Arrival to Stepanakert
Trip Start
Aug 10, 2006
1
5
Trip End
Aug 14, 2006
Stepanakert, Azerbaijan
Thursday, August 10, 2006
The journey from Yerevan to Stepanakert was ok, mainly because I was asleep most of the time. After arriving to Stepanakert I left the bus station and asked a local policeman about the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (where you are supposed to register upon arriving to Karabakh). I tried speaking to the policeman in Russian. After a few sentences he looked at me and said "I speak English". Then he explained I had to go two stations with a bus. Then he thought for a second, waved down a bypassing bus, paid the driver and told him where to drop me.
They just told me where I am not supposed to go (Azerbaijan border), wrote down a list of approved places that I stated I wanted to visit, and that was all. I took a taxi going from the Ministry to a house of a family where I was supposed to stay that night.
I came out of the taxi the same moment an elderly lady came out of number 23, Sacharov street. She smiled at me immediately, presented herself as Anna, and then showed me the room where I would stay. Three seconds after I put down my bag I was invited to lunch. It surprised me a bit, because I remembered the conversation I had with the ambassador about accommodation. "You can stay with this family, for 5000 a night, if you want something cheaper. But it is without breakfast!"
Anna's son and his wife and children are visiting here right now (they live in Moscow). So we had an enormous khorovatz together. I admired how fast and easily the bottles of vodka were disappearing in the men's throats, without them looking drunk! The only way you can tell people are a bit drunk, is the depth and sadness of their toasts. There is a toast with every new glass. At the beginning the toasts were to health, children, continuing my nation, their nation, Armenia, Karabakh, my parents ending with god and bright future.
I finally learned not to walk through the city during the day, but during the evening when the temperature is not THAT high. Now I am trying to do nothing between 13 and 16 o clock. And so I did nothing, sat on the veranda with the women, we drank coffee and then I ve been told my fate (from the coffee cup).
Now it is evening so I decided to explore Stepanakert a bit more. It is nicer than Jerevan. Smaller but a lot more European, cleaner, more organized. There are trash bins on every corner (and therefore less garbage), bus stations (in Yerevan you have to wave down a bus if you want to stop it). The city feels somehow more developed. Which is - considering the history, present, unemployment rate, level of income - surprising.
