The hike of the North Team goes on:"On Day 7 we started off teaching at Margahovit’s Cultural Center where we met a big groups of enthusiastic, ready-to-learn children with great English language skills. Later we had the pleasure of watching two 9-year-old boys present a full conversation to us in English with each other, and we were in awe at how comfortable they were in their foreign language....They have great kids and employees at the cultural center, some warm welcoming families that have hosted Americans, recycling bins all throughout the village, and gorgeous views of mountains all around."
Village of Margahovit (the red dot in the middle of map) is located between Vanadzor and Dilijan, next after comes the village of Russians."Being on this trip has given me the opportunity to see Armenia on a whole different level and has made me realize that I HAVE TO BACKPACK MORE OFTEN! As a kid I never enjoyed camping or hiking and never really understood the beauty of nature, but now I can’t wait to go back home to my family and friends and explore all kinds of new places with them (and slightly show-off what I’ve learned on this trip as well, hehe)!" Andrea Lu“You know you’re in Armenia when…"-a nice man sees you on the side of the road, turns around, and hands you a dozen apricots while saying “Welcome to Armenia. Here are some Armenian apricots.” We were all so overwhelmed with joy we couldn’t stop laughing and smiling even after he left! It looks now is apricot season in Armenia! There are some good photos of nature posted from this section of the trip in the same blog, clicks on a photo make it go larger:http://walkacrossarm...d-8-north-team/-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
P.S. It looks Armenia is changing for the better with each passing year: recycling bins in Margahovit? Who would believe it!
First time I went to Vanadzor the Marshrutni left me near the state Soviet era bus station; I needed to urinate so I found the urinary at the station, it was smelling so bad I had to turn my head toward the door to get some fresh air or else I would have fainted from the bad smell. Getting out I was confronted by a woman with angry face (she did know I was from spurk or else she would have smiled) asking me for 5 pennies as a fee for using the Uniroyal. Instead I gave her some Armenian literature I had with me to educate her. I would gladly had given the poor women a $5 note if she just was good-mannered but her behavior repelled me.
I hope by now everything have changed and they have a clean and nice smelling uniroyal in Vanadzor.