June Diary of Events Garni, Geghard

Matax in back of the Monastery..Smell was sooooo bad!!!!!
Jailed?

June 26

Talk about a really good trip with really fun people. We went to Geghard Monastery and Garni Temple today. Tatev and Hanna have taken sooooooo many pictures!! I think if i took that many it would last me a lifetime worth of taking pictures. They have some really amazing photos (gotta remember to ask them to get it from them). At first we stopped by the arch where I have sooo many memories of my childhood. From there I saw the home in Voghchabert that I would never forget. The land in Vogchabert is really bad. The soil is moving under the homes and taking away with them every piece of memory I had of the home I loved so much. I didn't take it so bad this time since I had seen it 2 years ago. But....it always gets to me...Too many memories hidden there.

So after taking a gazillion pics there. We were off to our excursion!

I think one of my favorite places is Geghard Monastery. I can't imagine how they would built a church in such circumstances. I think I would love to just take a day and hike there and look at the church from different angles. So it seems like it was built like over a cave...I believe. So I was reading on Wikipedia about Geghard and this is what I read...

The monastery had thus been originally named Ayrivank, meaning "the Monastery of the Cave". The name commonly used for the monastery today, Geghard, or more fully Geghardavank (Գեղարդավանք), meaning "the Monastery of the Spear", originates from the spear which had wounded Jesus at the Crucifixion, allegedly brought to Armenia by Apostle Jude, called here Thaddeus, and stored amongst many other relics. Now it is displayed in the Echmiadzin treasury.

The spear they are talking about has been said to be in a few places but I have a feeling we have the original!

So after that we went to Garni which it sucks that we weren't able to see the baths. They were closed because they are trying to put the "bath" together so it will be available to be opened fully to see what they looked like. Me, Vram, and Arm looked from the glass and saw the mosaics of the baths. Now it would be sooo amazing to have a bath like that and be washed with milk. For a minute it was a bit disgusting but I believe queens and "Goddesses" had such pure skin because of milk baths and they rubbed some kind of oil on their skins...eternal beauty??? I think it would be funny to have like a milk bath party...!! lol.

Vram took us to a really nice mom and pop type of a restaurant. The outside was like going into a mini forest. There was a small turtle there where Hanna and Tatev again took a lot of pics with.

Overall...a successful day.