Today we started by going to eat breakfast. Everyone needed to check out of the hotel because we would be driving to Artsakh. The first sight we saw was Gomitas’s garden. There were 61 gravestones, including Gomitas, Aram Khachadourian, William Saroian, and Sos Sarkissian. We left the garden singing Harach Nahadag and marching. In the bus we started to drive to Khor Virap. Antrias read his description of Khor Virap as well as Maral read her description of Mount Ararat. They both asked questions to the crowd. Zabel our tour guide described the boarders of Armenia and Turkey. Getting close to Ararat we started getting really festive and started singing songs.
In Khor Virap we went down the pit were Gregory the Illuminator was imprisoned for 13 years. There were very steep ladders that you had no choice but to climb down if you wanted to see the deep pit. Coming up, well that was a different problem. It felt so much more steep up then down. Feeling the ladder shaking was so terrifically scary, after we were out of the pit all of our hands were wobbling. At the time Gregory was imprisoned there were no ladders so they would just throw the prisoners 27ft down into the depths.
After we left Khor Virab, we went to have lunch in Sisian and after we ate we danced around the restaurant. Then we drove to Karahunge, Stonehenge, where they were many prehistoric rocks with holes. Years ago, if your mother or father died, you would have to bury them by the rock houses. Karahunge was thought to be one of the oldest observations in the world. We had to walk a long distance from the bus. We walked through the long grass while looking at the beautiful mountain view. Later, we sat on the bus again until we drove many hours to Artsakh. On the way to Artsakh, we all slept, sang Armenian songs, and recited poems.
After the bus ride, we finally got to Artsakh! We checked into our rooms, that were all on the same floor. We came down at 9:45 to eat dinner. The dinner was really good. We had steak, fish, french fries, and soda. We had a nice view of Artsakh from the windows. We had a great time!
– Koko Iskenderian and Talar Markarian