The Stairs at the Centre of the City

Cascade, Yerevan, Armenia

Summer is back in all its fury. Today is 40C. Which is actually normal for Dubai. (Hell, it could reach friggin 50C… Hope it doesn’t this year).

We’re still struggling in the Project, and completion doesn’t look likely for 16-June. I thought it’d be a little less hectic by now, and we’d fix our working timing to alternative Saturdays off, but boy, am I wrong?!

Apart from work, there ain’t much happening. COVID is still all over the UAE. Dubai has started relaxing the ‘lock-down’ (not that there was ever an official lock-down). Malls are reopened but only for those between ages 12 and 60, meaning that the kids can’t go. No, not even to the food court or the cinema. And we wouldn’t want the little ones to go out anyway, because they’ll touch everything (and the little one will even pick things up from the floor and put them in his mouth!) School’s still online, which freaks the missus out. Only 4 more weeks to go before the end of the school year, can’t wait for that to happen. But flights are still grounded for most of the world, so it’s looking increasingly likely that we’ll be stuck in burning hell (50C – what else do you call that?) for the summer vacation.

For the time being, here’s a quick picture post of our 2 week summer vacation in 2018 – to the Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan, in that order). It so happened that when we went, it was a heat friggin wave! 40C when we landed in Armenia! (So, not much different from what we’re experiencing now, hehe.)

Here’s Yerevan, capital of Armenia, the first country of our visit. (If you read the guide books or articles, they’d always recommend visiting Azerbaijan before Armenia, because they might not let you into Azerbaijan, if you’ve visited Armenia beforehand. This is definitely true IF you’ve visited the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which is recognized by most countries as an integral part of Azerbaijan, but is in all, but name, the Republic of Artsakh, predominantly populated and governed by Armenians. And accessible only from Armenia). We had no intention of visiting Nagorno-Karabakh, besides the flight schedules the other way round (i.e. from Dubai into Baku (Azerbaijan), and from Armenia back to Dubai), are all screwed up. So, we stuck to our plans and voila! We made it without a glitch!


These staircases in the centre of Yerevan are the Cascade – It’s become something like the defining landmark of the city


I call them the Stairs of Quirky Art – There’re modernist sculptures and art pieces, all over, around and under the stairs. The cascade stairs are actually the roofs of the Cafesjian Museum of Art, and cover an interior of exhibit halls connected by escalators.


Statue of the greatest wizard of Armenia… Kidding, let’s see. It’s the statue of …Alexander Tamanian, the primary architect of modern Yerevan (How do I know? Wikipedia mate, hehe!)


Now I know what Jayden is talking about! He’s always said that there’re some round fountains in Georgia or Azerbaijan. It’s actually these! In Yerevan, Armenia


Anu, with a view of the second tier, the garden courtyard below, and the city. On a clear day, you’d be able to see the majestic Mount Ararat (the national symbol of Armenia) from the Cascade!


Third tier of the Cascade – see people gathering below at the base / courtyard – they’re preparing for a massive folk dance!


Fountain on the fourth tier of the Cascade (there’re five tiers)


At the top of the Cascade! It’s 40C when we were there, but luckily there was a constant breeze in Yerevan (not like what we’re having in Dubai now, stifling hot, stagnant and humid…)


Now, that’s what I call unity! A massive folk dance at the base of the Cascade! It was a Friday evening and anyone can join! Anu did (I? I was err… busy taking videos, somebody has to do it, right?)


Café scene around the Cascade, Yerevan, Armenia


The Cascade, at night


Let’s call it a night. Ending the day (and the post) with a shawarma dinner and wine. A shawarma with a difference though – pork! Where else in the world, can you get a pork shawarma / kebab! And they’re good and hugely popular. The shop (Artashi Mot – it’s not written in English, it’s completely in Armenian, but Google Maps has the English equivalent of everything – hah!) lies just around the corner from the hotel-apartment we stayed in on Stepan Zoryan Street. We bought our dinner there for 3 nights!