Some days in life are just no good. It can be for any reason. Sometimes it's just a shit day where you aren't feeling it. Or something at work happens that sets off your mood. Sometimes it's the traffic you endure to get to and from something that just drains the energy. Sometimes it's other things. I won't be mentioning the events of the day that led to it being a terrible day for personal reasons, but it's a day that had me stressed out of my mind from the moment I woke up. Leading me to packing up a backpack and heading off to the nearby town of Ejmiatsin, about two hours away from where I live in Yerevan. It wasn't a day for photography, but photography is something that sometimes keeps my mind from things, and this was definitely one of those days where I needed to keep my composure.
Photography continues to be my therapy in that sense, it's something that pulls me out of the things that are on my mind a little bit, and while it didn't entirely work here, it still had me capturing things as I quickly attempted to perform some of my errands. Frantically walking from one side of the city to the other, though today felt incredibly hot compared to the previous days. More unforgiving. More intense in the heat. For the first time I saw Armenians really sweating alongside me. From those in the street to those on the bus. The bus being a small thing, everyone cramped together and there's no air conditioning. The air you get is from the few windows that remain open as you speed down the motorway out of Yerevan and into Ejmiatsin, though in this instance the bus was relatively slow. I looked out of the window the entire time, trying to gather my thoughts and looking out into the old historic aspects of the Soviet Union. The old industrial spaces that filled the nothing of the dry desert landscape.
I arrived in Ejmiatsin with the last of the daylight. The sunlight beautiful, bouncing some of that tone from the buildings around. The heat was still intense, though at this point in this landscape the winds had started to pick up, and that's exactly what I wanted. There aren't many trees contrary to the above image. It's dry. Dusty. Dirt roads that are barely driveable remain in the majority of the town. It's old and resembles something like the wild west. Mixed with the strangeness of Armenian Soviet Modernism. This isn't the first time I've written about Ejmiatsin, I have quite a few posts and stories on the area from the past two years. Some great memories in the area. From the strong electrical storms that wipe out the power daily, to the time I was detained here after flying my drone and creating some suspicion in a local nearby. But even now, the town has changed a bit. I can see the changes, some aren't all that bad.
I see the town finally addressing some of those poor quality roads. Some new buildings that still look a bit Soviet and Armenian. There's more life throughout the town as many of the fountains in the little parks are finally active. And the locals really do enjoy them. The main church space continues to thrive with religious Armenians and tourists due to the renovation it saw not too long ago. Though there's still that Soviet decay around, in the form of strange military bases and abandoned modernist swimming pools. It's an odd space that feels like you have stepped back into the past. Where life is slower, more simple. And that's something that the locals really appreciate. I can see why. Though my reason for coming here was quite the opposite. Not out of peace, but more devastation.
So, some days are just no good. Some days are just hellish and far out of your control, no matter how much you wish you could do something more to change that. Life is strange in that sense. Sometimes sudden events pull out the memories of a place. The emotion that remains within upon each visit. Let's hope for some better days after this one, though.
