11 April 2010, Sunday

Vahan Topchyan

Looks like I'll be in Gyumri for a while longer. It's still rainy and cold and the roads are bad. I won't be able to make the trip through Georgia that I had hoped to make. But Gyumri's not a nice place and I'm enjoying my stay here. I have Peace Corps friends here, a lovely apartment to stay in (Judy's home) and it's a nice little city. I arrived here Friday. We hung about the house, avoiding the rain, and Judy cooked a wonderful meal for us. We did go to the big hotel here. It started out as a polyclinic, but morphed into a hotel and polyclinic. The hotel now helps to support the clinic.In addition, the hotel displays the work of local artists throughout the lobby and in the rooms. Each room features a different artist. Very unique. I fell in love with the art of Vahan Topchyan. Gyumri was once a center for the arts and it still retains some of that spirit, in spite of the earthquake devastation 22 years ago. The buildings have character. A lot of stone and only a little wood. The stone work around the country is varied and interesting, and here in Gyumri even more so as there's a variety in the buildings that you don't see elsewhere. After touring the hotel we walked over to the food market and picked up a few items. It was cold and rainy so we hustled along back home. Salads salads salads! I've had lots of green food these past few days. Wonderful. Saturday morning the sky was blue and the sun was shining. It was still cool outside but in the sun it felt good. We got a taxi and headed toward Marmashen, on the outskirts of Gyumri.

“The monastery at Marmashen is about 10km northwest of Gyumri, just past the village of the same name in the wide gorge of the Akhuryan River. There are three churches hewn from lovely apricot-colored tuff clustered together next to an orchard, plus the ruins and foundations of other structures nearby. The biggest church, Surp Stepanos, was built between 988 and 1029, with a 13^th-century gavit(forehall). An Italian team led restoration work in the 1960s, so intricately carved old church stones have been incorporated into newer building blocks. Beautiful carved tombs and khatchkars dot the land around the churches, and it's a peaceful, rural environment typical of Shirak, with grassy horizons. The caretaker is here 8am to 8pm daily, and he can recite some of the inscriptions on the sides of the churches by heart.” (Lonely Planet)

It was a lovely and moving experience. The restoration work was beautifully done and the old stones retain the love and prayers of 1,000 years of people who have passed through there.

After the monastery trip we visited another art gallery here, the Two Sisters Gallery or perhaps more accurately the Aslamazyan Gallery. The art of Miryam and Eranim Aslamazyan are primarily displayed here though at different times there are art shows with different artists displayed.Very nice. A lovely day. Then home to again eat a great meal, cooked by Judy. Pasta noodles with parmesan cheese and spinach along with a nice tossed salad.

Today, Sunday, we awoke to gray sky and dreary drizzle. So we're hanging about the apartment, catching up on writing and emailing. Though now, at noon, a little blue sky and sunshine is beginning to appear. Perhaps we'll head to the market soon for fresh veggies for a stir-fry tonight. Maybe Barbara and Stacie will join us for dinner. So, I'm stuck in Gyumri. But I can think of a lot worse places to be stuck – for instance, in a marshrutka on a muddy pot-holed road in southwestern Georgia. :o)