Long time nothing written...It's not because i didn't have anything interesting to write but just the blogging passion faded in me somehow. And now seems it is back again and i decided to write until it is not gone!So this post is going to be about a very adventurous and wonderful day in my life which happened to happen in Noravank!
Two days ago we with Mary accidentally decided to take part in a trip to Noravank of which she heard from Anna. As usual, the accidental decisions come up to be very right ones :)! I didn't have a clear idea about who we will be going with or what we will be doing, just wanted to see Noravank wonderful church and the rocky road leading to it once again as i have been there only once about 5 years ago. The interesting thing is that i didn't have appropriate boots for that but fortunately, due to Mary i happened to discover a wonderful shop where i found very nice branded boots (at last of my size!)that were so great, just like created for me only!
So everything was ready for the great day!
I was at the meeting place, Opera, just in time and met some guys who were waiting for the organizer, Mkhitar, Vahe and others. We waited for about half an hour for everyone to come (including musicians from The Beautified Project and Dogma) and went to occupy places in the marshrutka. 4 of us-me, Anna, Mary and Lili took the back seats to be togehter but this appeared to be not the best possible choice as we were springing with the car all the way! But it was fun! :) During the road we spoke a looooot making people turn back all the time wondering who is making this unbelievable noise. But we were very happy and couldn't stop laughing and talking. Mary even expressed a crazy idea so much liked by Mkhitar about organizing the next trip somewhere in Latin America and she didn't see any obstacles in finding the necessary 10 000 USD, as she was very inspired with this idea and was giving mad options of how this money could be fundraised!We spoke so much that didn't even notice how we reached Noravank! We went out, took pictures from the magnificent view of the "white queen" and its surrounding pink rocks, freezing. We even drank from the holy water inside one chapel which had a murky look and went back to the car. We were afterwards to have a lunch with eggs, etc. During the way Mkhitar and Vahe already managed to terrify us with legends about how awful it is in the cave that we were going to go into (Magil's cave); full of bats, water and human bones...So we were happy with any possible delay of that scary prospective!
We had a very nice lunch with eggs, cakes, and everything that hospitable Armenian mind can invent! Vardan from Dogma remained unbeaten in the egg fight, we successfully emptied the "table" and got ready for the cave! Mary put her glasses on, I wore my cap, everyone else made other "prior-bat-fight" preparations and we went to the Magil's cave. The funniest thing was that it was closed by a key:)))))) So Mkhitar needed to find the "Key Master" beforehand. We were explained that the cave was closed to prevent the bats from flying out of the cave which was an additional reminder for poor Mary's ears about her "beloved" bats existence in the cave! While going up to the cave we saw a small snake on the way ("we", excluding me, of course, with my "eaglish" eyes:))). Finally we were in front of the cave which had an iron door and represented actually a very narrow hole unconsciously making me think of the poor Vinnie the Pooh when he wasn't able to go out of the narrow hole of the hare's house because he ate too much:)!Anyway, in contrast to Pooh we managed to squeeze in the hole. Before that a very official ceremony of giving numbers to everybody was held to always keep the order while "crawling" in the cave. I decided to be the second as i didn't have a lamp and the best for me would be to follow Mkhitar who had a strong lamp on his head:) Mary and Lili were after me. We squeezed in and started to crawl up in the beginning. Some complaints and laughs could be heard all along the way because of the dust, the narrow "roads" and darkness. On the way we managed to see a big group of bats sleeping on the ceiling, very small and cute ones. There were also bones, hopefully of a small animal, like dog and there wasn't water fortunately! During the way we passed quite large "apartments" which were a very nice scenery. We somehow reached a large place from where the way was steeply going down and it was hard to overcome it without a rope. I looked at it and as there were only 60 meters left and as Mkhitar said nothing extraordinary waited us there i decided not to risk my life at this part of it and said i don't want to continue. So did Mary and Lilie and we waited for others to reach us and decide. The decision was rational: save our energy for rock climbing and go back.
So we all went back with the same order, took nice photos on some rock outside and went down to the car.
When we returned we discovered some 3 cars parked nearby and people exploring the food we left near the river. Some of us went to "save our food from unexpected invaders" and the most important ceremony of the day started; preparations for rock climbing. When i first saw the "peak" which we were to climb i though it will be very easy to do as it seemed to be quite low and reachable. Anna was warning us that it is not so easy as it may seem. She had already once tried to climb it up but because of the weather didn't reach the top.
The ceremony started form Mkhitar's "costumization". "Costumization" included wearing special boots for climbing, some ropes all over legs and loooooads of ropes. This ceremony took about 10 minutes after which he started to climb putting chains on some already created appliances on the rock and reached the top to tie the rope firmly near a construction on the peak and came down. This was done to create two leverages with the rope so that the climbing people could be fixed on whichever position they were on the rock with the help of Mkhitar and Vahe pulling the rope down. So the grand opening was done and the challenging question "who's the first" awakened everybody from sweet dreams :))) The brave ones were Grigor and Andre who were to climb togehter form different parts of the rock. Grigor's part was difficult in terms of being very "smooth" and steep and not having much places to hang from. Andre's place was easier but there were its difficulties too such as too limited space. So the climbing started. Grigor was quite stubborn and though he felt some times but continued to search for ways and with an angry face he somehow tamed the rock and climbed it up with very inconvenient boots representing a raw material from which a good climber could be made. Andre was slower as he probably thought too much of possbile best ways. I have already decided to myself that i wanted to climb from Andre's side as it seemed more achievable to me taking into consideration that i didn't have perfect boots for climbing. So as soon as Andre came down I, attentivele listening to what Vahe and Mkhitar were saying on climbing technics, like the corrdination skills are the most important and trying to draw a transparenbt path on the rock before crawling up it i wore the climbing "costume" and psichologically prepared myself for the big deal. I wasn't the first girl to go up as Ani managed to professionally like a spider climb up the half of the rock from the difficult part and encouraged the rest of the girls with her example (though the boots she was wearing helped her a lot:) So the big challenge started. I was trembling though not from fear but from the feeling of the unexpected. The first seconds passed quite easily and feeling that the rope is keeping me and i don't have "chances" to fall down i calmed down and started to think. I climbed up some part quite quickly and then came to a point where i saw no place to put my finger or foot on.
So???i thought, that was it? there is no way to go up! they cheated me! it's not possible! there are practically no ways to go further! Or am I so weak and useless? This last thought made the biggest impact on me probably as then i got very angry and thought: if others could why shouldn't i? I concentrated again though continuing to tremble and squeezed my feets and hands wherever i could to help me go up.Suddenly i understood that i need to see the big picture and turned my face around to see whether there were other good places i didn't see as i was too concentrated on a limited space surrounding me.
Meanwhile, i was trying to implement the guidelines given by Mkhitar. It was hard to keep my feet straight because of non professional boots they were slipping all the time and i had the feeling of falling a couple of times. Again i had the feeling of impossibility to continue but each time i waited a bit and after several unsuccessful steps finally found the way each time wondering on how can impossible become possible in a few seconds! I was dying on each attempt feeling my arms are too week and fighting with the gravity and my own weight, and rock and everything in the world just to reach that desirable peak. There were several meters left when after some 2 minutes research i found that there were reallllly no options to continue and i looked down to ask guys for guidelines. Mkhitar, Mary and Lilie were periodically encouraging me and this time i asked them whether i should go to the right. Mkhitar said i can do that now. But there were no ways i could go there i thought and again asked to myself and to Mkhitar also this time whether i should go down. He said if I wanted I could. But the problem was that i didn't!!!!And the tortures continued. Mkhitar said i can fully rely on the rope and even hanging on it move to the right until i find a place to put my foot on. I did that way and finally managed to find some holes around. There was so little left and i was sooooo tired...I don't know how but i somehow managed to reach that **** top, touch it and said the magic words! "bring me down!"...
Another challenge was overcome, another psychological burden vanished! The going down process was very pleasant and it was reallllllly soooo great to touch the Mother earth with my feet again!
When people asked me how i was i said "awful"! :))))))) But i was sooo great (not taking into account the feeling as if a train passed over me)!!!!!!!!! I was feeling like now ireally can do anything i wish because just now the things that seemed imposible to me just 15 minutes ago were a history! These kind of happenings make us feel nothing is impossbile!
When i asked Mkhitar how it was he said it was quite god ofr the first time and said the time was about 15 minutes. I was shocked as i thought i spent a whole lifetime on those stones while seeking for solutions! But it turned out to be that just Einstein relativity theory started to work while i was there: ))) And i thought it could be goood for old people who want to prolong their remaining time to make such efforts as then they can double their time, if of course they manage to climb!!:)))
Right after me Mary decided to go up from my part while Lilie decided to take the more difficult part. Mary was very decisive as if saying "I came, won and left!" So she did..how? With an S-climbing technique:))))))) She went up so fast by using her "S" that after 2 minutes she had passed already the 70 % of the way. Of course there were some victims on the way-her jeans were torn and hands too but she was ingeniously fast! Just near the top she had some difficulties but overcame them quite fast and brilliantly came down. As Andre said she came up as a smart girl (though he didn't know then how "smart" she was actually))))))))) and came down as a rocker with her torn jeans and uncombed hair! Lilie's job was tougher as her shoes were not convenient for climbing especially form that difficult part and after some trials she came down deciding to go up form the easier part. Everybody went up afterwards and each time we cheered for them singing something like "you are the champion my friend!" Lilie went up from the second part and almost reached the top but she was tired as it was about 5 p.m. already and decided to come down. We had our dinner from the remaining cheese and bread and lied on the floor listening to music while waiting for others to come down. It was such a harmonic moment of solace; beautiful nature, best friends and favorite music! Everything was so perfect!
We had several great photos and finally everybody was up and down the rocks and we were ready to move to our next destination which was Areni wine factory!!! We were looking forward to wine tasting which would become the perfect end of our full day!
We drove a little and reached the place. Going down we appeared in a room smelling with wine and were getting drunk already form the scent around! The floors were all in wine and there were biiig tuns all around. We first tasted sweet red and white,
then semi-sweet red and white (but the white ones were actually pink!) wines moving from one room to another and back again!
Everybody gained happy and red faces asking for more buying more and more wine! I had a little head spinning but it was gone soon as we went out on fresh air and suddenly i found a huge gathering of different wine bottles put on each other in a very poetic way! Bottles of wine with red, blue, green tapes,Areni, Vernashen...We had a bunch of "drunk" photos with this incredible background. When everybody drank and bought what they wanted we were ready to leave.
In the mini bus i was recalling all the events of this full and incredible day and especially the rock climbing finding a particular psychological charm in that process. Suddenly i realized that each of us represented him/herself in the way he/she climbed and overcame this challenge! Mary as always faced the problems (even toughest ones) with easiness and readiness to overcome them as quickly as possible and return as nothing happened! Lilie was fighting and not giving up which was proved by her second trial.
I was thinking and analyzing too much as usually!!! This was a very funny but true observation which made me go deeper with my thoughts while Mary had a nice chat with Anna. Mary even managed to let everybody know about "her" Smart Systems expressing her PR skills very successfully so that everybody turned back and started to listen to what was this Smart Systems actually like! She was probably continuing this great session while we already reached near our place and i went out thanking everybody for the wooonderful day!
I came home with a feeling of majesty flying in the skies motivated to continue overcoming the further challenges in this hard life!
