When we woke up, we had to have a quick breakfast so that we could go to the best candy store in the world, Grand Candy! It was a five minute bus ride to the shop, and when we got there all of us tried to get through the door at once. The ceiling had little remote controlled planes and helicopters flying around. Once we got into Grand Candy we ordered 10 vanilla and 10 chocolate bonchiks. A bonchik is like a small Armenian version of fried dough. It has either vanilla or chocolate cream on the inside and powdered sugar on top. We each were only aloud one bonchik, but we devoured them. They were so good! Then we went next door to the chocolate store and bought many boxes of delicious candies. We also bought many of their famous truffles and enjoyed them while we were getting on the bus. Then we dropped the parents off at the hotel and then kept driving to the statue of Sasountsi Tavit.
We took some group pictures in front of the statue and then some by ourselves. The statue of Sasountsi Tavit wears an angry and fierce expression to represent that we Armenians want our land back and that we are brave and will fight for our lands. Then we got into the bus to go to the Erebouni Fortress. The name Yerevan came from the word Ereboni which means victory in Ourartian.
In Erebouni we got a tour of the museum and learned about our culture. We got to see the original birth certificate cuniform of Yerevan, found in 1950 by Rafael Gazarian. This year we will be celebrating Yerevan’s 2,797th anniversary. We got to see many weapons and a very big shield used for decoration only because it weighs 30 kilograms. We got to see royal silver cups that dated back to 700 or 800 bc. They had designs of horses and bulls on them. We also got to see some stones that had frescos using the colors red, blue, and orange. The Oorardagan kings used these colors. We also got to see some of the ruins from the fortress, but none of them were the original. The ruins had all been rebuilt but in the same design. Then we took some pictures and got into the bus to go to the statue of Vartan Mamigonian.
Once we finished our five minutes of fame by the statue, we went across the street to Vernisage. Once in Vernisage, we split into two groups. We all went to buy stuff for our friends and family back in Boston. We shopped for four hours. Then we went to Mr. Barbecue’s, a restaurant that served food like the food in America. Then we went to the hotel to get ready for a dance and song show that night.
The show was very beautiful. It was full of pretty dances and nice Armenian songs. It was a good concert.
Then we went to dinner at Mezzo, a nice jazz restaurant, and we had to wear nice clothes. They had a great six person band that played good jazz music. We loved it there.
Rose Tinkjian