Geghard Monastery, Armenia

I usually do significant planning for my trips. I research all the places I want to see. This mostly works well as I avoid missing anything important and make the most of my time.

On this trip, I haven't researched as much. I'm going to too many places! A couple of times, this has meant I missed things I'd have liked to do. But in this case, it was the opposite. I had an unexpected, magnificent moment that I'll never forget.

It started last night. I booked a last-minute spot on a day trip. I'd looked up the main things to see near Yerevan, and a few were on this tour. That was the extent of my planning.

It was our second stop - a monastery called Geghard Monastery. Straight up, I was disappointed as there was scaffolding over the outside, meaning no decent photos (again)! We were given free time without any explanation of what to do. So off I trot. I went to the toilet 😄(grumpy lady let me use it even though I had no change to pay for it). I then started exploring. My free time was almost over, and I saw some random stairs I hadn't yet explored. There were no signs and no activity, so I didn't expect much. I was about to enter a cave when some singing started. When I say singing, I mean the type you feel viscerally. I knew something amazing was happening, so I turned my video on.

I'll let you see and hear the rest. The video doesn't do it justice, but you'll get the idea.

*Sorry for the poor video quality. It was spur of the moment. I also turned it off early as I wanted to be in the moment.

The sound was incredible. The last time I felt singing viscerally like this was in 2011. I was in bed in Istanbul, and I heard my first call to prayer. These moments don't happen often.

And, this is why I travel. 💚

Side note : this singing only happens occasionally, so i was very lucky!
Also, there are many more rooms in this monastery. I just didn't leave myself time to photograph them as I was caught up with the singing. 😍Read more