Day Two in the Land That Smiles Forgot: the Free Walking Tour

The Armenian National Opera and Ballet Theatre.
Don't be fooled by the pretentious "-re" spelling of "Theatre." Tickets are cheap.

The Free Walking Tour of Yerevan started at 4:30 p.m. and continued for three and a half hours until it was dark. There was a meal break in the middle, so it was not continuous walking the entire time.

The tour started in front of the national museum. The tour guide was pleasant and -- this is the plot twist to this Armenian vacation -- she talked. She actually communicated with us.

This area is now known as "Republic Square," displacing the old name of "Lenin Square" from a bygone era. The 100-foot tall statue of Lenin is gone, too.

But not this house. It pre-dates the Soviet era. It is built of black basalt (volcanic rock).

Here is some communist, socialist realism art that did survive:

And more communist art. This is a statue honoring Stalin's close Armenian friend, Stepan Shahumyan.

The Shahumyan Monument. Because of Armenia's historically cordial and complicated relations with Russia (primarily as a bulwark against the Turks and the Persians) (although Armenia now had very good relations with Iran), Armenia chose not to destroy much of its communist art and design. A 100-foot tall Lenin, however, was too much, even for the Armenian Russophiles.

This is a Soviet brutalist style building now gussied up into a bank building.

The metal tree does a great job of hiding the socialist realism facade.

I don't have many photos of the tour because I already had photographed the Republic Square area past the point of exhaustion. In between the very photogenic start and the photogenic end of the tour, the middle part was full of great information about Armenia, including the Armenian perspective on the recent peace deal negotiated between Armenia and Azerbaijan. But it was not full of photo ops.

After the dinner break, it was dark. The tour ended at the Cascades, a Soviet brutalist style massive staircase that leads to an upper part of Yerevan.

The fountains were in working order here on the north side of Yerevan. Colorful, too.

The tour ended, and it was time to head back to the hotel to rest my feet for the next day's excursion.

But there's always time to photograph from statuary. This is the Martiros Sarian Statue. He is as a communicative as most residents of Yerevan.