When rose water becomes waste water ;)

Yesterday was Vardavar, an armenian festivity during which people spend the day throwing water at each other. I woke up slowly in the crushing heat of our non-air conditioned house (we're too lazy to look for the air con's remote control...), had breakfast and turned on my phone at 1pm. I got a text from my friend saying 'Ready to fight!'. I put on my special outfit and ran out of the house with plastic bags and an empty water bottle. Vahe, Navid, Ali and I started walking down to the Opera.

The start was mild, some kids here and there, some teenagers threatening us with empty bottles... But then it started. The 'swan lake' and streets of the city center were filled with thousands of young people. Most of them were carrying buckets of water which they would throw randomely around (especially on girls huh), some of them were swimming in the lake (which water was plain disgusting! I got thrown in twice and drank the water once, good for my weak imune system haha). The challenge though, was to find more difficult targets; dry and bored/angry looking passers-by, old people, salespeople... We tried exploring the city a bit more for some more risky attacks. We got a dry pink shirt man, some dry tourists, taxi drivers (who often had a bottle in their car to counter attack). I guess the best part was when I was pushed twice into the fountain of republic square, which was guarded by police men and in which no one dared to enter. The water was clean and fresh, thank you!

Yesterday was also a horribly hot day in Yerevan, some 42 degrees or more, today as well... but no luck, Vardavar is only once a year (I got a boy to spray me with a hose in Nor Hatshen today though!). If you want some historical explanations of how this festivity came from old pagan traditions involving throwing rose water on people on the last sunday of July, check out the internet ;)

 

STAY TUNED!!!!