Nagorno-Kharabagh

NGK is the politically-challenged, war-torn region of Armenia. It is actually not even recognized by any country to be part of Armenia. They have their own capital, their own airport, a special passport and you need a visa to access it even from Armenia. But if a kharabagi goes abroad, he holds an Armenian passport. 

This is the region I travelled to this weekend. We took an AC-less marchoutka (a van) down to the mountainous region. The 12 hour journey, though sweatingly painful, was balanced by the incredible landscape 

When we arrived in NGK at 2200, we had a full meal followed by the local attraction tut'i oghi (trans: Mulberry Vodka). This liqueur is said to affect everyone differently. Michael told me that after one shot he felt drunk already, but this 60% alcohol spirit did not phase me after the Czech absinth I was downing in Prague. So me and the boys had a couple of shots of that bad boy. 

Still, it seemed crazy that 4 shots didn't get me drunk, it didn't even make me tipsy. I thought, maybe Revan was right, and my abused body suddenly got used to the substances. But that night I had a series of absurd, surreal, Guillermo-del-Toro inspired dreams. In my latest and clearest one, I had impregnated a woman, and I could see her stomach growing at a very high-pace (like the fast motions in Planet Earth). Then, when her womb held the fully developed fetus, I could see the baby's limbs as if the woman's stomach was made of some type of latex-like fabric. Her stomach's skin than faded and the baby was floating, with his back against the woman's closed up stomach. The background was a very dark –almost black shade of blue. Her stomach and the aura of the baby was blue, with what seemed to be cloud-like scarf around him.  The woman started floating, with the baby still floating against her stomach and they were going somewhere and then MY FUCKING ALARM went off and I lost them. 

This hauntingly beautiful image is engraved in my brain for what I can only hope to be long enough to develop the skill to accurately draw what my words fail to describe. I wish I had brought back a bottle of this enchanting vodka, so they could come back to me and I to them.