Armenia - Sevanavank Monastery and Lake Sevan

For dinner, we headed out towards Lake Sevan.  I was excited to see the lake in hopes of maybe putting my feet in the water.  When we got there, we had about an hour or so of free time to do souvenir shopping and walking up to the Sevanavank monastery before dinner.  The weather at the lake was much cooler than Yerevan.

I immediately headed up the steep steps to the monastery for some fabulous views of the church and the lake.  On the way, the local vendors were selling sunflowers with seeds and corn.  This car is a very commonly seen car all over Armenia.  Though they're old, they're still functional.

I went inside the church for a quick look and prayer, and found the priest there scolding people (rightly so) for the way they were dressed coming into the church.  He threw out a young girl for having worn short-shorts and midriff bearing shirt, and told another girl to take her sunglasses off the top of her head, because it's no way to come into a church.  I was really nervous he was going to pick on me for something, but he didn't.  I quickly said my prayer and exited.

The church is surrounded by many khachkars, stones with cross carvings on them.  The Armenian cross is very special and different from other crosses.  It's based on the tree of life concept, always floral, with each arm having three leaves, symbolizing the Holy Trinity.

The view of the lake from the monastery is just wonderful.  One can sit there and look down for hours.  There used to be many fish in the lake, however, during the hard times in Armenia, there was much over-fishing and there's no more of the local white fish.  Fishing is currently not allowed there until the fish population recovers to a healthy level.

Before dinner, I did some souvenir shopping but wasn't able to find much of the things I was specifically looking for.  Thinking back, it was probably the best spot to get more souvenirs, but oh well...  When time is limited, and there's so much to see and take pictures of, spending much time looking at things to buy seems like a waste-time.

And I walked down to the lake, but did not put my feet in.