We then headed towards Gyumri located in the North western part of the country, known as the capital city of the Shirak Province and labelled as the "city of the trades and arts".
Before visiting the local History and Craft Museum we had a rather special lunch which included a local speciality of double filling rolled lavash at the Phaeton Alek restaurant pertaining to the Museum.
The Museum located in a restored 1872 town house, whose façade was stunningly beautiful with its black and orange-red tuff blocks and a wrought-iron balcony attached to a wooden carved building housed quite a few artefacts dating back to the Tsarist period being exhibited in quite tastefully furnished rooms.
Having strolled along those multiple rooms turned into galleries allowed us to feel the atmosphere of the epoch, to come across the wide variety of trades, to get acquainted with the traditional costumes people wore and the instruments they played and ultimately see how rich merchants lived then. The insight such an exhibition provided was beyond what one might have envisaged.
By the time we walked out it was as if we had to re-adjust to the "modern" life outside such was the intensity of the experience.
(To be continued)
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