Armenia, part 2

Daniel, my new German friend, is gone and it’s time to face life alone since I started the trip. “Alone”, sometimes that word scares but is it true that I am ever alone? I go to have a really good breakfast (breakfasts are really important in my life now! – yep, I changed), but just 3 minutes before they finish serving it, anyway the lady smile at my sleepy face and gave me my portion. I stayed there planning the next part. I really want my visa to go to Iran, and I tried to push some doors. Another day exploring Yerevan and looking at new faces, I love doing this. One night I met Asha, a local girl, who offered herself to show me around. We arranged to meet at Tumanyan statue, I spent 30 minutes looking for this statue asking local people who sent me to a variety of places! At the end I found the place and it was my fault, I was asking all the time for Tamanyan statue, and it seems that my Armenian pronunciation is not that good, he. We met and talked a bit about everything, I was showing them my beautiful Jujuy and she showed me the place where she comes from (near the Iranian border). We met some of her friends and one of them even sang a song for me, he said it is a typical one. I have to say that even though it is a nation that carries a painful past, Armenia is a nation that carries a positive present. I stood at the top of the “cascade” at night for a while and I looked at the city, I thought a lot…a lot.

Another day I was sitting in front the computer planning the things to do later, and a French guy greeted me and invited me to join him and an English man for lunch, a French cooking, I could only say yes. He was also stuck in Armenia waiting for his Visa to go to Iran, and the English man, well… it wasn’t so clear to me. But after 15 minutes we were all friends, and we were even talking about the Iron Lady and Maradona. The French didn’t know anything about the dirty war so he could hear the 2 versions of the conflict that seemed to be very similar. My camera broke, so I bought a very cheap one, the seller said I had a 2 year guarantee, I said to him I’d be back in 2015 to see him…

Another day when I returned from the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh (that is another story) there was a film festival in Yerevan so I went to watch a French-Swedish movie in a theatre called “Theatre Moscow” gosh, whoever you are you have to watch this film, it is called “Rendez Vous in Kiruna”. At night we (Fred, the French and I) met another girl to go and watch another movie, a Polish one, called Black Thursday, gosh, I almost lost my hope again, so many deaths, and so many stories that are only personal stories of loss and grief that nobody will ever know. But the movie finished and the rains started and we went to chat with this girl, she liked Margaret Thatcher and she hated Russians. Not a good combination. She told us that 5 years ago nobody could say anything negative about the government, chances of you getting into problems were high (it reminds me of Argentina now, but we have a bit more freedom). She wants to go to South America someday, well, she knows where to stay now in Argentina.

There was music in the air, there was laughter, and there were people smiling. I could see old couples walking hand to hand. There is no terror to fear (or maybe there is one inside all of us that we need to eliminate?). My heart stopped bleeding and started to sing, to sing a song that I didn’t know, or a song that I have never felt before (if it is correct to say that we feel songs). Surprisingly I didn’t hear anybody mentioning the most famous music band in Armenia, System of a Down (SOAD), but I found something on the walls. It’s impossible to forget the things we are proud of, isn’t it? My visa didn’t arrive the time they promised, I decided to leave, Armenia has its borders closed to Turkey and Azerbaijan, and open to Iran and Georgia, but I have the doors closed to go to Iran so I need to go back to Georgia, border Turkey and head to one of the destinations I’ve never thought of going before, Iraq. My heart is singing a song of redemption, I don’t remember the lyrics, it happened only in Armenia…

just in case you don't know SOAD...here is a little video =) 
Aerials - System of a Down