Sunday Hike

I went on yesterday around the hills of Vanadzor.  We went on a familiar path, but then veered off to try to find a trail up one of our mountains.

We started walking past the local Sanitarium, a 9-story building where only the first few floors are in use.  We passed the abandoned Soviet camp, then a not-so abandoned camp that still appears to be in use.  We saw a few dogs on the way, mostly just barking at us, but one in particular came running up to us, his tail wagging, circled around us, then ran ahead of us.

We didn't think much of it, but then the dog continued to follow us as we found a switchback and trekked up the the southern Vanadzor mountainside.  And our dog kept following us.  As we walked up we saw an Armenian hanging birds in cages just off the ground.  Not sure why exactly he was doing this, but our dog saw one of the cages still on the ground and ran for it, batting it with his paw.  We tried to push the dog off and yell at it, but it really wasn't our dog.  Eventually the Armenian chased off the dog down the hill and we continued up.

But minutes later our loyal pup had returned.  Most dogs, especially the stray ones, are afraid of humans and will bark but run away if you even pretend to pick something (like a rock) off the ground.  This dog seemed very friendly and didn't even snap when we tried to pull the dog off the bird cage.

As we made it up one hill, we saw a wonderful view of the city (after many almost beautiful views obscured by the treeline.  Sadly I didn't have my camera, though there was a fog rolling in and so most pictures wouldn't have shown up well most likely.  I've never seen Vanadzor from this angle and it was interesting trying to pinpoint the landmarks we knew from the people's-eye view.

We continued up the mountain east and found something I didn't know we had in Vanadzor; a soccer field.  It was right behind the sanitarium.  Just like a practice field, no bleachers or anything, but it was interesting to find out, having assumed there wasn't one nearby, and with no previous volunteers mentioning it.

Further up the hill we saw an Armenian with a rifle.  We advanced slowly at first, then said hello.  He had two beautiful hunting dogs.  Our dog and the other two started growling at each other but we did our best to keep them apart, and soon the hunter and his dogs left, but not after every dog marking its territory over one another on the same bush.

After we returned from the our dog finally left us once we entered the city outskirts and was chased off by another dog.

We then spent the day making a leisurely brunch of Hoppel Poppel and French Toast.  Hoppel Poppel, besides being a really fun word to say, is also a really good dish that is basically German leftovers.  generally we use peppers, onions, potatoes, and some pork or bacon (We have bacon in Vanadzor!  Newly tested-out this weekend!) in an egg dish that we bake in the oven.  But in the spirit of leftovers I have made it before with leftover Ratatouille and leftover fajita mix.

Later on my lazy Sunday I proceeded to get my first haircut by an Armenian in Armenia.  I went to a place that my friend had been to and received a decent haircut.  Previously I've just been buzzing my hair in the summers and letting it grow out in the winter.  The hairstyles here are very different and I have seen some awful haircuts on volunteers that have gone to barbers here, so I was a little nervous.  But everything seemed to turn out alright!  There were pictures on the table that I was able to point to and give a reasonable approximation of what I wanted, so that helped.

All in all a lazy sunday (well sans hike, I have a stuffy nose, so that was actually quite tiring) and then I went to bed early (9pm) so I could wake up and watch the Steelers game at 5:30 AM Armenia time.  Heartbreaking loss, but whatever.