Conductor woke up all the passengers at 5.30 a.m. I don’t know why. I could see dry treeless hills fruit orchards and wheat fields. Some houses of villages hills have gone away from one side.
Armenian person and his daughter were also ready. Hamo is his name. He showed me Mount Ararat. They are in Turkey but are Armenian before Turkish genocide. He kept on sharing and giving a part of history.
At 7.45 a.m. or so we reached Yerevan Train Station. He showed me before that Metro Line also. Barburse Street where I want to go is close to his house. He will guide me to the place and we will go by metro. He and his daughter were moving fast and then would stop for me to catch them. I wanted to stop at the station but Hamo told me everything is closed at this time of the morning. We went to the metro. He also bought my ticket for 100 dram. It is actually is plastic small disc. You put in the slot and then to as green light in shower. There is one escalator which is very long. Everything written in Armenian and Russian. As it was morning time, Metro Train was empty and we got seats. Our station was 5th. We got down and Hamo again gave me history of Republic Square. When we came to the main road, Hamo’s daughter Lucy ran up to go to her home. Hamo with his baggage came with me. After much walking we reached Barbuse Street and then again walked down to 42 Nos. After 2-3 times bus passed us, a youngman peeped through the window. Hamo explained to him of my coming. He came down and opened the door. I thanked Hamo and noted his phone number and entered Boris house. He was sleeping when we came. I thought Boris to be a middle age person but he is a young man and introduced himself as Boris. I climbed to the 2nd floor. This is an apartment. There are three rooms on the floor. Quite large. Boris showed me one room. This is for 7000 dram with a bathroom outside. Another room has an attached bath. This is for 10000 dram. Both with breakfast. Third room is for themselves. There is old lady whom I though as Boris mother. Later I came to know she is his grandmother. She has to clean the room and would take sometime. We sat in the sitting area outside. In these rooms, internet and a computer is kept for 24 hrs use. Room was ready in a few minutes. In the meantime I came to know more about Boris’s home. This was started by Boris’s grandfather who was Prof. of Maths in Armenia University. Boris has done Masters in Statistic but not interested more in the subject. He is working for a few days in the Administration of a Hotel. I opted for 7000 dram room. This is a booking of a double bed. Fully carpeted, a T.V., a hot stand, chairs, a small table, many electric sockets. Two wooden wardrobes and one side very wide window and good coloured double curtains. I went to the toilet after two days. Stomach was well cleared. I asked for a cup of tea. Boris called me on 1st floor where there is a dining table.It is a large room with dining table on one side. Lots of decent cutlery and wine glasses shows the richness of the house. I had tea and bread with cheese and buter. They also served me some honey which of course I did not take. The old lady served the tea. This was my breakfast also. After having breakfast, I came to the room and slept for two hours. At 11.30 I got up and took shower. Water was lukewarm but shower was good. Then I got ready and went down.
As told by Boris, I found a Super Market and Zingon Restaurant. First I went to the Super Market. There was an exchange counter. I exchanged 100 US $ i.e. 419 dram for a dollar. I also changed 5 Gel from from Georgian. Then I bought few items from Super Market. The girls in the market were speaking English and were very helpful. I bought 2-3 pieces of fruit, tomatoes and 100 gms walnuts, a bottle of water. I found green chilly over there and I took 2 for myself. The total cost of all items was 2250 dram or 5 US $ or so.
I walked across the restaurant and found shorma of beef and chicken. I asked for a wraps of chicken shorma. I also bought a bottle of curd milk which is also having cucumber cut pieces and some herbs. It was more than filling. I returned back to Boris Home. I was feeling tired and so again went to sleep. At 6.00 p.m. I again went down to Zingaon restaurant and asked for tea. It was nice but was costly i.e. 500 dram. I boarded a masaka (mini bus) No.46 and went till the end. I did not find City Centre. In fact I took the wrong side however I should have crossed the road and taken bus for opera. Returned to the Zingaon restaurant stop. It was getting dark and I did not want to go to City Centre now. I walked to the bridge and realized that we are on a hill side area where the Yeveran town is in the depression as I could see. I walked up to the Olympic Stadium. Took some pictures and returned back to the Home at 9.00 p.m. I had dinner of whatever I’d bought. For sometime I watched T.V. which has only 7 channels and then slept.
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