Forbes: Yerevan is a jewel for travel, food and wineNovember 5, 2019 - 11:11 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - The Armenian capital city of Yerevan is generally a safe, friendly and vibrant city with attractive architecture and rich history. Nicknamed the ‘pink city’ because of the color of volcanic tufa rock from which many buildings are constructed, this is a city where strolling allows you to see plenty, Forbes travel writer Tom Mullen says in a fresh article. Begin at the Cascade Complex, a massive limestone stairway built in 1980 that joins two segments of the city, the article says, also recommending visitors to walk past "the adjacent, handsome Armenian Opera Theater" to to Republic Square. The piece offers an insight into Yerevan Wine Days, a big festival, with visitors from Russia, the U.S., Austria, France, Thailand, Japan, China and elsewhere. "To discover the roots of this festival, walk to where Pushkin Street T-junctions with Martiros Saryan Street. This is nicknamed ‘wine street’ because it is closed only to pedestrian traffic for Yerevan Wine Days—a two-day, free festival focused on showcasing national food and some 200 Armenian wines. The event includes music and traditional dances," Mullen says. "Food in the city is served mezze style and many plates bulge with vegetables. Dishes include ghapama—a festival dish of pumpkin stuffed with rice, apples, honey and raisins; lahmacun—Armenian pizza, without cheese; khorovats, or barbecued vegetables, and gata—a pie with nuts and honey. Beef and lamb kebabs are also ample." The feature also recommends attending a festival if you visit. The Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival, as well as the Raspberry Festival, are both in July, while the Barbecue Festival (located in Lori province) is in August, it says. "City temperatures hover at freezing during winter and reach the mid 90’s (35 degrees Celsius) during summer. The city also has a small (10 station) underground metro, built by Soviet engineers," the author says. "There are non-stop flights from 20 countries to Yerevan’s Zvartnots International Airport (including a direct, 4-hour 40-minute flight from Paris). U.S. citizens can enter Armenia without a visa and stay for up to 180 days." Mullen said in another article that Armenian wines — despite a checkered past — look toward a brilliant future. Top stories David Vardanyan is the son of former Karabakh leader Ruben Vardanyan who who is currently imprisoned in Azerbaijan. The number of state universities will be reduced from 23 to 8 by 2030, Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Zhanna Andreasyan has said. From September 21 to November 11, a total of 2,820 Russians registered at a place of residence in Armenia, the police has said. The situation on the contact line between Karabakh and Azerbaijan was relatively stable overnight, the Defense Army says. Partner news | Kazakhstan welcomes Yerevan, Baku’s agreement to meet in Almaty Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has welcomed the agreement of Baku and Yerevan to hold negotiations in Almaty. Armenia offers to temporarily host, preserve Gaza manuscripts The Armenian Foreign Minister has said Yerevan is ready to help preserve manuscripts from the conflict zone in Gaza. Aliyev says no need for mediators in Armenia-Azerbaijan process Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev believes that Baku and Yerevan do not mediators in the process of normalizing relations. U.S. believes peace is “possible” in South Caucasus The United States continues to believe that peace is possible in the South Caucasus, Vedant Patel said. |