Bank Day in Yerevan

We went to Yerevan today to set up our bank accounts, and in doing so got our first real taste of the capitol city here in Armenia. It's definitely a world apart from the villages a short van ride away. The city is filled with parks, statues, impressive building, wide sidewalks, open air cafes (which I'm told are seasonal), and a really vibrant pedestrian street scene.  

After settling our business at the bank, we were given an hour to walk around downtown Yerevan, starting in Republic Square. The photo below shows the square, framed on one side by the absolutely fantastic natural history museum. If you're ever hanging out in Yerevan and don't know what to do with yourself, definitely check out this museum. Admission is very inexpensive (300 dram with a student ID- this is about 75 cents back in the US)- and in addition to many other cool things, you get to see the world's oldest shoe. For reals. It's 5,000 years old, and it totally still looks like a shoe. Well, maybe more like a slipper. Either way, it's worth a visit. 

Outside the museum there's a really cool fountain, and we tried to take a picture in front of it, but it turned into a selfie-fail. We need to take some lessons from Armenians, who seem to have mastered the selfie and taken it to new levels. Although, for some reason they always seem to apply the same over-exposed washed-out filter.... I wonder why that is. 

 

After visiting the museum and the disastrous selfie-attempt, we took some time to walk around the neighborhood of Republic Square- mostly we just saw shops that were too expensive for us to afford on a Peace Corps volunteer's budget- although I did splurge and buy myself some gelato from one of the Italian cafes that are scattered throughout the neighborhood. (Apparently, one of the largest contracting firms in the country is Italian, and this has given birth to a relatively intense Italian food scene in Yerevan.) We also saw this interesting nipple fountain. 

Finally, right before we got back on our van to head back to Shahumyan, I saw what I was certain was the world's smallest bird. Look carefully at the photo below. It's right in front of the red mum in the center of the image. 

Turns out it's actually a moth. I guess I'm still getting used to this country.