaking suspicion that we might have miss wrote the directions down. However, we got off the bus at a pretty interesting location. We got to see this one very famous statue dedicated to all the cossacks who fought and died in the Russian Persian Wars in 1826-1827. At that time was using the area of Armenia, I believe, to stage military conquest over the northern frontier of the Persian Empire.





We started walking around the park close to the area. Throughout the park we noticed even more monuments dedicating themselves to the closeness between Russia and Armenia. And on our way there, we saw a peculiar building with an even more peculiar flag...

The house I would probably belong to if I wasn't a muggle.

Harry Potter's house...

Oddball house where my good friend Lessa belongs (jk)...

And the evil house, the one my sister goes to (jk)....

Ross and I accidentally came across Hogwarts...in Armenia! Basically we found the Chucky Cheese substitute in Armenia. This place is themed like a Chucky Cheese is in the states, however this theme is far more superior then a pizza loving mouse. One thing Armenia has that America doesn't I guess. While Ross and I were busy making fools of our selves outside the entrance, one of the employees who spoke some english started talking to us. She gladly took the oppurtunity to practice her english with us. She also started hitting on me which was flattering and surprising. She was an Armenian that wanted out, and like many look to the rare American who might cross their path as their only way. She told us her dreams of one day leaving Yerevan for New York City, and what she wanted to do there. It is interesting how the American Dream has been exported to many other cultures/nations all around the world.
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