Tea with Strangers

“I lived in Moscow for 18 years. I was taken to Moscow when I was 12, so I lived there but always missed Armenia. And finally, I got an opportunity and moved to Armenia to live here. But I had no idea what to do here. Once, I saw a dream: some strange landscape, mountains, strange looking ruins and red … Continue reading “Ring of Fire”

“I was crossing a street once. I stood at the pedestrian crossing and waited for the green light, when I noticed an old grandpa standing next to me. He was dressed in a nice suite. But he was barefoot. And he had a beard. It was very cold, by the way. So I look at him. He looks at me. … Continue reading “The Barefoot Grandpa”

“This is a story from Kosovo. As you know there’s an issue between Serbia and Albania, and most Kosovo is now populated with Albanian people, but the west part is more complicated, because it’s full of villages which are Albanian, Serbian, Albanian, Serbian, so all the way, all the roads – it’s a mix of population, and they mostly hate … Continue reading “Serbian Biscuits in Kosovo”

“In February 2009, I visited Istanbul for the first time. I was on a business trip, and I was on my own, alone. Everything went wrong on that trip. Turned out that the hotel that I booked was under renovation, so I had no place to stay. I was taken to another place, but there was only one free room … Continue reading “Istanbul Adventures”

“My ancestral village was in Cilicia. They were a family of priests. During the massacres of Adana, the elders of the family were murdered, only the children survived. And they grew up speaking Turkish, so my grandfather’s parents were native speakers of Turkish. After 1923, they arrived in Lebanon where they settled down for good. Grandpa used to share memories … Continue reading “Grandpa’s School”