A REALLY great day.

First of all, I have to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY MELANIE FORBES! I love you mama and you are the greatest in the world. Love you lots.

So, I'm kind of mad. Because I forgot my camera cord when I left for this internet place. Not cool. But I did manage to get this video up from our FHE activity last night. We hiked to this monastery at the highest point of Athens right as all the city lights were coming up. It was SO cool and fun. And windy. I am loving Athens more and more every day.

Today was quite an amazing day. We went to this monastic church outside of Athens at the monastery of Daphne. And they were doing restoration work on it so it was completely covered in scaffolding. I didn't think they'd let us in, but our awesome tour guide Kosta talked them into it. So in small groups we climbed the scaffolding and came within just feet of the gorgeous Byzantine mosaics in the dome and crossing of this church. I wanted to cry I was overwhelmed with how cool that was. Nobody gets to get that close to mosaics like that. They sparkled with the gold pieces that were the entire backgrounds. I can only imagine what it would have been like in that churches glory days, with the entire ceiling covered in these gold sparkling mosaics as the sun came in through the windows. It was so amazing. Then we hopped back on our bus and drove to Mycenae, an ancient citadel where it is believed Agamemnon resided. I think he's the king that went over to Troy to claim Helen back and started the Trojan war. The lion gate and beehive tombs were definitely the highlights there. Then we made a stop at this gorgeous coastal town that I think was named Nafpoli. It used to be the capital of Greece until King Otto switched it to Athens. We ate our lunch there and chilled by the water until we got on the bus to head to the ancient theater of Epidavros (I think that's what it is called?). I definitely had to do the jerk and the reject moves there. And some italian kids were singing songs. We were going to sing the BYU fight song just to test out the acoustics for ourselves, but we ran out of time. But that was awesome. After a gorgeous bus ride a long the coast, we are back in Athens. Tomorrow we'll be hittin' up the National Archaeological museum and the new Acropolis museum. Very excited for those. I'll try to not forget my camera cord next time. ha! Love you all!