A Fun Weekend!

If you look really closely, you can see the man in the middle set of windows playing the bells. The chiming starts at 4:30 and goes for 30 minutes straight, letting people know that church will begin at 5:00. The music he played was incredible and watching him do it was even more so! I'm sure he must have some killer arms! Maybe we should take up bell chiming for the "Biggest Loser" contest??


This was outside one of the cathedrals that we visited. They are such beautiful buildings! We got to attend an Orthodox service. It was just like the movies! The man dressed in golden robes, candle-lit room, real life monks! It was pretty awesome, but I don't think that I could stand for 3 solid hours of church!


This was outside the monk caves that we visited. There are monks that still practice in the caves, so I couldn't take any pictures inside, but it was really neat! There are a lot of people who had some part in the church that are buried there. They say one of the "magical" things about these caves are that there needs to be no preparation done to the mummies before they are put into their glass cases. No embalming or anything. It was kinda creepy that we were walking through caves with dead people in glass boxes surrounding us. Most of them had their hand exposed and were all decaying and rotting. It was awesome! But I think the thing I was most afraid of was lighting someone else on fire with my little candle we had to hold!

This was just a pretty picture of the cathedrals we went to!