This morning, we all had to wake up at 7, have breakfast, and get in the bus fast. The first stop we made was at the Mameeg and Babeeg (Մենք Ենք Մեր Սարերը), which symbolizes not only Sdepanagerd, but Artsakh, too. This monument was built in 1976 by Sarkis Baghdasarian. To get there, we had to climb up a big hill, there were stairs, but us kids only used them coming up, coming down, we ran. At the top of the hill we all ran to the monument and stood on it, posing for pictures. Once the parents reached the top, we were ready for pictures. Unfortunately, the flash of a camera and the glare of a blazing hot sun, both getting in your eye, is not the most amusing thing in the world. And so, for most of the pictures we had our hands over our eyes. Eventually, I had the thought to get my sunglasses out of the bus, but by then, there was only enough time to take one more photo. When that photo was done, all of the kids ran down the hill to the bus like we were the most awesome Armenian kids in the world. At the bottom of the hill, a man was selling souvenirs. Nobody but Narine got anything, and we headed into the bus.
When we got to Nigol Dooman’s house museum’s street, it got too narrow for the bus so we had to get out and walk. The walk to the house museum was very rocky. There are a lot of wild sheep, geese and their goslings, roosters and hens, and cows and their calfs. While we were climbing the rocky hill to the house museum, two dogs and a cat were wandering around. We wanted to pet them, but Digin Ardemis warned us of fleas and other bad germs. At the top, we checked our shoes for poop and we took in the surroundings. The first two things we noticed were an odd looking contraption made from a half buried pot, a watering can, and a hose pipe that poured fresh water and a large tree that looked easy enough to climb. First, we washed our faces and hands with the fresh water and then we all scrambled up the tree. We took a picture of it and climbed down to explore the museum. We got to see a room full of freedom fighter’s weapons, like guns, swords, bullets, daggers, and more. Then we got to see the room were Nigol Dooman grew up, and the upstairs bedroom, too. Nigol Dooman’s last name, Dooman, means hurricane in turkish. We then went to the gift shop to see if we might find something to buy. Then we headed to the bus to go to Khantsasar.
When we got to Khantsasar, we walked through a small doorway to what some might call heaven. There was a large, beautiful church, a long wall, a bunch of little doorways leading to different little rooms, and large fields and trees. The name Khantsasar means treasure mountain or hilltop treasure. We went into the church, but there was a christening going on, so we had to be quiet. When we entered the church, our tour guide, Nuneh, explained that of you looked closely you could see that the church had been polished and that on the right and left sides above the alter had pictures of white angels on them. I could only see the white foot of the right side angel. Then we went outside to the largest tree and climbed it like crazy monkeys. Our parents took some photos of us in the tree. We then headed of to lunch.
We ate lunch at Van Gog. It was all very delicious and we ate almost all of it.
We then went to a flea market. It was full of people selling almost everything. We all got at least one thing. There were two stray, but adorable cats roaming the market and they must have been starving because they were very, very thin. Talar petted them and tried to feed them some dried apricots, but in the end, we had to leave and some of us were very sad about it. We then headed to the hotel for a free time.
For dinner, we went to Dasheer Pizza and ate pizza that was pretty good, but not as good as american pizza. For dessert we had some flavorful soufflés and european chocolate ice cream. Then we split up to the girls on the bus with the moms and the boys walking to the hotel with the dads.
Rose Tinkjian