A bronze cat by Fernando Botero sits at the foot of the Cascade, and a few terraces up snowy Mount Ararat appears over the rooftops as if someone had hung it there. A weekend stall at the Vernissage sells hand-carved backgammon boards beside Soviet gramophone records, and the pool in Republic Square dances to music after dark.
Beyond the center, Kond keeps low houses and crooked lanes from before the Soviet plan, and the Hrazdan River cuts a deep gorge to the west. Summers are hot and dry and winters cold and snowy, so spring and autumn are the easy seasons. A Local Friend can pull up a chair for you at a table you would never have found alone.
