In the morning we had breakfast then we went to “Gomidas Aiki” where we saw the statues of Gomidas a famous Armenian composer, Silva Kaboudikian a famous Armenian poet, Sos Sarkisian a famous Armenian actor, and others.
We also went to Khor Virab and went to the dungeon where Krikor Lusavorich was dungeoned by King Drtad stayed there for 13 years. We climbed down a long ladder to the dungeon and also had to climb back up and some of us were really really scared, but it was fun.
We found holes in the wall and in one of them we saw a dead rat, money, sand, and dust. Then we went to the church and lit candles. We took some pictures in front of Mount Ararat. After that we climbed a rocky mountain and also took some pictures in front of Mount Ararat. We got so close to Mount Ararat and it looked absolutely amazing like we could touch it. Sadly, Khor Virab was the closest we could get to Mount Ararat because if we had passed the gate, we would have been in Turkey. Afterwards, we got on the bus and started going to Noravank. At Noravank we ate lunch: pork, bread, chicken, salad, and potatoes. We climbed the stairs at the church and took pictures. We went into the church and our tour guide talked about the history of the church, like the graves, the inscriptions, and the vortan garmeer. Then we went into one of the other churches and the Hayr Soorp did a prayer. We also sang the song “ee zen hayer” in the church with the priest.
We then left Noravank and started going to the hotel in Jermuk. When we got to the hotel in Jermuk we got on smaller buses and went to see the waterfall. We took some pictures at the waterfall and then we came back and checked into the hotel. After we checked in some of us went to see the pool. We ate dinner in the hotel. Finally, we ended the day in our favorite way: we went swimming in the hotel pool, of course!
-Nayiri Chekijian and Lori Avakian