Herald Sun (Australia)
May 29, 2009 Friday
D – ExtraGo Edition

I love …

by Melissa Doyle

Stepanavan, Armenia

IT WAS a trip of a lifetime and a country I simply adored.

I travelled there as a World Vision ambassador and obviously saw a lot
of poverty. There were lots of crumbling old Soviet-style buildings
with minimal heating.

But at the same time, the capital Yerevan had snippets of wealth. Next
to the crumbling old house would be a mansion with gold statues and
guards at the gate.

Looking down over Yerevan is the snow-capped Mount Ararat. It’s the
same image on the bottles of the locally made cognac.

My favourite part of the trip was heading north into the countryside
towards Stepanavan. Lush green paddocks, mountains, cold and
misty. Little towns with horse-drawn carts and men standing on street
corners smoking and watching the world go by.

I drank thick, thick black Armenian coffee and had an impromptu lunch
at a farmhouse. The owner brought sheets of dried lavash bread out of
the cupboard under her house and sprinkled it back to life with a
little water. She served us homemade goat’s cheese and picked fresh
herbs from her garden. I ate syrup-covered nuts sold on the side of
the road by a lovely old woman.

The food is amazing, like nothing I’ve ever tasted or smelt here at
home. The markets are stacked with dried fruit, nuts and spices in
every colour of the rainbow.

Melissa Doyle hosts The Zoo, Tuesdays at 7.30pm on Channel 7.