Monday, June 21, 2010

Travel, A language lesson, and Cognac for breakfast

Arrived at Heathrow Terminal 1 around midday, with a few hours before my flight. My luggage was very overweight (by about 5 kilos) however I was able to persuade the friendly woman at the check in desk to let it go as I was off to do a placement for a charitable organisation.

Said my goodbyes to Dad and Will, and headed into the terminal. Got a bit excited when I heard my friend Sara from uni was getting a flight from Heathrow at the same time, but she was leaving from Terminal 4, so I had to pass the time wandering around the shops instead.

Caught the plane to Vienna and then spent another 4 hours doing the same thing, interrupted by a plate of surprisingly good sausage and chips and a random conversation with woman from Thailand who had come to Austria for three days to do a test for a job with the UN.

Arrived in Armenia very early today (4.45 in the morning), and was met by Sargis at the airport. Exciting to get my first look at my home for the next 11 weeks. We jumped into a taxi (no-one else wore a seat belt, apparently the norm in Armenia), and headed into the city.

Yerevan Airport

The Yerevan suburbs are quite different from those in the UK, with lots of 5 or 6 storey apartment blocks, with people hanging their washing out to dry on the balcony. Despite the warnings of the guide book the driver was very sensible, and the roads were in pretty good nick.

In the taxi Sargis taught me my first bit of Armenian:

Barev = Hello

Merci or shnor ha ka lu tyun = Thank you

Ha = Yes

Che = No

We pulled up to a flat at around 5.30 am, and was met by a very friendly but also very sleepy Ishxan, my host for the next 10 days. I managed to grab a few hours sleep before I was woken up at 10am by Ishxan going off to work. Before he went in introduced me to his brother Mikhail, who showed me how to use the shower and then cooked me an Armenian omelette for breakfast!

It was very tasty, and he followed it up with a cup of tea with cognac, apparently another Armenian speciality, although I don't think I will have that for breakfast every day.

5 comments:

Jith said...

1. Always wear seatbelt :D
2. *storey
3. Tea + cognac = wut!!

xxx

Dichohecho said...

1. I preferred the font in the first post (Georgia?)
2. Don't like the title font.
3. What's the background picture? You should have a pretty photo by Rajitha instead.
4. Content good, carry on!

Jith said...

Sarah, now you've pointed it out, the title font is annoying me. Gr. Although I think he used the same font in both posts, only some sections of this one use sans serif instead for some unknown reason.

Dichohecho said...

Hmm. It was doing something strange when I looked before. Oh well.

Jith said...

S'fixed now :D

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