Sunday in Greece was phenomenal. It took a little bit of work getting to the meeting house, but we made it! When we first arrived we were warmly greeted by the missionaries. This branch is for visitors and tourists, they then translate the services to another branch of mostly Greeks. The missionary pianist was from Africa and played the piano BEAUTIFUL. The spirit could be felt by his playing. We got to hear part of the sacrament prayer in Greek and I have to admit, it was quite the moment for me. My mother and my Yiaya taught me everything about God, and to be able to hear the prayer in their original language was nothing short of a miracle to me. The talk was simple and to the point that Heavenly Father loves us. The other talk was from a missionary who had served there and was returning on vacation with his sister... they asked him on the spot to talk. It was all peaceful, happy, and the best part was the leadership!! Such a difference... Ok, we'll just end a little early here (40 minutes) and maybe meet up for Sunday School in a half an hour. No pressure, laid back, and everyone is just happy to be with each other.
I am so grateful for the experience to have gone to church there. We were all dressed for the beach and the plan was to catch the metro to the tram line (above ground metro). We had a little trouble finding the tram and ended up in some serious apocalypse zombie scary tunnels. But we made it! We ran into more spastic Greek teens that ended up vomiting McDonald's food in a trash can. It was quite the trip, but we made it to Edem beach. We got to eat at our first restaurant on the beach!! It was phenomenal. We were all dying about how good it was!! Ella and the girls made some friends from Belgium on a pier. I made a friend from England who had recently lost her husband. I quickly realized people were very friendly and love to practice their English. We loved our sparkling versus still water!!! All the food was amazing and we were very happy campers. We swam the whole day and fortunately didn't get too burnt!!
On our way home, we weren't too hungry. We stopped at the world's very best bakery and died and went to heaven. Truly, I have never tasted better desserts!!! The baklava was made with the richest honey and Maria chose something "presidential" with whipped cream and a liquor in it that was nothing like I've ever tried before. I could eat that daily for the rest of my life. We ended up at this bakery at least 3 more times before we left Athens. And the best part was it was a 5 minute walk from our Airbnb.
And most important of all!! I cannot forget our Albian friend!! So the dude was probably a little bigger than Eli and a lot paler. He was wearing all black leather and blasting rap music from some device unseen to me. He had a post it pad that was wrapped in plastic and started to unwrap it for us with some "sick" dance moves. It was quite wonderful in the most bizarre sense and then he invited us to go on the metro the real way.... by hopping an 8 foot fence past the pay portal. He was magical. But I wouldn't let him date my daughters, just saying.
